As I have mentioned before, one thing I never had gotten the chance to do is serve was Master of Ceremonies at St. Francis de Sales Oratory. I finally was given that opportunity in May for a private Mass, but still had not for a public Mass. This year however, my birthday, 23 June, fell upon a Sunday , and so as a birthday present the sacristan decided to schedule me for Master of Ceremonies! You can imagine my excitement.
Immediately I got to work preparing. Studying, practising, and compiling an extensive list of obscure questions to dump upon an unsuspecting sacristan. After a final teletraining session with the same sacristan, I was ready to go! Until I got off the phone, anyway, and started accumulating further obscure questions for him.
Sunday arriving, I maintained my normal routine by starting with the 8:00 Mass, and was able to be first acolyte for it. (Which, to jump ahead, means that I got to stand by the pulpit for both homilies . . . and, by extension, that I was able to hear neither clearly.) Between the Masses I asked some of my final questions of the sacristan, and then prepared for the 10:00. One thing which was specifically on my mind was the Asperges, so we did a quick run-through of that.
Mass beginning, I was very excited, but also uncharacteristically nervous, and even found my hands to be slightly quivering as we processed in. Since we didn't have time to cover "every" detail between Masses, my mind was not at ease, anticipating that something would arise for which I was not prepared. Little did I know it would come so quickly!
When we had practised the Asperges before Mass, not having had time to process and absorb the information fully, I had merely committed every slight detail to memory. Sort of like memorising a phrase in a different language without understanding the underlying grammar, or cramming the night before a test, you can get by, so long as nothing unexpected comes up. Unfortunately, in his haste, the sacristan inadvertently gave me the instructions out-of-order! So right off the bat, I'm giving faulty signals, crossing paths with people, and otherwise looking sloppy.
Eventually making it through that, the rest of the Mass went very smoothly, with only a few minor oversights and glitches (with a special thanks to the thurifer who kept me in line). It was such a joy to finally be up there, and a fulfilment of a long-held dream of mine! A perfect gift for my birthday.
After Mass I quickly stopped in the basement and met a friend, but then had to hurry home to prepare for my birthday party. "Why am I still writing?" you might ask, "for this is a liturgical blog, and certainly there was nothing liturgical at your birthday party!" Well, not so fast.
An interesting titbit of information is that I share my birthday with the promulgation date of the 1962 Missale Romanum. (Could anything be more fitting?) As such, and especially because two priests were coming to my party, it would not be right for me to not commemorate this other significant anniversary! How could it be done, however? The simple solution, of course, is to have . . .
. . . an altar cake!
After a very specific custom order for the bakery, I was able to obtain this rubrically-complient cake to decorate. It was a "marble" cake, with white frosting sans a border for the linen altar cloth. Along the back edge was a frosting border for the gradine, upon which there were six white candles in miniature candle stands with a cross in the centre. In front of those were hand-made altar cards, duplicates of an actual European set belonging to St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church, and at the Epistle corner was a small, plastic "Bible" as the missal.
There is, however, a single rubrical error shown in the photo above (other than the yellow text, of course). For fun, see if you can find it, and then at the bottom of the post will be the answer.
Of course, in compliance with the rubrics, the candles were both lit and extinguished in the proper, rubrical order. (Though blowing out a single, targeted candle at a time was an interesting challenge.)
To my non-Catholic friends I am sure it seemed peculiar, but to everyone else I think it would have seemed peculiar had I not done something akin to this. I did also have a real missal sitting out elsewhere, open to the Canon, with lighted candles flanking it . . . but no one ever noticed. Alas.
Now, I had specifically requested that no one bring gifts (though noting that an authentic, mediæval Missale Salisburgensis would not be refused), but my Confirmation sponsor was not aware of this. Needless to say, this beautiful gift is also something I could not dream of refusing!
It is a high-quality reproduction of the centre panel of the gothic Annunciazione e Santi triptych, painted by Lorenzo Monaco in the early 15th century. He was unaware of the connexion, but being the bell ringer for my parish and by extension being a promoter of the Angelus, the Annunciation is a very special feast day for me. I look forward to finding some good place to put this icon!
Since my party ran late though, I was actually unable to ring the bells for the Angelus myself so my dad went in my stead. Of course I was not going to miss the Angelus myself, though, so I made use of my normal, compromise solution: at exactly 18:00, in spite of whatever conversations may have been transpiring, I turned on a recording of the church bells, so that we all could stop and pray "at the sound of the bell" anyway.
So all together, it was a very fun and rewarding birthday!
---
Mass heard: 08:00, St. Francis de Sales ; 10:00, St. Francis de Sales
Serving streak: 3 days
Datum S. Ludovici, die XI mensis Iulii, in festo S. Pii I. Papae et Martyris, anno MMXIII.
