Communion Services?????

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I went to one but didn’t realize that was what it was for a few minutes. We arrived at daily mass a little late (I’ve already had my hand slapped for that one), so we missed the part about one priest being on vacation and the other priest having taken ill that morning. It was during the readings, & I was looking around for the priest & couldn’t find him. Then I realized there was something different going on when the gospel was read by a lay person & then the Eucharistic minister went to get consecrated hosts.I don’t know if the format was in keeping with what is acceptable or not.
 
I’ve been to one. The priest at my Newman center was unavailable for a while because he went to Rome for John Paul II’s funeral. It seemed to basically be a truncated Novus Ordo Mass. The nun serving our school led it.
 
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grammyof3:
The first Communion Service that I attended I thought I was going to weekday Mass. I was in an area where I had lived for almost 30 years prior to being way for the last two years. There were no lights in the beautiful large church. I followed the few others arriving in the parking lot to the rear of the church. I thought “Oh they must have a new chapel”. They had created a little chapel with a small alter in a corner,created from a portion of the room behind the alter in the large church.

I thought it was odd there were no Missals in the pews. A lady stood at a pulpit and read morning prayers. Then a gentleman ( no sash or Deacon garb) I assume he was a Eucharistic Minister. He read the Gospel and then he served preconsecrated Hosts which he took from the tabernacle. It seemed so strange to see someone do that dressed in street clothes.

I was so upset because it became suddenly obvious to me that this was what weekday Mass in The church had come down to. I had tears streaming down my cheeks as I received communion. They probably all thought I was a nut case.

I had gone to that church because it was the larger one in the area, 20 minutes from my old home. In my home town the parish is now served by a priest who has three parishes .There is now only one week day Mass and starting next week we are down to one weekend Mass. They will rotate on a 3 month schedule with another church to have a Vigil Mass. We had a nice large church complex with a church, chapel, rectory and a hall. The rectory is now vacant and the church is locked except for the weekend Mass. The chapel is open until noon when there is a secretary there.

No one lights the votive candles any more because they are only lit for the one hour that the church is open.
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Your situation is going to repeat in other areas as vocations do not keep up with need. Some say that God is calling all the faithful to get up off the couch and play an active part in His service.
 
Your situation is going to repeat in other areas as vocations do not keep up with need. Some say that God is calling all the faithful to get up off the couch and play an active part in His service.
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I don’t believe there is a shortage of priests. If you look at these orthodox orders such as FSSP, they have ton of seminarians (over 60 for a dorm area of 50). They have to build a new dorm for the new seminarians next year. Also in other orthodox diocese where they have good orthodox families, they have 5-7 priests being ordained every year. I think the liberal diocese have trouble because they do not have orthodox families. Holy priests come from holy, orthodox families.
 
We have tons of priests in our diocese. And our pastor insists that if he is unavailable (such as when he really got hit with the flu this year- it was BAD), the priests at the local abbey come in and take over the daily Mass. There are also several diocesian priests that fill in, that don’t have their own pastorates, but function as school principals, etc.
 
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SummaTheo:
I don’t believe there is a shortage of priests. If you look at these orthodox orders such as FSSP, they have ton of seminarians (over 60 for a dorm area of 50). They have to build a new dorm for the new seminarians next year. Also in other orthodox diocese where they have good orthodox families, they have 5-7 priests being ordained every year. I think the liberal diocese have trouble because they do not have orthodox families. Holy priests come from holy, orthodox families.
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They need to share the wealth! In our diocese only about 7% of the population is Catholic. Many priests run two or more parishes, and in many counties, there is only one Catholic church. If there’s not a shortage, where are all the priests?
 
During the course of one year, I did about 70 Communion Services. At the parish near work, the pastor was committed to provide about 25 Masses and or Communion Services per week in two locations and couldn’t do it alone. He borrowed a lot of priests who were chaplains, retired, college professors, etc, and he had a permanent deacon, but it wasn’t enough. So a Eucharistic Minister would do a Communion Service at the remote chapel serving an office complex on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings. A Deacon did the Service on Wednesday mornings. (Friday mornings a guest priest would say a Mass.) Sometimes when transportation got snarled, there would be no one to do the Service. Finally, I offered to help out if no one showed up. I was specifically trained to perform Communion Services (I had never been a Eucharistic Minister.). It was an intense 30 days of training. Initially I was the back-up for Wednesday and then became the regular for Wednesday and substituted for a priest on three occasions. And provided back-up during vacations.

