Sunday 9 June 2013

Two very busy weeks. (Part 3)

This is part three of a super-long post.  You now might be wondering, "Well, if you were going to break it up into so many posts, why not just make them individual posts to begin with?"  A good question.  The answer is merely that I wrote it all before questioning how long it might be and whether it should be divided, but since I tied paragraphs together throughout, I did not want to go back through to separate them.

You can find previous parts by clicking these elegant and finely-crafted links.  Part onePart two.

Wednesday, 5 June
The moment which I have been waiting for since May!  The priest retreat at St. Francis de Sales Oratory being in progress, today I was given the chance to come and serve for it.  I arrived early, around 7:40, in order to make myself available for whichever priest might need me.  I was hoping to serve on one of the altars I had built, but instead they needed me in the church, where the Superiors were saying Mass.  After verifying some rubrics with the sacristan, I stood by waiting for my chance, trustingly watching as the 8:00 Mass priest came and went, and soon enough Canon Matthew Talarico came to say his Mass.  After vesting him, we departed for the Infant King altar at 8:11:47.  During Mass three more priests came out, so we had five simultaneous Masses.  It was my first time serving in this context, and it was a challenge, not only practically because Canon was whispering all of the prayers, making it nearly impossible to discern the end of the prayers and respond, but also spiritually because it entailed ignoring the other Masses besides me, even when they were at the Consecration.  But being a faithful altar server, I did my best!

One rubric I have always found interesting is in the Ritus Servandus, article II, where it outlines what to do when processing through another Mass.  It says to stop and kneel only at the Consecration, and during distribution of Holy Communion -- very precise points, and unlikely to happen.  So at the end of Mass as we processed back, passing through two Masses, I was hopeful, but not surprised when it did not happen.  However, after helping Canon divest, going back to the Infant King altar to extinguish the candles, I could not help but notice that the Mass at the Mary altar was right at the Agnus Dei.  "Perfect!" I thought.  So I went to extinguish the candles, and made it back just in time to be passing by at distribution of Holy Communion, necessitating me to stop and kneel.  (Yes, liturgical nerds get their excitement in very strange ways!)

All being said and done there were 17 Masses that morning and an 18th at noon.  Afterwards the sacristan brought me over to see the altars we had built fully dressed for Mass, and then I was off to a busy day of school.

Friday, 7 June
Some days things are interesting purely because of how wrongly they go.  This morning being one of those days.  Friday mornings always find me at St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church for their 7:30 Mass, since I am the only morning altar server the parish has.  (In other words, if I do not show up, chaos ensues as people scramble to round up elderly women from the pews to serve in my stead.)

This morning I arrived earlier than usual, and similar to the previous Saturday, it is a good thing that I did. (Or perhaps my showing up early is what makes things go awry?  Hmm.)  Being the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Ordo prescribes two readings at Mass.  However, the sacristan had merely set the lectionary for the generic Friday.  So as I lit the candles, the lector approached me to question (rightly) the readings to which it was set, and asked me to help find the proper ones.  After digging through both the weekday and Sunday lectionaries for a few minutes to no avail, I translated myself to the sacristy in order to consult the Ordo for the exact reading numbers.  Enter Father, who sets it for me (albeit himself having to sift through the plethora of optional, votive readings to find the prescribed ones), and also decides we should erect a painting of the Sacred Heart in the sanctuary.  So heading back into the church, I pass the lectionary off to the lector and then proceed to erect the painting.  However, then the lector approaches me again, still confused.  To my dismay, with less than a minute before Mass was to begin, I found that she had removed all of the ribbons!  Being the very observant server that I am, I quickly scanned and found the proper readings by matching paragraph arrangements to what I recalled from my memory, then verified by checking the verse numbers against my memory as well.

That's enough for one Mass, right?  Nope.  Fast forward to the General Intercessions.  The parish's standard practice for daily Mass is for the server to do a head count during the sermon and then make sure that many pieces of altar bread are in the paten (N.b. this is a large paten which is more like a bowl than a plate) during the Intercessions.  However, for some reason the sacristan had put dozens of extra pieces of altar bread into the paten, presenting me with the problem of what to do with them, or even how to accurately count them.  Normally we store extras in a specific container, but there were too many and in the end a pile of them slid off and onto the floor, and some also back went into the paten, ruining my count.  Being now at the end of the Intercessions and out of time, I quickly made my best "guess" at the proper amount to be in the paten, and, for lack of a better place to put them, gathered the altar bread which had fallen to the floor and wrapped it in an extra purificator, leaving it on the credence table to be dealt with after Mass.

