Priest using Eucharistic Prayers for Children with no Children?

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dfp42

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We have a retired priest who fills in for our parish priest. He seems to be using his own personal opening prayers in mass and is using ep for children when there are none in mass. I’m feeling a little strange about the way he is doing the mass. I know I’m there for Jesus but there seems to be something strange with the way he’s been saying mass lately. I honestly don’t think my parish priest knows about this or would be able to actually do anything about it. Also, I wanted to know if retired priest are exempt from keeping up to date with rules such as GIRM and the new missal coming out. It seems as if some of them are just stuck in their ways and don’t care how they run their mass.
 
Its a valid EP for one, so why not?

Maybe its a scheduled children’s Mass regardless if there are children present or not?
 
dfp42 said:
We have a retired priest who fills in for our parish priest. He seems to be using his own personal opening prayers in mass and is using ep for children when there are none in mass. I’m feeling a little strange about the way he is doing the mass. I know I’m there for Jesus but there seems to be something strange with the way he’s been saying mass lately. I honestly don’t think my parish priest knows about this or would be able to actually do anything about it. Also, I wanted to know if retired priest are exempt from keeping up to date with rules such as GIRM and the new missal coming out. It seems as if some of them are just stuck in their ways and don’t care how they run their mass.
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I have nothing against the eucharist prayers for children, but it does strike me as odd that a priest would use those prayers in a mass without children, even if it was a regularly scheduled mass for children. If no children came, then I would think he would change the eucharistic prayers to match his congregation. On a more serious note, if your priest has been behaving strangely lately (and especially if he is an older priest) and does not seem himself, then this could be a sign of a health problem, such as the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. Without causing too much alarm, it could be a good idea to mention your concerns to the pastor just to let him know.
 
dfp42 said:
We have a retired priest who fills in for our parish priest. He seems to be using his own personal opening prayers in mass and is using ep for children when there are none in mass. I’m feeling a little strange about the way he is doing the mass. I know I’m there for Jesus but there seems to be something strange with the way he’s been saying mass lately. I honestly don’t think my parish priest knows about this or would be able to actually do anything about it. Also, I wanted to know if retired priest are exempt from keeping up to date with rules such as GIRM and the new missal coming out.
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The answer to this is, no. If he’s retired, then he’s probably a secular priest, since regular priests never retire. All priests must comply with the rules in place in the diocese where they are celebrating the sacraments.
It seems as if some of them are just stuck in their ways and don’t care how they run their mass.
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It may be possible that this is scheduled to be the children’s mass or the family mass as they call it in some parishes. That’s easy to find out. It’s usually posted in the buletin.

To tell the truth, I have not seen the Eucharistic Prayer for Children used that often, even when there are children present, such as at the school mass. Many priests find that it is confusing to use and the children don’t seem to notice the difference. It’s available, not mandatory.

As long as the Eucharistic Prayer is approved, it’s licit. The rules for using it are not very rigid. As I suggested above, it has been used in masses that target families. The idea is to encourage parents to bring their children to mass. So many parents don’t like to attend mass with their children, because the children are “annoying or restless”, etc. What they don’t realize is that unless a child is being really loud, most priests sail right past their behavior.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
dfp42 said:
Also, I wanted to know if retired priest are exempt from keeping up to date with rules such as GIRM and the new missal coming out. It seems as if some of them are just stuck in their ways and don’t care how they run their mass.
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you gave the example of one retired priest doing one practice you question, which some here claim is legit. Why then to you make such a general statement against all or many such priests? on what basis? what other suspected abuses have you seen that justify such a charge? And why do you assume, if this priest is wrong in this instance, that it is merely because he is “retired”.
 
I am not against anyone, I guess I just really want to know if follow GIRM is a norm or not. I appreciate all priests and respect what they do in the priesthood. It’s just that I’ve seen so many different styles of mass. Etc. Homily’s that don’t have very much to do with the readings in mass/based on personal opinions to words that seem to be added into the mass by certain priests. I find it difficult sometimes when certain Catholic churches that I go to that are more orthodox then others and there is obviously more respect for the Eucharist. Most of the priest in my dioceses are old or retired so I question the difference between a retired priest compared to an active priest keeping in conformity with the norms of the Church. I know a priest is a priest is a priest, but are they all the same in beliefs?
 
dfp42 said:
I am not against anyone, I guess I just really want to know if follow GIRM is a norm or not. I appreciate all priests and respect what they do in the priesthood. It’s just that I’ve seen so many different styles of mass. Etc. Homily’s that don’t have very much to do with the readings in mass/based on personal opinions to words that seem to be added into the mass by certain priests. I find it difficult sometimes when certain Catholic churches that I go to that are more orthodox then others and there is obviously more respect for the Eucharist. Most of the priest in my dioceses are old or retired so I question the difference between a retired priest compared to an active priest keeping in conformity with the norms of the Church. I know a priest is a priest is a priest, but are they all the same in beliefs?
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Yes, the GIRM is obligatory.