The pastor had developed a formal script which I followed scrupulously. On my own, I also avoided any words or motions that might in any way suggest that I was a priest or a deacon. I wore my regular clothes (not vestments), for example, and never used the “presider’s chair”. And while permitted a “reflection” I avoided this and at most would read the 10 word biography of the “saint of the day” from the “Ordo” (the diocesan-published paperback listing the readings that the priest was to use that day).

There is a lot more to tell. But I’ll just keep it at that.
 
Great post, Al. Have you ever thought of becoming a permanent deacon?

Deacon Tony
 
I live in a western country but we have three priests and a retired Bishop at my Parish and a host of once in awhile visitors so we’re cool.
 
We have them in our parish but so far have not had to do them for the Sunday obligation. I have led several during lent before the stations of the cross and advent and I guess it allows our parishioners to receive Jesus in a prayerful and reverent manner… but honestly I as of late feel uncomfortable doing it. What do you think?
Mike
 
Isn’t every Good Friday celebration a “communion service”, not a mass?
 
“59. On this day, in accordance with ancient tradition, the Church does not celebrate the Eucharist; Holy Communion is distributed to the faithful during the celebration of the Lord’s Passion alone, though it may be brought at any time of the day to the sick who cannot take part in the celebration. (Congregation for Divine Worship, Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts (Prot. N. 120/88), 20 February 1988.)”
 
Al Masetti:
During the course of one year, I did about 70 Communion Services…

The pastor had developed a formal script which I followed scrupulously. On my own, I also avoided any words or motions that might in any way suggest that I was a priest or a deacon. I wore my regular clothes (not vestments), for example, and never used the “presider’s chair”. And while permitted a “reflection” I avoided this and at most would read the 10 word biography of the “saint of the day” from the “Ordo” (the diocesan-published paperback listing the readings that the priest was to use that day).

There is a lot more to tell. But I’ll just keep it at that.
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It is a Monday morning and I just returned home from my first attendance at a “Communion Service” at our parish. I must confess that I am a little bit confused about what happened there.

The “presider” was a laywoman. She processed to the altar during the opening song, welcomed everyone and led us in the public confession “I confess to you my brother and sisters…” She read a devotion to St. Dominic out of a book, then we heard the daily scripture readings.

After that, the woman presider read the Gospel and proceeded to give a 10-minute homily. After the homily, she went and sat in the Priest’s chair for the customary few minutes.

Then she stood and went to the table while one of our Euharistic ministers brought out the plate of consecrated hosts. She led us in the “Our Father” and the “Peace be with you greeting” She held up a host and said the words “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”

All the while my mind was racing, with thinking, “is this right?” It seemed like a Mass but it was being led by a lay woman.

Can someone please tell me whether this is acceptable? (and please be patient with me, as I am a convert) thanks!

peace–
magdalisa
 
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magdalisa:
It is a Monday morning and I just returned home from my first attendance at a “Communion Service” at our parish. I must confess that I am a little bit confused about what happened there.

The “presider” was a laywoman. She processed to the altar during the opening song, welcomed everyone and led us in the public confession “I confess to you my brother and sisters…” She read a devotion to St. Dominic out of a book, then we heard the daily scripture readings.

After that, the woman presider read the Gospel and proceeded to give a 10-minute homily. After the homily, she went and sat in the Priest’s chair for the customary few minutes.

Then she stood and went to the table while one of our Euharistic ministers brought out the plate of consecrated hosts. She led us in the “Our Father” and the “Peace be with you greeting” She held up a host and said the words “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”

All the while my mind was racing, with thinking, “is this right?” It seemed like a Mass but it was being led by a lay woman.