*The rubrical anomaly is that the Missal is sitting face-up, when it is actually supposed to be face-down. (But, I'm sure you knew that.) It simply would have looked too strange on the cake to have it the correct way.
Immediately I got to work preparing. Studying, practising, and compiling an extensive list of obscure questions to dump upon an unsuspecting sacristan. After a final teletraining session with the same sacristan, I was ready to go! Until I got off the phone, anyway, and started accumulating further obscure questions for him.
Sunday arriving, I maintained my normal routine by starting with the 8:00 Mass, and was able to be first acolyte for it. (Which, to jump ahead, means that I got to stand by the pulpit for both homilies . . . and, by extension, that I was able to hear neither clearly.) Between the Masses I asked some of my final questions of the sacristan, and then prepared for the 10:00. One thing which was specifically on my mind was the Asperges, so we did a quick run-through of that.
Mass beginning, I was very excited, but also uncharacteristically nervous, and even found my hands to be slightly quivering as we processed in. Since we didn't have time to cover "every" detail between Masses, my mind was not at ease, anticipating that something would arise for which I was not prepared. Little did I know it would come so quickly!
When we had practised the Asperges before Mass, not having had time to process and absorb the information fully, I had merely committed every slight detail to memory. Sort of like memorising a phrase in a different language without understanding the underlying grammar, or cramming the night before a test, you can get by, so long as nothing unexpected comes up. Unfortunately, in his haste, the sacristan inadvertently gave me the instructions out-of-order! So right off the bat, I'm giving faulty signals, crossing paths with people, and otherwise looking sloppy.
Eventually making it through that, the rest of the Mass went very smoothly, with only a few minor oversights and glitches (with a special thanks to the thurifer who kept me in line). It was such a joy to finally be up there, and a fulfilment of a long-held dream of mine! A perfect gift for my birthday.
After Mass I quickly stopped in the basement and met a friend, but then had to hurry home to prepare for my birthday party. "Why am I still writing?" you might ask, "for this is a liturgical blog, and certainly there was nothing liturgical at your birthday party!" Well, not so fast.
An interesting titbit of information is that I share my birthday with the promulgation date of the 1962 Missale Romanum. (Could anything be more fitting?) As such, and especially because two priests were coming to my party, it would not be right for me to not commemorate this other significant anniversary! How could it be done, however? The simple solution, of course, is to have . . .
. . . an altar cake!
After a very specific custom order for the bakery, I was able to obtain this rubrically-complient cake to decorate. It was a "marble" cake, with white frosting sans a border for the linen altar cloth. Along the back edge was a frosting border for the gradine, upon which there were six white candles in miniature candle stands with a cross in the centre. In front of those were hand-made altar cards, duplicates of an actual European set belonging to St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church, and at the Epistle corner was a small, plastic "Bible" as the missal.
There is, however, a single rubrical error shown in the photo above (other than the yellow text, of course). For fun, see if you can find it, and then at the bottom of the post will be the answer.
Of course, in compliance with the rubrics, the candles were both lit and extinguished in the proper, rubrical order. (Though blowing out a single, targeted candle at a time was an interesting challenge.)
To my non-Catholic friends I am sure it seemed peculiar, but to everyone else I think it would have seemed peculiar had I not done something akin to this. I did also have a real missal sitting out elsewhere, open to the Canon, with lighted candles flanking it . . . but no one ever noticed. Alas.
Now, I had specifically requested that no one bring gifts (though noting that an authentic, mediæval Missale Salisburgensis would not be refused), but my Confirmation sponsor was not aware of this. Needless to say, this beautiful gift is also something I could not dream of refusing!
It is a high-quality reproduction of the centre panel of the gothic Annunciazione e Santi triptych, painted by Lorenzo Monaco in the early 15th century. He was unaware of the connexion, but being the bell ringer for my parish and by extension being a promoter of the Angelus, the Annunciation is a very special feast day for me. I look forward to finding some good place to put this icon!
Since my party ran late though, I was actually unable to ring the bells for the Angelus myself so my dad went in my stead. Of course I was not going to miss the Angelus myself, though, so I made use of my normal, compromise solution: at exactly 18:00, in spite of whatever conversations may have been transpiring, I turned on a recording of the church bells, so that we all could stop and pray "at the sound of the bell" anyway.
So all together, it was a very fun and rewarding birthday!
---
Mass heard: 08:00, St. Francis de Sales ; 10:00, St. Francis de Sales
Serving streak: 3 days
Datum S. Ludovici, die XI mensis Iulii, in festo S. Pii I. Papae et Martyris, anno MMXIII.
*The rubrical anomaly is that the Missal is sitting face-up, when it is actually supposed to be face-down. (But, I'm sure you knew that.) It simply would have looked too strange on the cake to have it the correct way.
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