Oh no! More pre Vat II flashbacks!

An incentive to be on time?

The great Fr Z has answered a query from one of his readers regarding what can be done about those people who are late for Mass?

'Course, that never happens at Latin Masses.......um.....or, does it?

The reader asks if it was an issue before the Second Vatican Car Crash Council and here, dear reader, I am able step in with a reality check.

Yes, indeed it did happen; we were not saints in those days and, in addition to a lack of punctuality there was also the awful custom of leaving Mass at the last Gospel.

We are not talking big percentages here, in either instance.
 Something like 5% of the congregation would be either latecomers or early leavers, but I do recall the means by which the parish priests of Hounslow and Heston respectively tackled the matter.

Heston Parish was under the steady hand of  Father Walsh (later a fine bishop). His method of coping with latecomers was to lock the door as Mass began.

Then, maybe some time after the Kyrie, when the hammering on the door indicated that the 5% had gathered outside the church, then, and only then would Fr Walsh leave the sanctuary and open the door for them in person.

They would then slink in to the nearest seat, totally embarrassed and ashamed.

That strategy merits a place in the 'crude but effective' file.

It was quite wrong, of course, the Mass was in process and the celebrant had no right to leave the proceedings.

And now for Ss Michael's and  Martin's, Hounslow where the great Canon Musgrave held sway.

He had a legitimate way of coping with the early leavers when his curate, Fr Steer was the celebrant.

The Canon would hide himself away in the church porch and as the ELs made a dash for the exit after (logically enough) the 'Ite Missa est', he would pounce on them and drive them back in telling them in no uncertain words that "Mass has not ended, you know?"

Priests were not afraid to speak out then and behave as a true shepherd should behave.

And more.

In those days, those of us in the Catholic school system would be bombarded with information regarding becoming a priest.

The talks, by the PP or one of the nuns, would always end with the exhortation, "Pray to God boys, and ask Him to call you and tell you that He wants you for one of His priests".
Well, pray to God I did and it was a regular and fervent prayer but, I'm afraid that I asked God not to call me as the last thing I wanted to be was a priest.

Thankfully, the Almighty heard my prayer and I never received His call.

And finally, one small memory that illustrates perhaps the depth of reverence that was held then for the Eucharist.
When we returned home after Mass the first thing we did, following my father's lead, was to make the sign of the cross and drink a glass of water, to positively remove any fragments that may have been retained in the mouth.

Trivial? Overly pious? Maybe. But that is how we behaved then.

My, how we have drifted.

A snapshot in time - Catholic England in the 1950s

Those were the days.

 We were happy in the knowledge that we belonged to a Faith that claimed to be the one true Faith where there was no such thing as liturgical change.

Three siblings in this photograph and, left of the celebrant,
Francis Scholes, future Editor of the Toronto Star

"I can categorically state" said Fr Barry, dipping his hand into a bowl of olives. "That there will never be laymen or women on the sanctuary" (apart from male altar servers, that is).

And we believed him, certain that rubrics and doctrinal truths were just that.

Parish life in Hounslow and nearby Heston seemed pretty idyllic.

In our parish, out of a combined total of circa 1,000 souls, only one couple were divorced; our lives centred around the church.

 Saturdays were church cleaning days for the girls whilst the boys served at either the 8am or 10am Masses and then ran chores for the housekeeper, a dear soul by the name of Miss McInernie.

Sundays offered a choice of Masses 8am, 10.30am and 12 noon (where the Irish navvies would gather at the back of the church in their navy blue Sunday suits, leaving before the Last Gospel because the pub opposite was open).

And, in the afternoon, Sunday School followed by Rosary and Benediction.

Parish notices were read out before the homily and special attention was paid to donations in the collection plate.

Weekly totals of the offerings were announced and special votes of thanks given to the three donors of the ten shilling note (50 pence) and the two donors of the one pound note and the donor of the five pound note (gasps of breath at this stage).
The average weekly wage was less than five pounds so a donation of that size would be today's equivalent of more than five hundred pounds!
There were no ten pound notes then.

The total number of altar servers was in the region of 30 plus and, at Christmas and Easter, the full number would turn out so that, at the sermon, the smaller boys had to sit in serried ranks on the altar steps; what a picture that must have painted.

And, as today, the MC post and that of thurifer, went to the aged ones until a new curate arrived and began training up the eleven year olds.
After a few weeks noses were well and truly put out of joint by a precocious eleven year old MC-ing at the Sunday High Mass.

A great sight was to watch these young boy MCs directing large groups of servers at the inclination of the head or a discreet movement of the hand, far better than their older counterparts who appeared to be as subtle as  Rome policemen directing traffic.

Socially, we had all the usual groups Children of Mary, Legion of Mary, SVP, Knights of St Columba (and Squires), Cubs, Scouts and Guides and St Stephen's Guild.

Every couple of months there would be a parish dance where Catholic girls would meet Catholic boys, inevitably resulting in a Catholic wedding a year or two later.

Young boys began serving on the altar at the age of five and were expected, at the age of seven, to be able to give the Latin responses of the whole Mass without the aid of a missal or a prompt of any kind.

You stood beside Fr Steer in the Presbytery and solemnly worked your way through the Mass.
If successful you were allowed to serve in what we called the "Right" position at Mass. This was the senior position for Low Masses.

The server taking the "Left" position would have done so following a quick consultation process in the sacristy; all others knelt at the side altar steps.

Weddings were always popular amongst the altar boys as you stood a good chance of a small consideration in the form of half a crown (12.5 pennies) for your services.

Requiem Masses were less popular due to the fact that mortuary refrigeration must have been pretty basic then and the custom was to receive the coffin sometimes two days in advance of the Mass.
This meant that the church stank to high heaven by the time the Requiem was held.

It is quite hard to conjure up a list of what was bad about those times.
Liberals would have you believe that we were swamped in a wave of lacy cottas and clerical repression but I would just call it a disciplined way of practising one's Faith.

I can only think of one 'bad' practice and that was the overnight fast before receiving Holy Communion at Mass the next day.

Masses were always punctuated by one or two people fainting as a result and creating noise and disturbance in so doing.

When the three hour fast was brought in, all breathed a sigh of relief and the crashing of bodies in the pews came to a halt.

Change could happen and for the better.