Children reading the readings at mass

[gam197]

Today during the regular mass, a 6 year old girl read part of the first read and her mother read the remainder of the first reading. Is that OK?

 

[Frosty_Gurl]

Well I by no means am an expert on this; however, we have school Masses held on Thursday mornings, and all reading and songs (except, of course the Gospel) are all sang or read by the children. I don’t know how that applies to a “regular” Mass but that is how it is during the school Mass.
I may have been of some help, and I may have been no help. Just thought that I would throw in my two sense.

 

[benedictgal]

Today during the regular mass, a 6 year old girl read part of the first read and her mother read the remainder of the first reading. Is that OK?

No. The readings should not be divided into parts. The only time that this is allowed is during the Proclamation of the Passion. Furthermore, the child must be a prodigy because some of the words might be difficult, especially if your parish chose to use the ones for the Conversion of St. Paul.

Here is what the General Introduction to the Lectionary states:

1. "The reader has his own proper function in the Eucharistic celebration and should exercise this even though ministers of a higher rank may be present."89 The ministry of reader, conferred through a liturgical rite, must be held in respect. When there are instituted readers available, they are to carry out their office at least on Sundays and festive days, especially at the principal Mass of the day. These readers may also be given responsibility for assisting in the arrangement of the liturgy of the word, and, to the extent necessary, of seeing to the preparation of others of the faithful who may be appointed on a given occasion to read at Mass.90

1. The liturgical assembly truly requires readers, even those not instituted. **Proper measures must therefore be taken to ensure that there are certain suitable laypeople who have been trained to carry out this ministry.91 Whenever there is more than one reading, it is better to assign the readings to different readers, if available. **

Note that it says whenever there is more than one readings, another reader could be assigned, if available, to proclaim the second reading. It does not say that two people should be proclaiming the same reading. Furthermore, it makes it very clear that the readers need to be properly trained.

From the GIRM comes the statement regarding who can read what:

1. If there are several persons present who are able to exercise the same ministry, nothing forbids their distributing among themselves and performing different parts of the same ministry or duty. For example, one deacon may be assigned to take the sung parts, another to serve at the altar; if there are several readings, it is well to distribute them among a number of lectors. The same applies for the other ministries. But it is not at all appropriate that several persons divide a single element of the celebration among themselves, e.g., that the same reading be proclaimed by two lectors, one after the other, except as far as the Passion of the Lord is concerned.

I hope this helps.

 

[m134e5]

Today during the regular mass, a 6 year old girl read part of the first read and her mother read the remainder of the first reading. Is that OK?

People should be trained properly before doing the readings at Mass. It isn’t appropriate to divide individual readings into parts (except the Passion gospel) to be read by different people. This is not their time to show off or to show someone else off (especially since when little kids read, people tend to think “aww how cute!” rather than about the readings themselves). If it’s a first communion Mass, or some other children’s Mass (or at least a Mass where children in the parish are being specially recognized for some reason) and there are kids who can read clearly and naturally, I think it’s ok to let them read- but if they can’t, and please forgive me for being sarcastic… it -------- is -------- not ------ at ---------- all --------- cute -------- to --------- hear ------- lit— tle ---------- kids -------- or ------- an— y bo---- dy ---- else ------ read---- ing -------- at --------- Mass -------- like --------- this!

 

[stbruno]

This was probably an exception due to the fact that today we kicked off Catholic School’s week.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Today during the regular mass, a 6 year old girl read part of the first read and her mother read the remainder of the first reading. Is that OK?

If it was a childrens Mass, primarily attended by children. Rome is doing away with these children’s Masses because of the abuse. Many times parts of them, the wording of Eucharistic prayers, are used in regular Masses, and are “justified” because they are in the Sacramentary. Soon they won’t be in the Sacramentary. A child or someone not yet Confirmed should not be permitted to participate in any regular Lay Ministry of the parish.

 

[Phemie]

A child or someone not yet Confirmed should not be permitted to participate in any regular Lay Ministry of the parish.

I think that all depends on the child. I’ve heard a few 8 & 9 year olds do a better proclamation of the Word than many of the adults we had as regular readers.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I think that all depends on the child. I’ve heard a few 8 & 9 year olds do a better proclamation of the Word than many of the adults we had as regular readers.

But I guess that would depend on the Bishop. Most Bishops would require regular Lay Ministers to be at least 16 and Confirmed practicing Catholics.

 

[Phemie]

But I guess that would depend on the Bishop. Most Bishops would require regular Lay Ministers to be at least 16 and Confirmed practicing Catholics.

The kids were confirmed but obviously well under 16. Our diocese (only a year old) is only just in the process of putting together guidelines for everything so we’ll be waiting a while.

