Whatever happened to......

....communion rail cloths?

Altar or Communion rails - an extension of the altar itself

Pic: Catholic Sacristan

We hear a great deal today about altar or communion rails and how, in some churches they are being restored to their rightful place - hooray! But we seldom hear mention of communion cloths.

Indeed, if you are below the age of fifty or have converted to the Faith within the past fifty years, you may not even know of the existence of such things.

Dare I say it? If you have attended Mass at an SSPX chapel, you would know of their existence as they are in use at every Mass celebrated by an SSPX priest (the same may apply to other traditional orders, I'm not sure on that point).

But, as a small altar server it was part of my pre and post mass duties to lay out the communion cloth on the rails and this took some small measure of skill.

I am afraid that we altar servers were a competitive bunch and, as it took two servers to lay out or retrieve the cloth (it was in two lengths, one for each side of the aisle) it became a race - albeit a rather graceful race as we could not appear to be unseemly in the process, to either unfold the cloth to its full length or to fold it into 18 inch sections, concertina fashion.

The function of the cloth, of course, was to catch any particles of the Host that may have fallen between priest and communicant - we did not have Holy Communion under both kinds in those days, it was deemed then totally unnecessary, as indeed, it is today.

And, after the cloths were gathered up after each Mass in Hounslow parish, they would be consigned to Sisters John, Agnes or Francis de Sales who acted as sacristans and who knew how to devoutly treat the cloths in case of particles being attached. (I cannot find a reference as to how they were treated and it would be interesting if some erudite soul could cast some light on this).

But, communion cloths do enhance the reverential aspect of receiving Holy Communion and it would be no bad thing to see them restored along with the altar rails.

And now for those who are spluttering into their warm milk and shrieking: "This man is obsessed with minutiae and ritual!" let me say that we cannot take enough trouble to ensure the sanctity and safety of the consecrated Host - we need communion cloths so get over it!

Now I can hear some of those who have not choked on their beverage of choice crying out: "But the altar rails are a barrier betwixt priest and the people of God and they must be chopped up into small pieces and burnt at the first opportunity".

Not so.
The tradition is for altar rails to be made in the same materials as the altar.
 They are, in fact, an extension of the altar and that is an excellent way of embracing (may I use that word?) the people of God without having an unseemly mob trampling over the sanctuary.

Good news! Good news!

I am quite hopeful that Fr Z will be eagerly reading this post as he likes good news on a regular basis and, let's be frank (small 'f' please note) there ain't much of it around right now.

In fact, good news is about as abundant as.....as.....piety at a eucharistic service - ahem.

Well, my good news is that we have achieved a 100% increase in the number of altar servers able to serve the Latin Mass.

We've gone (in the whole of the Menevia Diocese) from altar server 'C' (who does sterling work on the sanctuary) to altar server 'J' who began his duties last Saturday at our Vigil Mass.

So what? You might well ask.

Well, I tell you why I am so pleased, it means that I am no longer the back stop server; in fact, I can hang up my cassock for good and my cotta is now surplus (?)

That is a cause for both sadness and rejoicing.

There is no greater joy than those precious moments on the altar when the server draws close to the celebrant, and close to Christ.

There is a wonderful intimacy, at various stages during the Mass; at the Offertory when one stands close to the bread and wine soon to be made Flesh and Blood.

At the Consecration, of course and, again, when accompanying the Lord to the altar rails and holding the plate lest any terrible accident may occur.

And what greater intimacy is there than when serving  Mass attended just by Mrs Linen in a private chapel early in the morning. Pure joy.

The rejoicing bit comes from the fact that I shall no longer have to creak and groan around the sanctuary (yes, I do know that I should offer it up but it does not make for a particularly attractive sight) and, anyway, I have always criticised altar servers of a certain age believing that this duty is best performed by boys and young men.

Now, I must also confess to a small sin of pride although, I do try to keep it under control.

This is my 65th year as a server (I did start rather precociously, at three months of age).

After 65 years of serving the servant of the Lord I think I am due a bit of a rest.

But, I still remember my brother Patrick, at the behest of Canon Musgrave, hauling me out of the family pew to be boat boy at Sunday Benediction   (remember Benediction?), and to service on the sanctuary for the first time.

And I vividly recall standing before Fr Steer in the Presbytery on a Saturday morning at the age of seven and reciting the responses of the Latin Mass.

This was a critical part of being an altar server; you could not serve alone until such time as you were word perfect, without the use of a missal.

That's a bit of mud in the eye for those who claim that Latin is elitist and beyond simple minds.

You could not get much simpler than my mind at the age of seven and, I'm sorry to say that Mrs L still harbours a belief that I have not progressed much past that stage.

Still, it would be good to know if 65 years as an altar server is a record (there's bound to be some LMS MC who is 105 and has notched up the century!).