Thursday 10 October 2013

Jobs for the grils!



Some years ago, many years ago, in fact, a line of graffiti appeared on one of London's underground (Metro) stations.

Some sad soul had written in a blank space on a poster: "I love grils"

That line stayed there for a week or two until, one day, passers by noticed that someone had put a line through "grils" and had written "girls" underneath it.

Another couple of days and a fresh line was added.

It stated: "So what's wrong with us grils then?"

I like simple and ridiculous humour (no comments on that please) and a post on the Catholic Sacristan blog jogged my memory regarding a topic on altar servers that has been gnawing away at me for quite some time.

Altar "boys" are well catered for in the Faith; they are the norm for all Tridentine Latin Masses, in accord with the rubrics for the EF.

But there is nothing compatible for the girls. And there should be.

I don't quite know what, maybe someone out there will be able to come up with something that is well distanced from church cleaning and making the teas after Mass.

There needs to be a real role for girls and young women that does not patronise.

A part for them to play so that, just as serving on the altar gives young males an insight into a priestly vocation, the female role introduces them to the possibility of serving God as a nun.

But what?

The male altar server also has guilds or societies that he may aspire to, St Stephen's Guild and the Society of St Tarcisius.

Excellent. But what is there for the girls?

Maybe one of the traditional orders or the LMS even, might consider establishing a Guild of The Little Flower or the Society of St Philomena.
'The Franciscan Daughters of the Immaculate' has a nice ring to it.

Better still if a woman would step up and earmark a suitable saint or order for the purpose and get the ball rolling - this initiative needs to be driven by a female rather than a male.

All suggestions welcome in the comments box.

I can only think of sacristan type duties or, possibly, leading the Rosary before Mass each Sunday - and building up from there.

Maybe some grils girls might like to throw a few suggestions into the ring?

4 comments:

  1. Learning how to embroider and repair/conserve beautiful vestments, lace etc. Guild of St Anne perhaps? She is the patroness of needlewomen. A great deal of skill and dedication is required to do this properly and (at the risk of sounding sexist) male fingers tend to be too big and clumsy. The Rosary could be said or sung whilst working.

    This won't go down well with those who want 'Girl Power' but who wants them anywhere near these things anyway?

    Chloe

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  2. Leading the Rosary well is a wonderful formation. (I founded the Westminster Cathedral Rosary group, which now meets 5 times a week, 11 years ago)....I'm certainly moving in the direction of trying to spread what I'm doing...but it's going to be slow! Life is SUCH a juggling act! I have earmarked the next 12 months as transitional...including getting to that place where my web presence is very clear in terms of what I'm about...and then becoming free to respond to invites to travel with my message, (through music, faith sharing and prayer). I'm developing that anyway in a more under the radar way right now. Do say a prayer for me!

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  3. What about singing Gregorian Chant in a choir for the TLM?

    ~Hannah

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  4. You could try this...

    http://www.guildofstclare.org

    There is also a Female schola, below is a link to a recording.

    http://stmarymagdalenchoir.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/exclusive-recording-attende-domine/

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