 

[Joannm]

If it was a childrens Mass, primarily attended by children. Rome is doing away with these children’s Masses because of the abuse. Many times parts of them, the wording of Eucharistic prayers, are used in regular Masses, and are “justified” because they are in the Sacramentary. Soon they won’t be in the Sacramentary. A child or someone not yet Confirmed should not be permitted to participate in any regular Lay Ministry of the parish.

Where have you read that they are doing away with masses for children. I have heard that they EP’s for these masses will be taken out of the Sacramentary, yes, but put into a separate book. That is what I heard at the FDLC meeting this past fall from the secretary of Bishops Committee for Divine Worship.

 

[Joannm]

I think that all depends on the child. I’ve heard a few 8 & 9 year olds do a better proclamation of the Word than many of the adults we had as regular readers.

We usually require that our younger lectors be confirmed, but once in awhile we come across a really good kid in 7th or 8th grade who reads better than our adult lectors. Such was the case at today’s Catholic School’s Week kickoff Mass. They asked an 8th grade boy to read. This boy was great, reverent, clear, and in taking to him in the sacristy, he really understood what he was proclaiming. I am going to ask him to consider being one of our regular lectors after he is confirmed in the spring.

Aside from that, The Catholic School mass was a zoo. The fact that no one from the school notified me (I am liturgy coordinator as one of my jobs in the parish) and just went ahead and called all the ministry schedulers and told them to let their people do everything, got me a bit miffed. Even the pastor asked me what was going on and I had no idea. They started reserving rows, completely ignoring the fact that our first rows are for handicapped, and wanted to do some other things that I know our pastor does not like. Good thing I got in to work early enough yesterday to head them off. There was so much loud chatting and kids running around after mass that I wondered if some of these people ever go to mass at all. Well enough for my rant…I will just make notes to make sure I contact the school next year. I don’t reemember last year being like this. I think it was because of the parent they put in charge of Catholic School week celebrations had no clue that liturgy belongs to all the people, not their one specific group.

 

[Phemie]

We usually require that our younger lectors be confirmed, but once in awhile we come across a really good kid in 7th or 8th grade who reads better than our adult lectors. Such was the case at today’s Catholic School’s Week kickoff Mass. They asked an 8th grade boy to read. This boy was great, reverent, clear, and in taking to him in the sacristy, he really understood what he was proclaiming. I am going to ask him to consider being one of our regular lectors after he is confirmed in the spring.

For 9 years our diocese had Confirmation and First Communion together so we have a passel of Confirmed 8 & 9 year olds. But the two readers were sisters and you could tell that their mom had spent a lot of time making sure they were prepared to proclaim and proclaim they did. One is now at university and still gets put on the readers list when she’s home for the holidays.

I must admit they were the exception. I recall one Sunday, being so angry after the readings that I didn’t go to Communion. Nobody had bothered to prepare the two child readers and one boy simply couldn’t read. He needed an adult whispering the words to him. The attitude of those who prepared “Family Mass” (isn’t every Mass for families?) was that it was a training ground to prepare them to assume ministries when they got older. You just couldn’t get it through their heads that the ministers are at the service of the Liturgy, not vice versa. “NO, the ambo at the only Sunday Mass is not a training ground for kids. Train them to read, period, then when they can read very well, train them to proclaim. When they can do both, THEN make them readers at Mass.”

 

[gam197]

originally posted by stbruno
This was probably an exception due to the fact that today we kicked off Catholic School’s week

Maybe that is why it was allowed. It was at regular mass and her mother held her up so she could see the book but she could not read well making it was very distracting. They did announced that it was Catholic School week but that was at the end of mass.

Thanks for all the responses.

 

[benedictgal]

Maybe that is why it was allowed. It was at regular mass and her mother held her up so she could see the book but she could not read well making it was very distracting. They did announced that it was Catholic School week but that was at the end of mass.

Thanks for all the responses.

No. It should not have been allowed. As I noted in my initial post, what was done went against the GIRM. We have no right to divide the readings into parts. They can’t use “Catholic Schools Week” to justify liturgical abuses.

From what I understand, ours didn’t go very well, either. One of the nuns decided to have a “Call to Worship” dance before the Mass began, even though she had been specifically told not to do this by the superintendent. She did it anyway, with recorded music. St. John Bosco probably intervened because the music died and Mass began.

Maybe BrotherRich is on to something regarding discontinuing Masses for Children. These have become rather problematic with well-meaning folks using just about everything under the sun as justification for introducing novelties into the Mass because it is for the children.

 

[Sheeniac]

Catholics Schools Week - good.
Dividing the Liturgy - bad.
The 2 young boys did a better job than the reader who was supposed to be up there (he regularly skips words, mispronounces names, etc) - sad.