Eucharistic ministers

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naroad

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I grew up and attended Latin Mass 6 days a week until I was 11 years old. I remember the great solemnity and reverance that was shown to the Eucharist. Vatican 2 has gutted the Catholic Church, people and especially kids have no idea what was lost. It is really unsettling to me to see young kids and women handing out Communion.
 
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naroad:
I grew up and attended Latin Mass 6 days a week until I was 11 years old. I remember the great solemnity and reverance that was shown to the Eucharist. Vatican 2 has gutted the Catholic Church, people and especially kids have no idea what was lost. It is really unsettling to me to see young kids and women handing out Communion.
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They are properly known as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. The extraordinary part means only to be used in extraordinary circumstances.

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion at Mass
 
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naroad:
I grew up and attended Latin Mass 6 days a week until I was 11 years old. I remember the great solemnity and reverance that was shown to the Eucharist. Vatican 2 has gutted the Catholic Church, people and especially kids have no idea what was lost. It is really unsettling to me to see young kids and women handing out Communion.
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Do you mind my asking what you did after the age of 11?
 
So did the ‘imposition’ of the new Mass stop you from attending 6 days a week?
A lot of us who also remember the Latin Tridentine Mass were glad to have the new Mass so I’m wondering how the new Mass affected the practice of your faith.
 
The quality of reverence varies by mass and locations. I have seen adjacent parishes vary significantly from very reverent to almost irreverent.

Look around. Find a good reverent parish and attend daily mass often.

Lay Ministers of Holy Communion should be reverent in their actions with the Eucharist. Most are.
 
Joe Gloor:
So did the ‘imposition’ of the new Mass stop you from attending 6 days a week?.
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I don’t see where he said he stopped attending 6 days a week, on that he attended a Latin Mass 6 days a week.
 
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Brendan:
I don’t see where he said he stopped attending 6 days a week, on that he attended a Latin Mass 6 days a week.
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That’s why I asked. He didn’t say what he did. I just assumed he attended a TLM mass, but I see what you mean.
I guess it was his complaint about V2 and the imposition of the “new Mass” that made me think that.
 
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naroad:
I grew up and attended Latin Mass 6 days a week until I was 11 years old. I remember the great solemnity and reverance that was shown to the Eucharist. Vatican 2 has gutted the Catholic Church, people and especially kids have no idea what was lost. It is really unsettling to me to see young kids and women handing out Communion.
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You should hit the search topic tab because this topic has come up over and over and over again! These Extraordinary ministers are approved by the Pope to assist the Priest when there is a large volume of people at Mass. If you have a problem then you should make a point to go in the line where the Priest is.
 
I train and schedule the Extraordinary Ministers for our parish. I do see valid reasons for using EMHC’s but also understand their use can be detrimental.

Our parish has some 2000 families and we probably average 400 in attendance for each Sunday mass (one on Saturday evening and three on Sunday). We have one priest right now and 3 deacons. We have the Church encouraging the faithful to recieve the Eucharist under both species. Our Archbishop approves of our use of EMHC’s and our Pastor supports the Archbishop. We use EMHC’s at every mass. If we did not, our masses would most likely last an additional 20 to 30 minutes, which is not necessarily a bad thing but, when your priest has to get through the masses so that he can go to the parish in the next town over to say mass for them, you can see where time is sometimes of the essence.

The use (overuse) of EMHC’s is not perfect. But the EMHC’s themselves are not the villains here. I see a lot of post in these forums from people whining and sniping at EMHC’s. I see a lot of posts where folks do or suggest that you find another parish. They often sound like the little kid that gets mad and cries that he’s going to take his toys and go home. Lot of good that does.

How about this: if you don’t like the EMHC’s in your parish, why not become one and see what its really like. Why not work for change from inside rather than sit in the peanut gallery taking pot-shots.

Everybody’s a critic; its easiest to take your toys and go to another sandbox. What we need are people who are willing to stick it out and affect change.
 
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Breton:
Our parish has some 2000 families and we probably average 400 in attendance for each Sunday mass…We use EMHC’s at every mass. If we did not, our masses would most likely last an additional 20 to 30 minutes
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I don’t agree. My parish is similar in size and we employ no EMHC’s. There are two priests distributing communion and it usually lasts only about 5-6 minutes. Although we typically only offer communion under one species and use a communion rail, which I think helps speed things along. However, when both species have been offered EMHC’s still aren’t used and communion doesn’t take much longer.

I really haven’t noticed communion happening any quicker in parishes that use EMHC’s.
 
Well, I’ve seen some suggestions in my time, but this one takes the cake. “If you don’t like EMHCs, why don’t you become one!” :rotfl::bigyikes::rotfl: How would that go at the regular EMHC meetings? “I don’t like us! We shouldn’t be doing this!” Yes, I can see how that would make a person very popular.

My advice…find another parish, or sandbox if you prefer that analogy.
 
