A
Antonius_Lupus
Guest
To my dear brethren in Christ,
This weekend, probably the Lord’s Day, I will be going to training classes for prospective servers.
However after reviewing a relevant email my spiritual father sent to me, I found myself wanting to ask y’all some questions about altar service.
Now that it is clear to me that I need to serve, I am worried about how to allow this ancient minor order’s discipline to control my personal nature.
Being on the altar, or near the altar even, is a great privilege in my mind. I believe firmly the teachings of Holy Orthodoxy that at Mass we participate in Heavenly Worship and Christ, the God of gods on Zion, comes to us in the appearances of bread and wine.
Thus, at every Mass I often try to show deep and utter devotion to the Liturgy. From the Liturgy springs the wellspring of my life, Jesus Christ, and the one thing that I love doing more than anything else in this world is going to Holy Mass or to Divine Liturgy.
Because there I encounter God Himself. There Jesus profoundly abides in me and I in Him…beyond the normal indwelling of His Spirit which I fully received only six months ago or so.
Thus, I tend to physically display this devotion as I try to see with the eyes of faith the invisible dimension of Liturgical worship. However, being an altar server means that I am simply that: a servant at the altar. Christ alone is the focus and I fear that if I do not learn how to control my devotion I may take away from His Sacrifice. While I can certainly control the devotion that I give, I want to do so in a way charateristic of the ancient Latin traditions of my own Church.
The Roman Rite has always shared the Jewish synagogue character of worship. It is solemn and sober and terse. Such is very nature of the Latin language, and the switch from Greek to Latin in the liturgy of Rome no doubt played a role in the formation of the peculiarities of the Roman Mass.
As such I believe that it logically follows that the actions of those on the altar are to be also solemn, sober, and terse. Each movement must be simply done…without any external show of devotion that is not proper to the Roman Rite. Prolix bowing, clasping of hands, and other movements outside of traditional acolyte duties must be suppressed.
When the Roman Missal was revised according to the Apostolic Constitution of the 21st Ecumenical Synod, the old Gallican additions to the Mass that had led to the formulation of the “Tridentine Mass” (i.e. the old Roman use with Gallican/Eastern additions) were stripped away and the Roman Mass was restored to the form it had in the 6th-13th centuries.
This is one of the reasons why the “new” Mass is often referred to as the “Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great.”
A good example of this is my own parish priest. He does a FANTASTIC job in relaying the sobreity, tersenss, and noble solemnity of the Latin Orthodox traditions. He never smiles, but he also never frowns or terses his lips. He is simply relaxed and when important moments come such as the Hanc Igitur, the Supplices te rogamus, and especially the Consecration, the Elevation, and the Final Per Ipsum Oblation, his facial expression and movements become much more focused although he still does not show signs of expressionism beyond the usual noble simplicity of Rome. His face always gives a sense, prior to the holy moments of course, of inner joy that is unexpressed facially in the way we do today. In doing this, I contend, he ensures that focus is paid to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, not to him or anything else…hence the high focus of his attention during the elevation of the Body and the Blood and also at the Oblation when the Risen Christ is offered to the Father and the Sacrifice of the Cross is mystically made present in full.
My spiritual father is also an example to me…He is a deacon and, in many ways, he become invisible at Mass, even when he is doing something. I remember this “invisible-ness” particularly when he performs the Per huius aquae and the other parts of the Preparation of the Holy Altar. This could perhaps be because I often get wrapped up in savoring the mystery or my personal prayers, but still his facial expressions and his focused and yet simple movements have always kept my attention on the Eucharist. Yet there is one thing I have noticed that he does at the holiest moments of Holy Mass, and I have tried imitate him in this for I find it deeply profound.
His brow tightens in a show of concentration, his eyes close, and as he chants (this often happens during the final Per ipsum Oblation) the Great Amen, I find myself convinced that somehow he has become lost in the mystery and when I see him do this, I also act in like manner that I too may focus on the mystery.
Thus both he and my parish priest exemplify the ancient Latin liturgical customs. I believe that the key to altar service, especially for me, will be to fully embrace the ancient Latin liturgical disciplines that were passed down to my spiritual father and my priest (wittingly or not) by the constant Latin Orthodox Catholic traditions and the reforms of the 21st Ecumenical Synod.
Thus, My ultimate goal as an altar server is:
-Antonius Ioannes
This weekend, probably the Lord’s Day, I will be going to training classes for prospective servers.