Many priests (regardless of age) do not keep themselves to the GIRM, this is abuse. There were quite significant differences even in the good old times too. E.g. in Hungary from the Leo XIII prayer only the St Michael Archangle prayer was read the Aves and Marian prayers omitted; there was no third confiteor for communion of the faithful; the length of a Sunday Low Mass with reading the Gospel, sermon, communion of faithful and the St Michael Archangel prayer varied from 35 - 55 minutes.

Old priests have no general privileges related to the Mass, specific privileges (recite one votive Mass every day if the priest is blind, say the Mass sitting if he cannot stay etc) are possible

The matching of the homily with the passages of the Bible is subjective judgement, and in any way homily is just recommended, it could be sermon from any topic.

Let me ask again: which of the 4 children’s Canon is recited by your old priest?
 
It’s has happened more than a few times. Yesterday for example EP 2 for children was used where the people say: ***All: ***Glory to God in the highest. 3x

Other times, its ***All: ***We praise you, we bless you, we thank you. 4x

I understand that it’s valid for him to do this, it’s just different because I never heard this before and when our parish priest switches days with him when there are actually children from school attending I never heard this said by him.

It’s tough because every other day of the week at my parish there is a different priest doing the mass and every other day it’s a completely different mass. Seems to go from orthodox to non orthodox every other day. I guess this has to do with the lack of priests, but it feels like a different mass every other day at my parish.
 
The EPs for Masses with Children should be used when the children make up a majority of the faithful at the Mass. Interestingly enough, these particular Eucharistic Prayers are not found in the coming revised translation of the Mass.
 
benedictgal said:
The EPs for Masses with Children should be used when the children make up a majority of the faithful at the Mass. Interestingly enough, these particular Eucharistic Prayers are not found in the coming revised translation of the Mass.
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When were the existing EPs for Masses with Children made available? I know it can be inferred that the existing ones should not be used once the new translation is available but…
 
SMHW said:
When were the existing EPs for Masses with Children made available? I know it can be inferred that the existing ones should not be used once the new translation is available but…
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I might be wrong, but either in the late 1960s. The Directory came out in 1973, I believe.

Now, these EPs were not included in the revised translation, so, they will not appear in the coming Roman Missal.
 
Is there anything that can actually stop a priest from using it though after the new Roman Missal goes into effect?
 
dfp42 said:
Is there anything that can actually stop a priest from using it though after the new Roman Missal goes into effect?
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I don’t believe that they are being abrogated. There has been no such communication. We’ll have to wait and see. There may be a document that follow or they may be put into a separate volume. Often we find separate volumes for certain liturgical rites. One that comes to mind right now is the Rite of Baptism. It’s in a separate volume. Even when the baptism takes place at mass, there is a separate book for it.

It’s better not to speculate. Let’s wait and see. Someone will eventually ask and an answer will come. As St. Pio said, “worry is useless.” The information will come.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
I don’t believe that they are being abrogated. There has been no such communication. We’ll have to wait and see. There may be a document that follow or they may be put into a separate volume. Often we find separate volumes for certain liturgical rites. One that comes to mind right now is the Rite of Baptism. It’s in a separate volume. Even when the baptism takes place at mass, there is a separate book for it.

It’s better not to speculate. Let’s wait and see. Someone will eventually ask and an answer will come. As St. Pio said, “worry is useless.” The information will come.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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There has been talk about getting rid of them altogether. I wished that this thread would have come up a few days ago when I was in Houston for the Society for Catholic Liturgy conference. I could have posed the question to an official from the CDWDS who was in attendance.

It would stand to reason, though, that the absence of this particular set of EPs could mean that their usage might soon come to an end. It’s interesting; even the “Swiss” Canons were revised, but, not the ones for use with children.
 
benedictgal said:
There has been talk about getting rid of them altogether. I wished that this thread would have come up a few days ago when I was in Houston for the Society for Catholic Liturgy conference. I could have posed the question to an official from the CDWDS who was in attendance.

It would stand to reason, though, that the absence of this particular set of EPs could mean that their usage might soon come to an end. It’s interesting; even the “Swiss” Canons were revised, but, not the ones for use with children.
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You may be right. I’m not saying that they will be around or not be around. I’m saying, let’s wait. In my years in ministry, I have rarely seen them used. As I said, I have heard most priests say that they find them inconvenient and that the kids don’t seem to respond differently to one or the other. Having attended many school masses and children’s masses on Sundays, I don’t see the difference in the kids either. Some will focus and some drift as is typical for kids at certain ages.

If they get abrogated, I don’t think too many peopel will even notice them gone.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Most Sundays we have the ‘Eucharistic Prayer for Masses with Children III’ and there may be about 10% children in the congregation. I never thought anything of it until this thread.
 
roveau said:
Most Sundays we have the ‘Eucharistic Prayer for Masses with Children III’ and there may be about 10% children in the congregation. I never thought anything of it until this thread.
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As I said before, some parishes do schedule what they may call a children’s mass or a family mass, which targets children. Unfortunately, this does not always mean that the parents bring the kids. The parish can make it available, but the parents may not make use of it.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
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