Saint Jerome: That was then...
This is now. My high school, Marquette High School, was all about this kind of "student involvement" in liturgy. I can assure you that there was little, if any, sense of reverence among the students toward the Holy Eucharist. I wonder why... Looking back, it makes me cringe when I think of how so many of my peers were denied exposure to the beauty of the Church's liturgical heritage.
Today at Mass, the priest did not distribute Holy Communion. After the Eucharistic prayer, he retreated to his chair and two laywomen took over, one taking the priest's chalice and the other the ciborium. They proceeded to give Communion to the faithful. I was stunned. Later on, I did a little research on extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist (Google is such a great tool!) and came across these excerpts from Redemptionis Sacramentum, put out by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament in 2004.
[157.] "If there is usually present a sufficient number of sacred ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion may not be appointed. Indeed, in such circumstances, those who may have already been appointed to this ministry should not exercise it. The practice of those Priests is reprobated who, even though present at the celebration, abstain from distributing Communion and hand this function over to laypersons."
[158.] "Indeed, the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion may administer Communion only when the Priest and Deacon are lacking, when the Priest is prevented by weakness or advanced age or some other genuine reason, or when the number of faithful coming to Communion is so great that the very celebration of Mass would be unduly prolonged. This, however, is to be understood in such a way that a brief prolongation, considering the circumstances and culture of the place, is not at all a sufficient reason."
One of the great tragedies of the post-Vatican II liturgical culture is the degree to which abuses in liturgy, and there are many, have gradually become the norm, so that most of the faithful are completely unaware that an abuse is actually taking place, or as during Mass today, that they are involved in the abuse. Another regrettable part of all of this is that the set norms for liturgical life are seen to be optional and unimportant by far too many priests. The priest can, if he so wishes, simply opt out of following the letter of the law when it comes to liturgical rubrics. Because of the extreme laxity and laziness in following the prescriptions given by the Church regarding the Sacred Liturgy, I doubt there is even an awareness of what constitutes a liturgical abuse in the minds of most Catholics.
Sadly, many faithful Catholics, totally disgusted by the insouciance on the part of pastors and bishops, feel discouraged, convinced that nothing will ever change and that the abuses will continue to spread. Is it any wonder why the Latin Mass is growing in popularity?
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