Altar Rail and Communion Times

[YoungTradCath]

It wouldn’t be quite as efficient today as it used to be since the priest still has to say " The body of Christ," and wait for the response, something he didn’t have to do when we were kids, he just kept repeating the Latin phrase and kept walking.

Teach them to say the response quickly.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

It wouldn’t be quite as efficient today as it used to be since the priest still has to say " The body of Christ," and wait for the response, something he didn’t have to do when we were kids, he just kept repeating the Latin phrase and kept walking.

I can’t comment on what it was like as I wasn’t around so I can’t compare. From what I’ve seen it’s more efficient than communicants waiting in a, well let’s call it what it is, queue to receive standing from a minister who remains in one place.

 

[YoungTradCath]

I can’t comment on what it was like as I wasn’t around so I can’t compare. From what I’ve seen it’s more efficient than communicants waiting in a, well let’s call it what it is, queue to receive standing from a minister who remains in one place.

The EF phrase is, “Corpus Dómini nostri Jesu Christi custódiat ánimam tuam in vitam æternam. Amen,” and the priest says it all. That translates as, “May the body of Christ preserve you unto live everlasting.”

The OF phrase, well you know it already, and the communicant makes the response.

 

[thomas_jd]

In our parish, we use pairs of prei deiu.

That works our very well, as even the movement of the priest is removed. The priest remains stationary, while the recipient kneels on one of the two prei deiu.

The priest offers them Holy Communion and then they stand up and another kneels in their place.

While this is happening, the priest is offering Communion to the person in the neighboring prei deiu.

There are two altarboys with patens, one to each prie deiu, so the altar boy does not need to cross over with the paten.

very VERY efficent. We have about 950 families in our parish, with about 1200 at each of the main Sunday Masses.

With the celebrant and the other priest offering Holy Communion at these stations, and the Deacon bringing Holy Communion to the elderly in their pews, the offering of Hoiy Communion takes less time than much larger parishes with their veritable armies of EMHC’s

Oh yea, the priests offer Holy Communion intincted, so both species are commonly recieved.

What the priest is doing is contrary to the norms established for America. Standing is normal, yet one kneeling is not to be denied Holy Communion.

Placing two kneelers decidely encourges kneeling rather than standing. A visiting priest could complain to the Bishop regarding this issue. It becomes problematic if the faculties are granted to a chapel, oratory ,school,etc… outside of a parish. I witnessed this , despite my warning that this could happen. The kneelers were quickly removed.

Reinstallation of altar rails , with a swinging set of doors in the center , removes this problem.

 

[jwinch2]

So I just had a thought right now thinking about the other thread about EMHC’s and the justification for their use referencing the abundance of people attending Masses and how long Communion would take. Examining the logistics of how Communion is distributed, I think I may have found what causes the problem, and that is not using an altar rail.

I thought about it this way. In a regular Communion line, you have one person distributing and a line going to that one person. Once someone receives, that person moves out of the way and the next person steps up. There are two events that have to happen before the next reception can occur. In other words, there is a large gap in between each person receiving Communion. Now compare this to the situation with an altar rail. Everyone is already lined up at the rail ready to receive. The priest comes by, distributes, and then moves on. He does not have to wait for the person to leave or another person to come back. All he has to do is move on to the next person. Sure, he has to move, but he has to move a very short distance.

It is just something to think about. Our removal of altar rails seems to contribute to the need for EMHC’s. I realize that bringing back altar rails would not eliminate the need for EMHC’s entirely because of our lack of priests, but we do not need nearly as many as we have now.

God bless!

I would be absolutely fine with altar rails. Something else which would help would be having permanent Deacons given faculties to distribute Holy Communion via intinction. That would allow for at least two people to distribute and keep things moving as well in larger parishes.

 

[Brendan]

What the priest is doing is contrary to the norms established for America. Standing is normal, yet one kneeling is not to be denied Holy Communion.

Here is the current norm

The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, March 25, 2004, no. 91).

In what way is our pastor violating the Norm, those who wish to stand are free to do so, those who wish to kneel are free to do so.

Does the norm mentioning either encouragement or discouragement for a particular posture? Rather it clearly states that a Norm of standing only applies to those who wish to stand.

Placing two kneelers decidely encourges kneeling rather than standing. A visiting priest could complain to the Bishop regarding this issue.

