Altar boys in the Traditional Latin Mass

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SaintBenedict

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Why do altar boys in the TLM represent the congregation and say all of the responses for them in the Low Mass? My grandmother called it “silly”.
Pax Vobiscum.
 
I don’t have an answer, but I do find it funny that having altar boys do the responses is “silly”, but it’s too much to expect the laity to be “active” in a liturgy that’s in another language and mostly quiet.
 
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I heard that altar boy were there because they were discerning. So, in the past, they were expected to know Latin. My son is studying it because in the seminary, it was once a requirement.

I may be a prude, but I think only boys should be altar servers.
 
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SaintBenedict said:
Why do altar boys in the TLM represent the congregation and say all of the responses for them in the Low Mass? My grandmother called it “silly”.
Pax Vobiscum.
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Perhaps she would prefer the Low Mass called the Dialogue Mass, in which the people may also recite some of the responses with the altar boys.
 
Vico said:
Perhaps she would prefer the Low Mass called the Dialogue Mass, in which the people may also recite some of the responses with the altar boys.
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I’ve never seen the congregation say the responses when there is an altar server present. That generally only happens when there are no altar servers there.
 
Fauken said:
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Vico:
Perhaps she would prefer the Low Mass called the Dialogue Mass, in which the people may also recite some of the responses with the altar boys.
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I’ve never seen the congregation say the responses when there is an altar server present. That generally only happens when there are no altar servers there.
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The Dialogue Mass was approved in 1922 and has mainly been used in France and Germany.
 
Vico said:
The Dialogue Mass was approved in 1922 and has mainly been used in France and Germany.
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I’m not questioning the existence of it. I know the congregation may say the responses. But I have never seen the congregation saying the responses when altar servers are present. I’ve only ever seen it done when there are no altar servers.
 
The Canons Regular of New Jerusalem are an order of traditional priests in Charles Town, WV and all of their Low Masses are dialogue Masses. That’s the only location I have visited where I have seen this.
 
Fauken said:
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Vico:
The Dialogue Mass was approved in 1922 and has mainly been used in France and Germany.
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I’m not questioning the existence of it. I know the congregation may say the responses. But I have never seen the congregation saying the responses when altar servers are present. I’ve only ever seen it done when there are no altar servers.
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Personally, I don’t recall participation in any Latin Mass without an altar server.
 
I would think that it was because in the older days when large numbers of people were illiterate and only a few people could read their own languages much less the Latin that that is teh reason why they had altar servers give teh responses.
 
poche said:
I would think that it was because in the older days when large numbers of people were illiterate and only a few people could read their own languages much less the Latin that that is teh reason why they had altar servers give teh responses.
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I agree with this.
 
I usually attend High Mass on Sunday at an FSSP parish. This past Sunday there was at a Low Mass instead. All the usual altar servers with the altar boys (the assistants) were present. We did what I am guessing is a “dialogue mass,” which is kind of a weird term.

I don’t claim to be some sort of Canon Lawyer or Rubric Wiz Kid, but as far as I know, the Rubrics don’t have any rules as to what the people in the pews do or don’t do (in the Extraordinary form). We are expected to be quiet and respectful, attentive and alert. We are expected to be praying. We can join in with the choir in responding if we feel like it, but there is no absolute rule that requires us to do so.
 
Agreed. I’ll speculate that since Mass was celebrated in the choir in a cathedral, the masses (which would include most of us) would be sitting or standing out in the nave where we would probably not be able to hear everything that is being said, and no way would we be following along exactly word-by-word and line-by-line. We would definitely hear the sanctus bells through…
 
The Mass as once said by the priest on the subject of participation “Mass requires spiritual participation that transcends all other forms of external participation.”
 
At our FSSP parish, all Low Masses except the Sunday 9:30AM Masses have the server making the responses. That Mass is a Dialogue Mass. People tend to respond in varying volumes and speeds, and more than one priest has been thrown off by this fact.
 
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