Have you ever seen torchbearers at a OF Mass

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By torchbearers I mean about 4/6 servers who have candles and kneel before the Altar during the Eucharistic Prayer.
This is normal in a EF High Mass but I am interested to know if anyone has seen it happen in a OF Mass. It was done at WYD when the Holy Father celebrated Mass for Seminarians.
 
Yep - at every OF (and of course at all the EF) Mass at our parish.

~Liza
 
This is a common thing with the Holy Father, He had the same done when he celebrated Mass in Scotland, and most other places he celebrates Mass on his visits.

An alternate practice I have seen more often at solemn OF Masses is that the two candle bearers kneel beside the thurifer during the incensation at the elevation.
 
Yep. The altar boys at my parish love to be the “lucifers”. Cracks them up every time. They bring the torches out for the Gospel also.
 
Yes, we always do it every week. 2-7 torches may also be used during the procession at ordinary form pontifical Masses instead of the two processional candles.
 
lizaanne said:
Yep - at every OF (and of course at all the EF) Mass at our parish.

~Liza
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Same here, on both counts (at both our parish’s OF and EF Masses).
  • For public clarification, this is a different parish than Lizanne attends, even though we are in the same geographic area. So yes, there are multiple parishes in the Detroit area that do this.
We use 6 torch bearers who form up a cross shape in front of the Sanctuary during the Consecration
 
I voted yes because I have seen it. The only time I have seen it is on a televised Mass. It’s never happened at a Mass where I was present.
 
Yes. In fact, I do it all the time!
Edit: Except there is usually three servers. If there are two servers, there are no torches but there is a cross. We always kneel.
 
FAH said:
By torchbearers I mean about 4/6 servers who have candles and kneel before the Altar during the Eucharistic Prayer.
This is normal in a EF High Mass but I am interested to know if anyone has seen it happen in a OF Mass. It was done at WYD when the Holy Father celebrated Mass for Seminarians.
Click to expand...
This is fully permissible at both the OF and EF Masses. I’m not sure what you mean by “normal” but rarely do I see this at either form of the Mass which is too bad.
 
My parish in Manhattan has torchbearers at almost every “High Mass” in the ordinary form.
 
We have six Masses over the weekend. We have torchbearers at two of them.

In the Tridentine Rite, Mass was a procession. The priest stood at the altar at the head of the queue with the deacon and subdeacon one step behind, followed by the MC and the altar servers in various degrees of importance inside the locked gate of the altar rails. Then followed the congregation led by a line of torchbearers - presumably to keep the great unwashed away from the clergy. The EF keeps this arrangement and I can see a point to having torchbearers ahead of the congregation.

The modern rite is a gathering around God’s altar. The role of torchbearers is confused. With no altar rails between the congregation and sanctuary what is the function of torchbearers? (they don’t even have an altar rail to lean on like we had in the 1950s). If we are going to have them, I think they should be at the back of the sanctuary facing the altar.

My fellow MCs who have torchbearers at their Masses say that it gives the kids something to do. It certainly gives them an opportunity to faint and fall over. I’m not given to military drill during Mass and we don’t have torches when I’m MC.
 
My first time and only time seeing it was at a TLM. Every OF Mass that I’ve been to has had just 2 candles at each side of the altar and nothing more. Very rarely have I seen bells used (I’ve seen them taken away) and even more rarely have I seen an altar rail.
 
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