Not only has our bishop been to our parish, so has Cardinal Arinze and several other bishops.

As far as someone complaining to the bishop, I highly doubt it would be an issue. As I mentioned, he is well aware of how we distrubute Holy Communion here, as was his predecessor Cardinal Maida. Our parish has seen 1-2 men from our parish ordained to the priesthood just about every year for the past 10 years (12 total in the last 10 years).

If anything, our bishop would be more than willing to replicate all that we do here to other parishes, including our use of kneelers.

It becomes problematic if the faculties are granted to a chapel, oratory ,school,etc… outside of a parish. I witnessed this , despite my warning that this could happen. The kneelers were quickly removed.

There were no ‘faculties’ required to place the prie deiu. Why should there have been? Are you familiar with a liturgical law that would require faculites for their use. If so, could you post it?

 

[buffalo]

Use of the altar rail is both reverent and efficient.

 

[StAnastasia]

In our parish, we use pairs of prei deiu. That works our very well, as even the movement of the priest is removed. The priest remains stationary, while the recipient kneels on one of the two prei deiu.

What is a prei deiu? I “googled” the term and came up empty.

 

[mfrances]

What is a prei deiu? I “googled” the term and came up empty.

The correct spelling is prie dieu. It’s the classic term for what we call now a stand-alone kneeler.

 

[StAnastasia]

The correct spelling is prie dieu. It’s the classic term for what we call now a stand-alone kneeler.

Merci.

 

[Jerry-Jet]

It’s a good thing that communion does take time–all that time people can prepare to receive Jesus and thank Jesus after receivng him.

I do think that communion rails should be very long and go from one side of the chuch to the other and be very well padded.

I think alot of resistance to bringing back altar rails is some priests and some laymen in the Catholic church don’t want to bring them back because there will be less laymen as altar servers–I know that is a silly dunb reason but i do believe that is the thinking by some people–course they would never admit it.

 

[SKWill]

I was thinking about this since with altar rails the priest eventually needs to go back to the other end. What you described seems like the most efficient form possible.

If the altar rail is long enough - allowing a sufficient number of communicants to kneel at the same time - communion can be distributed like they do at my old parish in Houston: the priest starts at one end (A), distributes down the rail towards the other end (B) and starts over in reverse (heading from B to A), starts over gain and so on.

 

[maryjk]

I’ve been to one OF mass with about 300 people and communion took like 9-10 minutes, with altar rail.

That translates to 2 seconds per person.

Teach them to say the response quickly.

Yes, please. Train everyone to run up to the rail, kneel with their mouth open, close it ASAP after receiving and run back to their pew. They can say “Amen” when they get back to their pew. We wouldn’t want to spend too much time receiving our Lord.

Come on people. Are we really that busy on a Sunday that we can’t wait for a few extra minutes while everyone receives?

 

[YoungTradCath]

That translates to 2 seconds per person.

Yes, please. Train everyone to run up to the rail, kneel with their mouth open, close it ASAP after receiving and run back to their pew. They can say “Amen” when they get back to their pew. We wouldn’t want to spend too much time receiving our Lord.

Come on people. Are we really that busy on a Sunday that we can’t wait for a few extra minutes while everyone receives?

I know, communion rails are very fast, especially in the Ordinary Form, in which the invocation of the priest is very short.

How fast the rail moves depends on how fast the priest talks, and how fast the communicant can say “amen.” I don’t mean that it should sound jumbled, but “The Body of Christ,” “Amen,” shouldn’t take long at all.

 

[maryjk]

I know, communion rails are very fast, especially in the Ordinary Form, in which the invocation of the priest is very short.

How fast the rail moves depends on how fast the priest talks, and how fast the communicant can say “amen.” I don’t mean that it should sound jumbled, but “The Body of Christ,” “Amen,” shouldn’t take long at all.

But why are we worried about a few extra minutes with the Lord?

Why does it have to be fast? Why can’t we spend a little extra time in the pew waiting while everyone else receives?

 

[YoungTradCath]

But why are we worried about a few extra minutes with the Lord?

Why does it have to be fast? Why can’t we spend a little extra time in the pew waiting while everyone else receives?

I don’t mean to explicitly disregard your specific question, but why not ask the same thing when using EMHCs? Why not just disuse them, even if it makes mass a few minutes longer? I think many would shudder at the thought of not using EMHCs.