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arieh0310:
I don’t agree. My parish is similar in size and we employ no EMHC’s. There are two priests distributing communion and it usually lasts only about 5-6 minutes. Although we typically only offer communion under one species and use a communion rail, which I think helps speed things along.
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Which may be one of the reasons to use EMHCs; this issue is not speeding things along, but doing it slowly and reverently. I have a hard time saying that a priest dsitributing the Eucharist at a clip of one to one and a half seconds per communicant is doing it slowly and reverently. However, I am sure others would disagree.
arieh0301:
However, when both species have been offered EMHC’s still aren’t used and communion doesn’t take much longer.
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however, it is more awkward to receive from the Cup at a Communion rail.
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arieh0310:
I really haven’t noticed communion happening any quicker in parishes that use EMHC’s.
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that is because when two or three or 4 are distributing the Host at the same time, they can all do it slower and with more reverence, thus the time elapsed for all to receive Communion is about the same, but the process for each individual is slower and allows for more reverence.
 
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otm:
Which may be one of the reasons to use EMHCs; this issue is not speeding things along, but doing it slowly and reverently. I have a hard time saying that a priest dsitributing the Eucharist at a clip of one to one and a half seconds per communicant is doing it slowly and reverently.
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“The Body of Christ”, “Amen”…is that supposed to take more than 2 seconds? I’ve timed it, it is about 1.5 seconds–even in Latin. Is it more reverent to say “THEEEE…BOOODYYYYY…OFFFFFFFF…CCCHHHRRRIIIIISSSST”?
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otm:
However, I am sure others would disagree. however, it is more awkward to receive from the Cup at a Communion rail.
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The Precious Blood is not offered at the rail, but on either side of the communion rails as you leave.
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otm:
that is because when two or three or 4 are distributing the Host at the same time, they can all do it slower and with more reverence, thus the time elapsed for all to receive Communion is about the same, but the process for each individual is slower and allows for more reverence.
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Again, with a communion rail I don’t see how the time spent with each communicant is any different. I have to say though, that you are the first person, that I have read, who has stated that is SHOULD take longer with EMHC’s.
 
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Breton:
I train and schedule the Extraordinary Ministers for our parish. I do see valid reasons for using EMHC’s but also understand their use can be detrimental.

Our parish has some 2000 families and we probably average 400 in attendance for each Sunday mass (one on Saturday evening and three on Sunday). We have one priest right now and 3 deacons. We have the Church encouraging the faithful to recieve the Eucharist under both species. Our Archbishop approves of our use of EMHC’s and our Pastor supports the Archbishop. We use EMHC’s at every mass. If we did not, our masses would most likely last an additional 20 to 30 minutes, which is not necessarily a bad thing but, when your priest has to get through the masses so that he can go to the parish in the next town over to say mass for them, you can see where time is sometimes of the essence.

The use (overuse) of EMHC’s is not perfect. But the EMHC’s themselves are not the villains here. I see a lot of post in these forums from people whining and sniping at EMHC’s. I see a lot of posts where folks do or suggest that you find another parish. They often sound like the little kid that gets mad and cries that he’s going to take his toys and go home. Lot of good that does.

How about this: if you don’t like the EMHC’s in your parish, why not become one and see what its really like. Why not work for change from inside rather than sit in the peanut gallery taking pot-shots.

Everybody’s a critic; its easiest to take your toys and go to another sandbox. What we need are people who are willing to stick it out and affect change.
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What we need are people who aren’t in such a big hurry to leave the mass. So it takes another twenty minutes so what? That will bring the normal mass to what, an hour and ten to fifteen minutes or so?

And as far as the Priest having to get to the next town schedule the mass a little later. Of course he could do what at least one other poster on this forum advocates and drop the Creed and maybe a few other things. Then he wouldn’t have to rush so much.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in a Twilight Zone episode. People worried about spending an additonal 20 minutes in Mass?
Doesn’t sound like a big hardship to me
 
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palmas85:
What we need are people who aren’t in such a big hurry to leave the mass. So it takes another twenty minutes so what? That will bring the normal mass to what, an hour and ten to fifteen minutes or so?

And as far as the Priest having to get to the next town schedule the mass a little later. Of course he could do what at least one other poster on this forum advocates and drop the Creed and maybe a few other things. Then he wouldn’t have to rush so much.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in a Twilight Zone episode. People worried about spending an additonal 20 minutes in Mass?
Doesn’t sound like a big hardship to me
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In our county, we have two priests to take care of four parishes. They are both really busy.Our priest says Mass at 9am, then drives 10 miles to his home parish, and says another Mass at 11. Of course, there other things to take care of besides saying Mass. We only have one deacon and he is stretched pretty thin, too. So Eucharistic ministers are the norm, especially for the Precious Blood. As far as people jumping line so they can receive from the priest, I think that is just stupid. They still receive the Body and Blood of Christ no matter who they receive from. As the previous poster said, become a Eucharistic minister, and then maybe you’ll have some idea of what we do.
 
Dr. Bombay:
Well, I’ve seen some suggestions in my time, but this one takes the cake. “If you don’t like EMHCs, why don’t you become one!” :rotfl::bigyikes::rotfl: How would that go at the regular EMHC meetings? “I don’t like us! We shouldn’t be doing this!” Yes, I can see how that would make a person very popular.

My advice…find another parish, or sandbox if you prefer that analogy.
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👍 You illustrate my point perfectly Dr. Bombay - nothing useful to add to the discussion. How is the view from the peanut gallery? 👍
 
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