Can someone please tell me whether this is acceptable? (and please be patient with me, as I am a convert) thanks!

peace–
magdalisa
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It’s not a Mass as there is no Consecration, which of course no lay person could do. If your bishop has authorized communion services however, I don’t see anything that isn’t approved in what you’ve described. It followed much the pattern we used when I was leading communion services.

Technically she did not give a “homily” since homilies are only given in the context of Mass. That is the one “tricky” area though, where I often disagree with the authorizing person. To me, a meditation given at a communion service (unless presided over by a deacon) should either come from a pre-approved source like Magnificat or Word Among Us, or should be approved in advance by the authorizer, which hers might have possibly been. I don’t personally feel that lay people should be “preaching” without great care being taken.

Care does need to be taken though to ensure that there is no confusion between the communion service and a Mass, or between the presider at one and a priest. I did have one elderly lady refer to me as “Father” once and quickly corrected that impression.
 
So on Sundays, if an LEM is the only person available to give a service, I would have no obligation to attend that service? Could I choose to watch mass on television given by a priest and fulfill my Sunday obligation in that way?
 
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Ituyu:
So on Sundays, if an LEM is the only person available to give a service, I would have no obligation to attend that service? Could I choose to watch mass on television given by a priest and fulfill my Sunday obligation in that way?
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Not sure what an LEM is, and the question you ask is of a different nature. I know that TV liturgies have been held to not satisfy the Sunday obligation, although in practice they are certainly better than nothing if there is nothing available I suppose. Whether a communion service would be preferable or not, or meets the Sunday obligation in and of itself I’m not sure. That would be a good question for one of the Apologists.

I personally would prefer a communion service to a TV service as I can still receive communion with all the graces that entails. There are many remote places where regular Sunday Masses are not available and I feel quite sure that people in that circumstance would count a communion service, or anyone bringing them communion, to be a great blessing.
 
I guess I am really out of it. I thought the question was about receiving communion at Mass. 😦

That’s what I get for only attending Tridentine Masses. 👍
  • Kathie 🙂
 
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ncjohn:
It’s not a Mass as there is no Consecration, which of course no lay person could do. If your bishop has authorized communion services however, I don’t see anything that isn’t approved in what you’ve described. It followed much the pattern we used when I was leading communion services.

Technically she did not give a “homily” since homilies are only given in the context of Mass. That is the one “tricky” area though, where I often disagree with the authorizing person. To me, a meditation given at a communion service (unless presided over by a deacon) should either come from a pre-approved source like Magnificat or Word Among Us, or should be approved in advance by the authorizer, which hers might have possibly been. I don’t personally feel that lay people should be “preaching” without great care being taken.

Care does need to be taken though to ensure that there is no confusion between the communion service and a Mass, or between the presider at one and a priest. I did have one elderly lady refer to me as “Father” once and quickly corrected that impression.
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Thanks for your insights, John. The “message” she gave after the Gospel reading appeared to be her own, as she read from notebook paper. It was a pretty good message except for the part where she said “Our God is not a God of the rich, but of the poor and needy” (I know that God is a God of all who believe and are baptized, whether you are rich or poor)

peace–
magdalisa
 
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magdalisa:
Thanks for your insights, John. The “message” she gave after the Gospel reading appeared to be her own, as she read from notebook paper. It was a pretty good message except for the part where she said “Our God is not a God of the rich, but of the poor and needy” (I know that God is a God of all who believe and are baptized, whether you are rich or poor)

peace–
magdalisa
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I would have to agree with you wholeheartedly there. Expressing a “preferential option for the poor” is one thing, but God unquestionably loves all of His children.

That is the danger of course with having untrained people giving “reflections” or “meditations” or whatever you want to call them, without them having been reviewed. Of course, to be fair, I’ve heard lay people give better talks at seminars, conferences, etc, than some of the homilies I’ve heard from priests. And at times they are also more accurate unfortunately.
 
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ncjohn:
Of course, to be fair, I’ve heard lay people give better talks at seminars, conferences, etc, than some of the homilies I’ve heard from priests.QUOTE]

Me too! 🙂 But they can’t consecrate bread and wine…

God Bless them all!!

peace–
magdalisa
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