Priest and Gospel reading

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DSJJ

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Sometimes at the school childrens Mass our priest will take the Gospel down off the anbo, then walk down the stairs to which now he is no longer in the sancturary and read it while walking around at. Is this aloud. Thanks
 
No, the gospel reading is to be read from the ambo. In the anglican usage, it may be read in another place, with the book being held by another minister, but it is still highly ceremonial, and nothing like pacing around reading from a book. And anyways, your parish probably isn’t an anglican use parish.
 
DSJJ said:
Sometimes at the school childrens Mass our priest will take the Gospel down off the anbo, then walk down the stairs to which now he is no longer in the sancturary and read it while walking around at. Is this aloud. Thanks
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Sorry DSJJ - sometimes with all the snow here I have to make a little joke from time to time.😉

The priest apparently is trying to connect with the children during a school liturgy. Is this in a gym or at the Church?

I’m sure there’s people who will say this is wrong, but if the priest is connecting the Children to the Word of God then surely that’s good.

I tried googling this question but couldn’t find anything definitive: I’m sure someone will disagree with what I wrote and quote chapter and verse
 
triumphguy said:
Sorry DSJJ - sometimes with all the snow here I have to make a little joke from time to time.😉

The priest apparently is trying to connect with the children during a school liturgy. Is this in a gym or at the Church?

I’m sure there’s people who will say this is wrong, but if the priest is connecting the Children to the Word of God then surely that’s good.
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The Mass is not the time to do whatever you want to “connect with the children.” It is our representation of the Lord’s Sacrifice to the Father. That’s the same logic that is used to justify clown Masses and puppet masses.
triumphguy said:
I tried googling this question but couldn’t find anything definitive: I’m sure someone will disagree with what I wrote and quote chapter and verse
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They already have above.
 
triumphguy said:
I’m sure there’s people who will say this is wrong, but if the priest is connecting the Children to the Word of God then surely that’s good.
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It’s not good at the expense of the rubrics of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There is a tendency to water things down or change things or make things more democratic or more contemporary or more whatever in order to connect with the people. We should not lower the Mass to reach people. We should raise people to meet the Mass.
  • PAX
 
But the norms for Masses with Children allow changes to be made to the liturgy for pastoral reasons: eg the use of gestures, different music, simplified texts, fewer or shorter readings, simplified language, a Eucharist prayer for children.

Also, children can be dismissed from the body of the Church during the Liturgy of the Word, and so the word is read and preached to them in a more experiential way by non-ordained lay people. This would presuppose that Children are to be treated differently since they are different. I would imagine that no Bishop is going to chastise a priest for taking the gospel book to the children during a children’s liturgy.
 
triumphguy said:
But the norms for Masses with Children allow changes to be made to the liturgy for pastoral reasons: eg the use of gestures, different music, simplified texts, fewer or shorter readings, simplified language, a Eucharist prayer for children.

Also, children can be dismissed from the body of the Church during the Liturgy of the Word, and so the word is read and preached to them in a more experiential way by non-ordained lay people. This would presuppose that Children are to be treated differently since they are different. I would imagine that no Bishop is going to chastise a priest for taking the gospel book to the children during a children’s liturgy.
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Thank you for your voice of reason and sanity. It is not at all clear to me that GIRM 58 was written in contemplation of the allowances for Masses with Children, whose special allowances you clearly pointed out.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Thank you for your voice of reason and sanity. It is not at all clear to me that GIRM 58 was written in contemplation of the allowances for Masses with Children, whose special allowances you clearly pointed out.
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How is it that for 500-1000-1500+ years children were able to receive spiritual sustenance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, yet now, in the last 40 years, we have to radically change things to accommodate them?

I wonder what St. Monica would think of all of this…
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EcceAgnusDei said:
How is it that for 500-1000-1500+ years children were able to receive spiritual sustenance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, yet now, in the last 40 years, we have to radically change things to accommodate them?

I wonder what St. Monica would think of all of this…
  • PAX
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👍
 
EcceAgnusDei said:
How is it that for 500-1000-1500+ years children were able to receive spiritual sustenance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, yet now, in the last 40 years, we have to radically change things to accommodate them?

I wonder what St. Monica would think of all of this…
  • PAX
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Because we had Catholic families, with Catholic dad’s and Catholic moms, who didn’t divorce, who ate and prayed together, who didn’t watch TV or eat TV dinners, and who had never heard of a blackberry, and who took their kids (usually walked their kids) to the local parish, where the parish priest knew them by name (and had probably baptized them).

That’s why.

The priest today are going into a vast school gyms, filled with bored kids and uncatechized/lukewarm teachers who only claim to be Catholic in order to get a teaching job in a Catholic School, who are embarrassed to pray in front of the class, and where the kids know few if any prayers, do not pray at home, who may in fact be split between two homes, with divorced parents who have a grudge against the Church etc etc etc.

Thats why!

And St. Monica, as the mother of St. Augustine would understand why!
 
triumphguy said:
The priest today are going into a vast school gyms, filled with bored kids and uncatechized/lukewarm teachers who only claim to be Catholic in order to get a teaching job in a Catholic School, who are embarrassed to pray in front of the class, and where the kids know few if any prayers, do not pray at home, who may in fact be split between two homes, with divorced parents who have a grudge against the Church etc etc etc.
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Then this is what should change, not that Mass! As I’ve said before, despite their circumstances, we should raise people (children) up to the Mass, not lower the Mass to the people.
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ETA: Lowering the Mass will not change the root of the problem, only perpetuate it. Raising the people up will require a change at the root of the problem. Let’s change the problem, not put a bandaid on it and call it good.
 
You do know why they perpetuate the school liturgies? to prove to the powers that be that they are Catholic Schools, or Catholic School Boards and so deserve separate funding.

If you are willing to let 80% of Catholic schools close or go public then you could have a “faithful remnant” who are “fully” Catholic.
 
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