Serving Mass without server

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DonQuichote1235

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Hi all,

can a priest celebrate a Mass before a congregation without a server? Must a priest always need a server to celebrate Mass for a parish? Thanks!

Greetings Don.
 
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A server is not necessary to celebrate Mass. I celebrated Mass today with no server or reader. I did all of it myself.

-Fr ACEGC
 
Many priests celebrate Mass without a server. Our priests have been doing without for much of this last few weeks.
 
I’ve probably been to as many Masses without servers (if not more) than I have been to where servers were present.
 
There are combined Missal / Lectionary editions that make it easier for a priest to celebrate Mass unassisted. And yeah, when you have to juggle more books than the Byzantine Rite, it’s almost like someone wants as many people as possible in the sanctuary.
 
There is rarely or ever a server at daily Mass in my parish and it’s about 50/50 for Mass on Saturday & Sunday.
 
I think your question has been answered but I’m curious, what is it you think would make a Mass not permissible without servers? What function is it if their that would be necessary and something that could not be done without?

Also, to everyone else. While I know the extraordinary form is perhaps harder to celebrate with no assistance is the ordinary form easier to celebrate sans servers?
 
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Mrchatsworth said:
While I know the extraordinary form is perhaps harder to celebrate with no assistance is the ordinary form easier to celebrate sans servers?
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They’re both about the same. I celebrate the EF privately all the time and it’s not super difficult. Honestly it’s a little more difficult to learn to celebrate it with servers because you have to remember all the points the servers are doing something. Those vary somewhat from the OF.
 
We’ve gotten a lot of posts on this subject recently (including the guy who tried to tell Fr ACEGC that it was against ‘the rules’ for a priest to say mass alone).

Why, I wonder, is this such a subject of fascination for nosy laity on the internet?
 
Fr McNamara in both of those pieces says that it is licit to celebrate Mass alone. Fr Turner says simply that the Missal makes no provision for it.

As I have repeated time and time again, the desire for the priest to celebrate Mass daily and to commune constitutes a just and reasonable cause. If you can tell me why that is unjust or unreasonable, I will stop celebrating Mass privately.
 
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