Any difference in the Mass of a Bishop or Priest?

[Reuben_J]

Thanks

The Bishop Emeritus is a very humble man. His weekday masses , he walks around the small Chapel giving Communion, as thr residents arent able to line up and go to him, gently waking sleeping mass attendees if needed.

Occassionally he attends the weekday cathedral masses celebrated by the newer priests. Then he sits with the congregation in the pews, anywhere, lines up with us to receive Communion. And wears no formalities. If I had not been told the older gentleman sitting quietly in the crowd was the Bishop Emeritus, I would imagine him as anyone else. He is well loved in the Diocese.

Its as I would now imagine an Apostle

I am a she, just recently returned to the church, and really wanted to know what, if any, differences there might be. I was not that aware of being a succesor of the Apostles, but having watched the ceremony of the sitting Bishop when the Holy Door was closed, during the Carols night, and one other Mass, I wondered.

Greetings.

Yes, some people have that certain aura about them, you just kind of feeling drawn to or sensing a certain holiness about them. This is personal attribute and how wonderful it is to attend a mass celebrated by such personality. So it is true that a gifted celebrant can make the experience of going to the mass more special … Perhaps it is the homily, or the fatherly figure, or the seemingly outward humility, or simply charm.

And yes, the Bishops are technically the successors to the apostles as our religion is basically founded on apostolic succession.

Welcome home. It is always edifying to hear coming home story.

God bless.

Reuben

 

[Brendan_64]

Not true. A priest is consecrated to God to offer the Mass; he is not consecrated to distribute communion. In fact, deacons are the ordinary ministers of communion and they certainly aren’t of a higher calibre or degree than a priest. By the way, the Church allows the use of extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, so the argument of needing to be consecrated to distribute communion falls flat.

Yes, the Church does allow for EMHCs, but only in limited circumstances and not as a general norm and the priest is the ordinary minister of Holy Communion, along with the bishop and deacon (Can. 910).

But this is not the thread to thrash out that argument (you could always start a specific thread if you wish to explore that argument). However that is a very different argument from the one posed by question of the OP about whether the Mass or reception of Communion is more efficaceous when celebrated by a priest, bishop or pope.

 

[Blood_Angel]

If I’m not mistaken, we had a bishop at midnight mass and it wasn’t our regular priest. In my opinion he was much better… I mean, the regular priest talks to us like children, doesn’t tell us the hymn numbers so I never sing along during the hymns because I don’t know the words and well the one at midnight mass spoke to us like adults and always made sure we knew the hymn number. He also had a different looking robe, it looked more colourful and patterned.
The usual priest is a very nice and friendly guy, he means well, but for some reason he reminds me more like a children’s entertainer.