Extraordinary Ministers

[palmas85]

Well, this particular terminology issue slipped by my radar. After doing some research on the issue, I contacted our parish for more clarification. In our case, it looks as if the term is used infrequently which may have led to my confusion. In regards to the other issues I raised, however, I see nothing suggesting any further change is necessary in how we perform our services. We were trained by a brilliant and remarkably conservative deacon whose explanations I take very seriously.

Even if you’re correct on the “Eucharisitic Minister” vs “Extraordinary Ministers”, the attitude with which you pursued your chastisements betrays something other than goodwill and love of your fellow believer. Perhaps you would do well to reflect a bit less on the structure and order of worship and a bit more on the meaning and truth on which it rests? As I said, legalism is a seriously poor choice for a roomate.

:bigyikes: HORRORS

Something less than goodwill and love!!!

Perhaps you need to focus a bit more on the structure and rules of the faith and a little less on the feel good platitudes and do anything you want attitude and the non ending orgy of love that prevails so often these days. There is a lot of meaning and truth in the structure and order of the Catholic Church my friend. A lot.

And if you don’t know that, then you have a much more serious problem then I do in not properly expressing goodwill, peace and love to my fellow man.

The proper term is Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

The Eucharistic Minister is the Priest.

And even if we all share in the universal priesthood…

YOU ARE NOT THE PRIEST

 

[palmas85]

We have weddings on Saturdays - sometimes funerals, as well, although most of the time, funerals are done during the week.

Where do you think the Protestants learned it from?

As people in this thread keep pointing out, the Mass is the Solemn Sacrifice of Calvary. Lay people have very little role in it, other than to join their hearts with it in prayer.

Why would you look in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal for liturgies outside of Mass?

Can the sarcasm, please. We have six Masses every weekend, plus at least two every day of the week. Aren’t people ever allowed to do anything fun together? One fun thing during the week, and that’s it, they’re heretics?

Hey, all I did was offer options to the apparent reasons that your Parish needs Extraordinary Ministers thats all. I don’t care if you have picnics or anything else have fun.

The Protestants invented those sorts of things because they threw away the Mass and just about everything else of any religious value. . Just because they have a practice or practices that feel good doesn’t make them right.

The GIRM covers all types of liturgical activities my friend, both during and outside of the. Mass. You might do well to familiarize yourself with it. You may very well be surprised at what you learn there…

If you don’t think that joing in the Mass with prayers is an important and significant activity then I would say you need a bit more religious instruction.

Personally, I enjoy going to Mass a lot more than going to a picnic. But thats just me.

 

[salushonor]

Anyone else think that its a position that just needs to be abolished?

YUP I do. The Church did NOT need them before 1970, sure does NOT need them now. Or you as I can attend at least if only on SUNDAYS the INDULT TRIDENTINE LATIN MASS.

 

[Sir_Knight]

Without having numbers on Mass attendance averages, which are readily available from every parish and diocese, your analysis doesn’t stand up to any level of scrutiny. Your observations about there even being people standing in the back doesn’t cut it for analytical purposes.

And how accurate are those numbers attendance numbers from the parish and diocese? I don’t see anyone taking a count during mass. The way those numbers are determined are by the number of collection envelopes that are collected. Problem is that not everyone always uses those envelopes. I frequently don’t. And I notice that that holds true for people around me as well. Thus, those counts could be significantly off with regards to the actual number of people attending.

Many parishes schedule their Masses two to two and 1/2 hours apart to resolve the issue of Masses running late.

As I stated, ours are 90 minutes apart. If we had them spread out even more, we would have to drop a mass or two adding to the problem.

I do notice though that you have the entire afternoon free on Sundays. Plenty of time there for one or two more Masses,

OOPS:bigyikes:

I forgot, fall afternoons, Football, got to make it in time for tailgates, kick off and barbeques:thumbsup:

No way to have a Mass in the afternoon huh. .

And I noticed that you quoted what I wrote but didn’t bother to read it. Of course, if you had bothered to read it, you wouldn’t have been able to get your snide remarks in because I clearly said that the Bishop requires that all Sunday masses in his diocese start no later than noon.

OOPS and :bigyikes: on you.

So, no, there is “No way to have a Mass in the afternoon” unless our parish acts in disobedience to it’s bishop.
.

And of course since apparently your community can’t make it to the 7:00am Mass, by your words only half full, we can’t have a 6:00am Mass either.