However after reviewing a relevant email my spiritual father sent to me, I found myself wanting to ask y’all some questions about altar service.
Now that it is clear to me that I need to serve, I am worried about how to allow this ancient minor order’s discipline to control my personal nature.
Being on the altar, or near the altar even, is a great privilege in my mind. I believe firmly the teachings of Holy Orthodoxy that at Mass we participate in Heavenly Worship and Christ, the God of gods on Zion, comes to us in the appearances of bread and wine.
Thus, at every Mass I often try to show deep and utter devotion to the Liturgy. From the Liturgy springs the wellspring of my life, Jesus Christ, and the one thing that I love doing more than anything else in this world is going to Holy Mass or to Divine Liturgy.
Because there I encounter God Himself. There Jesus profoundly abides in me and I in Him…beyond the normal indwelling of His Spirit which I fully received only six months ago or so.
Thus, I tend to physically display this devotion as I try to see with the eyes of faith the invisible dimension of Liturgical worship. However, being an altar server means that I am simply that: a servant at the altar. Christ alone is the focus and I fear that if I do not learn how to control my devotion I may take away from His Sacrifice. While I can certainly control the devotion that I give, I want to do so in a way charateristic of the ancient Latin traditions of my own Church.
The Roman Rite has always shared the Jewish synagogue character of worship. It is solemn and sober and terse. Such is very nature of the Latin language, and the switch from Greek to Latin in the liturgy of Rome no doubt played a role in the formation of the peculiarities of the Roman Mass.
As such I believe that it logically follows that the actions of those on the altar are to be also solemn, sober, and terse. Each movement must be simply done…without any external show of devotion that is not proper to the Roman Rite. Prolix bowing, clasping of hands, and other movements outside of traditional acolyte duties must be suppressed.
When the Roman Missal was revised according to the Apostolic Constitution of the 21st Ecumenical Synod, the old Gallican additions to the Mass that had led to the formulation of the “Tridentine Mass” (i.e. the old Roman use with Gallican/Eastern additions) were stripped away and the Roman Mass was restored to the form it had in the 6th-13th centuries.
This is one of the reasons why the “new” Mass is often referred to as the “Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great.”
A good example of this is my own parish priest. He does a FANTASTIC job in relaying the sobreity, tersenss, and noble solemnity of the Latin Orthodox traditions. He never smiles, but he also never frowns or terses his lips. He is simply relaxed and when important moments come such as the Hanc Igitur, the Supplices te rogamus, and especially the Consecration, the Elevation, and the Final Per Ipsum Oblation, his facial expression and movements become much more focused although he still does not show signs of expressionism beyond the usual noble simplicity of Rome. His face always gives a sense, prior to the holy moments of course, of inner joy that is unexpressed facially in the way we do today. In doing this, I contend, he ensures that focus is paid to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, not to him or anything else…hence the high focus of his attention during the elevation of the Body and the Blood and also at the Oblation when the Risen Christ is offered to the Father and the Sacrifice of the Cross is mystically made present in full.
My spiritual father is also an example to me…He is a deacon and, in many ways, he become invisible at Mass, even when he is doing something. I remember this “invisible-ness” particularly when he performs the Per huius aquae and the other parts of the Preparation of the Holy Altar. This could perhaps be because I often get wrapped up in savoring the mystery or my personal prayers, but still his facial expressions and his focused and yet simple movements have always kept my attention on the Eucharist. Yet there is one thing I have noticed that he does at the holiest moments of Holy Mass, and I have tried imitate him in this for I find it deeply profound.
His brow tightens in a show of concentration, his eyes close, and as he chants (this often happens during the final Per ipsum Oblation) the Great Amen, I find myself convinced that somehow he has become lost in the mystery and when I see him do this, I also act in like manner that I too may focus on the mystery.
Thus both he and my parish priest exemplify the ancient Latin liturgical customs. I believe that the key to altar service, especially for me, will be to fully embrace the ancient Latin liturgical disciplines that were passed down to my spiritual father and my priest (wittingly or not) by the constant Latin Orthodox Catholic traditions and the reforms of the 21st Ecumenical Synod.
Thus, My ultimate goal as an altar server is:
And so I was hoping somebody here, whether from the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church or not, could give me some guidance or advice on how to achieve my goal that I have introduced above in the quote box.
-Antonius Ioannes
