Taking the Collection

  • Thread starter Thread starter JaMc
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
We use the poles at my home parish. To get around the long-pew issue, we’ve got two ushers going down at opposite sides of the row. I’ve found that to be pretty efficient (we get through with that bit rather quickly).

At another parish I go to occasionally, they pass around small basket-plates. And of course, back in my Baptist days we’d pass around the plate.

Interesting poll, I’ve never thought about this before.
 
I’ve recently started going to Mass at Holy Family (King St W) in Toronto. They do a Latin Mass of Paul VI. They have ushers collecting, but they use plain baskets instead of baskets-on-a-stick, since the church itself is rather small – two columns of pews, maybe a dozen rows – so no “reaching” is needed. Four collectors do the whole church in about 30 seconds.

I know, I was tapped last week to do it – my second-only Latin Mass, feeling somewhat of a lost sheep, and I get the “Would you mind helping out with collection?” :eep!: I was already nervous about being a ghoti-out-of-water by being at a Latin Mass (even though it was the OF), so by now I’m scared skateless, hoping I don’t do something stupid. When I took up collection before, at the offertory the usher would signal us, and we went to the back, picked up the baskets and velvet bags, then went to the front of the church and worked our way to the back, passing the basket to the first person in the first row and picking it up from the person behind him/her in the second etc. Here, we went up to the front two by two, genuflected in unison (thank God for my military drill training! 👍), the two in fron took the baskets and passed them to the rest of us, and then we took up.

My mistake was trying to hand the basket to the first person in the pew and step to the next – but I caught on fast, and no one looked twice.

At the back, we just gave the baskets to the two who were in front, and retired to our pews – me, heaving a sigh of relief.

Then I got tapped to do a special after-Communion collection…oh, Lord, why do You mock me?? It was like a singer with stage fright doing a curtain call.

Ah, well. Suck it up…then offer it up. 🤷 😃
 
We’ve got all bases covered. We use baskets only, baskets on long handles, baskets on short handles and no baskets - because we instituted an offertory commitment program where people make monthly payments.
 
I voted “Other” because our Parish uses both the basket on a pole and the baskets passed down the pew, depends on where folks are seated in the church.

There wasn’t an option for both.
 
bpbasilphx said:
**When I hear the word “traditional”, I think about the substance of faith and age-old piety.

Baskets on poles are merely customary in many Latin churches. They are NOT of the substance of the faith.**
Click to expand...
Correct, baskets in any shape are not a substance of faith, but as you point out that is the way YOU think about it.

The word “tradition” need not mean something handed down from a substance of faith. It can mean something that is simply handed down, carried on.
 
ForMary said:
Correct, baskets in any shape are not a substance of faith, but as you point out that is the way YOU think about it.

The word “tradition” need not mean something handed down from a substance of faith. It can mean something that is simply handed down, carried on.
Click to expand...
There is both capital T which is the substance of faith tradition and then there is lower case **t **tradition which is practices.
 
I’m after being pedantic and voting “other”: in my parish we pass leather bags with metal handles. By the way, this is my first ever post on Catholic Answers Forums!
 
Hi Soler,

Welcome to CAF. And congradulations on your 1st post.👍

PatrickJT914
 
My current parish (with the EF) uses poles, but the vast majority of my parish experiences in the US have had basket-passing. I thus had no idea that there was a “traditional” way to take up the collection, but must say that if the passing is a Protestant cross-over it’s not surprising. Quite a bit of our Catholic culture in the US has been transformed into the dominant national Calvinist culture. Take our wedding practices - so fully Protestantized that we think it extremely odd if the bride doesn’t get walked down the aisle to be given away.
 
Most of the parishes of which I’ve been a member (or visitor) have used the baskets on poles, however I’ve noticed no connection between the method of collection and an overly horizontal emphasis in the liturgy otherwise. I notice that very easily (possibly more so than I should :o ) and I haven’t seen any connection at all. I would imagine that the method of collection has more to do with where the best price can be gotten for the baskets.🤷
 
This seems like the least significant liturgical change since the 70s. Why does it even matter?

And yes, I am a traditional Catholic and i love the Latin Mass.
 
My parish passes the baskets. I wish there were ushers or others who would take up the collection instead as I think it would be more orderly.

Last Sunday I went to a different mass than my usual and I was seated next to the basket so it was my job to put my donation in and pass it along. While I was fumbling to get my offering an elderly lady behind me poked me hard in the back and motioned for me to pass the basket along because I guess she thought I didnt know what was going on. If the collection baskets were taken around by certain people it would eliminate any confusion and old ladies wouldnt have to worry about “new” parishioners knowing what to do.
 
I certainly would not consider it “Protestant” to pass the baskets along the pews. It is certainly the norm in Ireland to pass the baskets - in fact, I don’t know of any church in Ireland where there is an exception to this. So if passing the baskets is “Protestant” then we are probably the most Protestant country on the planet:D
 
We had the baskets on poles, but they fell apart. The pole baskets are not cheap. We had a ton of baskets from funeral and wedding plants.

SO- during the Masses where there are a lot of people, ushers pass one of the plant baskets. At the 7:30 AM Mass, the basket is just inside the front doors as one walks into church. We just deposit it. Nobody takes up a collection. It’s too early, and there is only one usher at 7:30.

Now, if we were passing a golden plate with the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on the rim, I might think we were in a Protestant church.😉 And yet, here is a Catholic store offering a variety of baskets, plates and bags for colleciton purposes (I remember the old bags on poles from my grandfahter’s parish):

http://www.catholicchurchsupply.com...on/store.viewCategory/Category/1875/index.htm

View attachment 4951

View attachment 4952

And I like the “french fry” look of the wire basket. The little kids will think they’re at Mikky D’s:

http://www.kaufers.com/productcart/pc/viewcategories.asp?idCategory=116

http://www.religious-supplies.com/collectionbasketsplatesbags.aspx

View attachment 4953
 
As of around the beginning of Advent our parish has returned to the baskets on poles. The reason is very saddening though. It seems that some of the envelopes that had been placed in the passed around basket where mysteriously disappearing. So now the ushers need to keep an eye on the basket at the end of a pole. When our Pastor explained the reasonning he said “I know the economy is tanking but borrowing from the parish should go through the proper channels” 😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top