Well, it would have to be at 5:30am and if only half the church is filled at 7am, how much less people will be there at 5:30am? Maybe a quarter of the church? Again, that wouldn’t address the problem, now would it?

Looks to me like the Parish you go to is more concerned with their own comforts than anything to do with the Mass.

How so?

 

[TexanCatholic]

:bigyikes: HORRORS

Something less than goodwill and love!!!

Perhaps you need to focus a bit more on the structure and rules of the faith and a little less on the feel good platitudes and do anything you want attitude and the non ending orgy of love that prevails so often these days. There is a lot of meaning and truth in the structure and order of the Catholic Church my friend. A lot.

And if you don’t know that, then you have a much more serious problem then I do in not properly expressing goodwill, peace and love to my fellow man.

The proper term is Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

The Eucharistic Minister is the Priest.

And even if we all share in the universal priesthood…

YOU ARE NOT THE PRIEST

Hmmm… Legalism may be a problem, too, but my vote is for pride–and he doesn’t seem to have absorbed the Bible that much either. Psalm 85, have you heard of I Corinthians chapters 12 and 13? Might want to take a peek sometime.

 

[jc-servant]

Adjusting the schedule would be easy enough, start the first Mass at six am. Move the vigil to 5:30 or 6pm and possibly add a second vigil. That is allowed, but requires approval of the Local Ordinary. Move the life teen to 4:00pm Saturday, that is usually the earlist you can start a Vigil mass. The kids would love that., Better still, scrap Life Teen all together and replace it with a regular mass. Just a personal prejudice I guess, I’ve never seen much need for Life Teen Masses, anyway. Sorry Replace it’s Sunday time slot with another regular Mass or even communion service That would give you two or three additional masses/communion service and cut down on attendance at each of the other Masses. See simple .

Best wishes and rest assured of our prayers from out here in Sunny Southern california

From what the staff has told me you are correct about attendance being around 30 percent on average. We have lots of adults who travel regularly for work because we are near the big airport. (I think many of our numbers are kids and babies too.) However, your numbers for LT mass don’t seem correct because I know that it has higher attendance than probably any mass except 10am regularly. If the other poster is correct about the attendance being tied to the envelopes then it means that most of our teens are not counted at LT mass and a good portion of adults at the other masses. I use e-giving, so I never turn in an envelope. If they don’t do a head count I’m a ghost every Sunday for the numbers. Our pastor just announced last week that 20 percent of the people use e-giving and he wants it increased.

Our LT program which includes a LT mass has produced 10 current seminarians, so I don’t think we will be scrapping it anytime soon. I do understand your feelings because I have seen it done quite badly. It is probably hard to get a good count for mass because there are so many people standing in the side aisles, coming in late and walking their kids around in the back. I don’t know how they get numbers for any mass.

I appreciate your attempt to move our schedule around, but unless you clone our priests and force people to come to 6am mass when our 8am is already the one with the lowest attendance, well. . .it just may not work so good. We have our older pastor who has a bad back, but who tries really hard. I honestly don’t think he can do anymore masses on weekends. He already has to celebrate Spanish mass by reading it (badly) when he cannot borrow another bilingual priest. I don’t know if he gets a day off because we have 2 daily masses Mon-Fri and one on Sat. morning.

We have a visiting priest from Nigeria. However, the visiting priest has been gone about every other weekend because he is actually here to learn about youth ministry and camps. We borrow religious priests, retired priests and teachers from the boy’s high school in Dallas on occasion too. Occasionally we have the pews full and we are waiting on a priest for mass to begin!

I thank you for your prayers. We are just praying that some of the seminarians will actually end up in our diocese. One is going to be a Benedictine monk. I’m not sure about the four who just started this fall. I think you might be amazed at how very orthodox our teens turn out who go through 4 years of LT. They probably know more about adoration, Latin and church teachings than their parents’ generation.

 

[maryjk]

And how accurate are those numbers attendance numbers from the parish and diocese? I

Just to let you know.

Our parish takes count by the number of hosts used plus 50. That adds in children and those that do not receive. We do not have a large parish.

We also have someone that counts heads once a month.

We do not use envelopes. Too many people not using them.

 

[Writer]

Hmmm… Legalism may be a problem, too, but my vote is for pride–and he doesn’t seem to have absorbed the Bible that much either. Psalm 85, have you heard of I Corinthians chapters 12 and 13? Might want to take a peek sometime.

