Altar Rail Etiquette at the EF

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I have an unusual entire weekend off after Christmas (btw Merry Christmas everyone!) and I was considering attending my parish’s Tridentine Mass. I’ve done research on most of it and I think I might just sit in a corner so I can follow everyone bodily.

Once I kneel at the rails, then what? I know I have to receive on the tongue, but does a group all kneel at the rails at once and get up as a group, or do individuals just kneel when a space in front opens up and get up after they receive?
 
CJ(name removed by moderator)my said:
I have an unusual entire weekend off after Christmas (btw Merry Christmas everyone!) and I was considering attending my parish’s Tridentine Mass. I’ve done research on most of it and I think I might just sit in a corner so I can follow everyone bodily.

Once I kneel at the rails, then what? I know I have to receive on the tongue, but does a group all kneel at the rails at once and get up as a group, or do individuals just kneel when a space in front opens up and get up after they receive?
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Here you get up after you receive and you do not answer Amen when the priest presents the host. I guess it is the same everywhere. There should be missals in the back or in the pews that have the English translations of the Latin prayers as well as instructions.
 
Mike_Dye said:
Here you get up after you receive and you do not answer Amen when the priest presents the host. I guess it is the same everywhere. There should be missals in the back or in the pews that have the English translations of the Latin prayers as well as instructions.
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Because of the heavier turnout tonight, the FSSP priest restated the instructions to all the newcomers to the Latin Mass. Once in a while they will do that.
 
Normally you just fill in the next available space when someone gets up. You are generally kneeling while father is ditributing to another part of the line.

Father and an altar boy will basically just walk down the line. We have room for 10 or 12 people on each side of the aisle. After the first 3 or 4 people receive on each side, they will get up and the next 4 people in line will take their spot while the “middle” are receiving. The middle group then gets up while the end group receives. Finally the end group gets up while father and the server with the paten walks back to the first of the new group of 12. We always have two priest so they each take one side of the sanctuary. When I say groups, it isn’t a formal set of positions, but rather kinda what it seems like. It’s really a continuous rotation.

As for receiving, you kneel and then open your mouth as Father steps in front of you. I generally do so when the paten is put under my chin.
 
I’ve only been to one EF Mass, but the way it worked was this:

We proceeded to communion as usual, except everyone in line tried to fill the rail.
When that whole group was done receiving, they got up, and the communion line filled the rail again.
Etc. Etc.
 
Just watch and follow. It’s fairly intuitive, and some larger churches may even have ushers helping to direct traffic.

As a rule of thumb, if only one priest is distributing communion, he will normally start at the right end (his left facing the rail) and work his way down the line. When he gets to the other end, he’ll usually walk back to where he started and begin again, and so on. People normally rise after receiving when communion is given to the next person (the to left) and the next person waiting comes forward to fill the vacant place. If there is another priest (or priests) helping with communion, they will split the rail into what I’ll call stations, using the same pattern.

Ive seen cases, though, where things got a little confused. For example, one priest who was new to the Usus Antiquior did it helter-skelter, which resulted in people bumping into one another. The MC tried to whisper to him but he didn’t catch on right away. That took several weeks and even then it was still a little disorganized.

How people leave the rail depends on the particular place. In some places it’s down the center aisle and back via the side aisles. If there is only a center aisle, it’s likely to be down one side and back on the other. And there could be other variations.
 
malphono said:
As a rule of thumb, if only one priest is distributing communion, he will normally start at the right end (his left facing the rail) and work his way down the line. When he gets to the other end, he’ll usually walk back to where he started and begin again, and so on. People normally rise after receiving when communion is given to the next person (the to left) and the next person waiting comes forward to fill the vacant place. If there is another priest (or priests) helping with communion, they will split the rail into what I’ll call stations, using the same pattern.
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This is what I have observed locally with the ICRSS, but I’ve seen other methods in other places so the best option is to watch what everyone else does and follow suit.
malphono said:
How people leave the rail depends on the particular place. In some places it’s down the center aisle and back via the side aisles. If there is only a center aisle, it’s likely to be down one side and back on the other. And there could be other variations.
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Same thing: watch what everyone else does and follow suit. 🙂
 
Mike_Dye said:
Here you get up after you receive and you do not answer Amen when the priest presents the host.
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Right. One may notice immediately that “the Body of Christ” isn’t said but Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen. (May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto life eternal. Amen.)

Some assisting priests or deacons who don’t know the old formula may use “Corpus Christi” though. But in either case you don’t need to respond “Amen.”
 
At the church I go to, the choir and musicians make their way down in time for us to recite the “Lord I am not worthy…” 3x then the ushers will begin to allow people to take places alongside the rail after that generally. The priest generally works his way from the epistle side to the the gospel side down the rail to administer Communion. People will get up after receiving Communion, and then the line fills the rail again gradually and process will repeat itself til the laity has received with the ushers receiving last.
 
If you ever find yourself at an Ordinariate Mass, we do the same as the EF. Including the wording “May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto life eternal”.
 
I was blessed in that I mentioned to a nearby EMHC that I had never attended a Tridentine Mass before and he invited me to sit with him and his wife so he could help me when I got lost in the missal, which happened a lot.😊

Felt really weird to take the Host on the tongue too. The EF communion is all about making sure that no host is desecrated and here we all are flopping our tongues out at It.
 
Feels perfectly natural to me when I go to an EF, I always receive on the tongue. Do it more often and you’ll get used to it. 😉
 
In my experience it becomes quite instinctive as to when it is time to get up, at the oratory I often attend people get up a couple of seconds after they have received, but equally I have seen it in other places where people wait until the whole group has received. But the main thing is to enjoy the reverence of the Mass and don’t worry excessively about the minutiae. Many people (myself included) only go to EF Mass occasionally so the congregation are often not as rigid as you might expect, so just enjoy the occasion and the Mass and don’t worry if you do something you deem to be a mistake, I am sure Our Lord will not mind. But as others have mentioned you don’t respond Amen to the priest distributing Communion.
 
peter26 said:
If you ever find yourself at an Ordinariate Mass, we do the same as the EF. Including the wording “May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto life eternal”.
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Right, but just to be clear at the EF it is said in Latin (he doesn’t know whether you understand English or not) while the priest makes a sign of the cross with the Host before placing on your tongue and also says the Amen. A helping priest or deacon may not know the EF words and just use the simpler formula “Corpus Christi” but again one does not have to respond.
 
At an EF Mass there is no option as to how to receive the Host. Its on the tongue or no. 🙂
 
CJ(name removed by moderator)my said:
Felt really weird to take the Host on the tongue too. The EF communion is all about making sure that no host is desecrated and here we all are flopping our tongues out at It.
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Wow, you gave me a good laugh there!!! Lol. It’s rather terrible that it’s so funny…I usually serve one Low Mass per week, so I get to see people “flopping their tongues” out all the time, and believe me, every so often, I am tempted to smile. It sounds terrible that I’m saying it’s funny…

Sorry, this probably qualifies as de-railing the thread… 😉 OK, I’m done.
 
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