All sounds well, right?  Since no one would know that except me, no issue, right?  Well, it ends up that the amount of altar bread in the paten was the perfect amount for Father not only for Mass, but for his First Friday sick calls.  So after distribution of Holy Communion, he leaves the extra consecrated Hosts on the credence table, on the paten and covered with the corporal.  So suddenly we have three piles of "hosts" sitting there: one consecrated, one unconsecrated in the container and one unconsecrated in the purificator, and only one person (me) being aware of this potential disaster.  So, Mass ending, I immediately jumped up with the double purpose of absconding with the unconsecrated altar bread, and preventing the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion from absconding with the consecrated Hosts.  In the end there was no issue, but the Mass as a whole certainly falls under the category of "liturgical mishap".

This evening at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, there was a Missa Solemnis for the closing of the priest retreat, celebrated by Monsignor Gilles Wach, founder of the ICRSS.  Not being scheduled to serve, I merely sat in choir as a flower pot (a technical term meaning an extra server whose purpose is merely to sit there making the sanctuary look pretty).  But the Mass itself was very beautiful, with a full choir, a composed Mass setting, and magnificent organ music.  The homily was given in French by Monsignor Wach, with Canon William Talarico translating as he wentRegrettably, again, my memory is fading with time, but I do recall being amused during the Gloria.  Every once in a while, our choir will use a specific Gloria which doubles the "qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis", generating confusion amongst the servers and clergy who bow for the second one, expecting the "suscipe deprecationem nostram".  We used this one tonight, and being the only person not to bow, I could not help but to grin, thinking about how often this happens.

After Mass I was given a peculiar assignment by the sacristan.  He wished for me to arrange the side altars for the morrow's Masses, but told me that all of the cruets and liturgicals could be found . . . in the confessionals.  So in what must have been an interesting spectacle, I kept marching back and forth from the altars and confessionals, putting out books, wine, and patens in each trip.  Each time, too, walking past two young women kneeling by the side altar, who eventually approached me to talk.

It was their first time at the Oratory, and they had questions.  Apparently they had driven by for years and, in what cannot be a coincidence, being unaware of our schedule, decided tonight to stop in "to see what the church looks like", and came upon our Solemn Mass.  Needless to say, they were in awe.  A nice touch to end the day, for sure.  Hopefully we will see them again!

Sunday, 9 June
As a conclusion to this very long post, this morning was another adventure.  Arriving at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, I intended to sit in choir for both Masses, eating breakfast betwixt the two, as is my custom.  The sacristan informed me, however, that there would be a private Mass around 9:00 and asked if I could serve it.  The 8:00 first acolyte, additionally, asked if I would take his place.  Doing a quick time calculation, I figured this would work out and still leave me time to eat, so I agreed to both.

Well, either the 8:00 priest was running late, the 9:00 was running early, or both.  Arriving back in the sacristy after the 8:00 Mass, I found the second priest vested and about to head off sans an altar server.  However, the timing worked out just perfectlyI bowed to the Cross, then to the 8:00 priest, knelt for his blessing, then stood, scooted over about three feet, bowed to the Cross again, then to the 9:00 priest, and headed back out to the Mother of Perpetual Help altar.  Could not have been more than a minute in the sacristy, tops.  The sacristan himself was not yet ready for us, and barely lit the candles in time before we arrived.

Mass itself was about normal, with the same dilemma from Wednesday of being barely able to hear the priest, who was whispering.  Since I had already received Holy Communion and there was no congregation, this was the first Latin Mass I had ever served in which there was no distribution of Holy Communion, which is a unique experience unto itself.  Towards the end of Mass, the laity started saying the rosary in the pews right next to us, further complicating my job of hearing the priest.  The Leonine prayers, as on Wednesday, were said in Latin.  Thankfully I know most of them by heart, but the Sancte Michael Archangele I had to simply listen to in silence. 

Finally given a moment to eat, I did so quickly (without divesting, even) and then got ready for the 10:00 Mass, which was a Missa Solemnis celebrated by a newly ordained priest.  The music, again, was very beautiful, but what excited me the most was Canon's use of the Prefatio de sanctissima Trinitate in tono solemniori, found in the back of the Missal.  After Mass, Canon gave us his first blessing, and we as altar servers exercised our privilege to be first in line, avoiding the long queue which the laity faced.

And with that, the numbing of minds is concluded!  If you stayed with me this whole time, I thank thee greatly, and laud your endurance.

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Datum S. Ludovici, die XXVII mensis Maii, in festo S. Bedae Venerabilis Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris, anno MMXIII.

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