You might have something there, but you copied my incorrect user name for this griping poster. It should read Palmas85–not Psalm 85.

 

[paramedicgirl]

You might have something there, but you copied my incorrect user name for this griping poster. It should read Palmas85–not Psalm 85.

I’ve been following this thread since the beginning, and I’ve noticed it is starting to get pretty personal. Not a good thing, IMO. The mods will most likely close it now.

 

[jmcrae]

Hey, all I did was offer options to the apparent reasons that your Parish needs Extraordinary Ministers thats all. I don’t care if you have picnics or anything else have fun.

Yes, we have ONE or TWO at the most, at our most highly attended Masses. Most of our EMHCs are out in the field, bringing Holy Communion to the sick and the dying.

The Protestants invented those sorts of things because they threw away the Mass and just about everything else of any religious value. . Just because they have a practice or practices that feel good doesn’t make them right.

That’s a very sweeping, general, and inaccurate statement.

Are you aware that, for example, the Presbyterian service of worship comes from the Liturgy of the Hours? Other styles of Protestant worship also come from liturgies that were (and are still) Catholic. Yes, they didn’t choose to go with the Mass (except for the Lutherans and the Anglicans) but what they have is a subset of Catholicism. Protestants (for the most part) didn’t actually invent anything. All that they have came from us. to begin with. So, if you see something that “looks Protestant” in the Catholic Church, just remember - it was ours, first.

The GIRM covers all types of liturgical activities my friend, both during and outside of the. Mass. You might do well to familiarize yourself with it. You may very well be surprised at what you learn there.

Okay, then - probably you will find praise and worship liturgies for outside of Mass in there, then. It’s not the first place I would have looked, but okay.

If you don’t think that joing in the Mass with prayers is an important and significant activity then I would say you need a bit more religious instruction.

Where did I say that it wasn’t important? Of course it’s important. All I’m pointing out is that Mass is not a “praise and worship” style of experience.

 

[Writer]

I’ve been following this thread since the beginning, and I’ve noticed it is starting to get pretty personal. Not a good thing, IMO. The mods will most likely close it now.

It does seem to be getting a little more cranky as it goes along. I am have invested enough of my time on this one, so I am moving on…

 

[palmas85]

Yes, we have ONE or TWO at the most, at our most highly attended Masses. Most of our EMHCs are out in the field, bringing Holy Communion to the sick and the dying.

That’s a very sweeping, general, and inaccurate statement.

Are you aware that, for example, the Presbyterian service of worship comes from the Liturgy of the Hours? Other styles of Protestant worship also come from liturgies that were (and are still) Catholic. Yes, they didn’t choose to go with the Mass (except for the Lutherans and the Anglicans) but what they have is a subset of Catholicism. Protestants (for the most part) didn’t actually invent anything. All that they have came from us. to begin with. So, if you see something that “looks Protestant” in the Catholic Church, just remember - it was ours, first.

Okay, then - probably you will find praise and worship liturgies for outside of Mass in there, then. It’s not the first place I would have looked, but okay.

Where did I say that it wasn’t important? Of course it’s important. All I’m pointing out is that Mass is not a “praise and worship” style of experience.

Mass is indeed the highest form of praise and worship there is. There is nothing and I mean absolutely nothing higher and more meaningful. I know that the Protestants don’t think so, and many of their ideas have managed to infiltrate into the Catholic church over the years because of the feel good experiences they offer.

Your statements that everything Protestants have came from us to begin with and that the Lutherans and Anglicans forms of worship are subsets of Catholicism, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have absolutely no idea as to what you are talking about in this area.

So it is really time to end this

 

[jmcrae]

palmas85:
Mass is indeed the highest form of praise and worship there is.

I am sure you would be the first to start screaming if your parish started doing praise and worship at Mass. The Mass is a Holy Sacrifice.

But yes, we are unable to communicate with each other, so you are right that it is time to end this.

 

[palmas85]

I am sure you would be the first to start screaming if your parish started doing praise and worship at Mass. The Mass is a Holy Sacrifice.

But yes, we are unable to communicate with each other, so you are right that it is time to end this.

Actually, I’ve seen more kinds of things in Masses over the years than you can imagine or even dream off. Trust me.

Praise and worship, I must be getting old. It slipped right by me.

Charismatic services. No wonder.

Yes the Mass is a Holy Sacrifice. I truly glad that you know that.

 

[Marian_Carroll]

The thread is now closed. Thanks to all who contributed in a meaningful way to the topic.