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.

New or Old.......what's the difference?

Purely coincidentally, there appears to be a common theme emerging (is that a thread?) among several bloggers in Wales.

One in which I have been drawn into, not by their excellent posts that appeared, more or less at the same time as my rather less illustrious offerings, but by pure providential serendipity (what those in other churches might term 'chance').

The essence of the matter is the well worn case of EF or OF - is there a difference? Is one better than the other?
 Here, I have to say that I have taken the liberty of trying to paraphrase the context of the posts from Ragazzagallese and Lucas Cambrensis and I hope that I have not mis-judged them.

                                          This renders words superfluous

Both writers are young and present interesting views but, Lucas Cambrensis speculated on the fact that, if all Masses today reverted to the old rite, liturgical abuses would still take place.

An interesting point and one that none of us with any degree of certainty, can comment on.

But, he goes on to state that he suspects such abuses were in place prior to the introduction of Mass in the vernacular.

Aha! Here, at last I can claim some degree of expertise because, of course, I was around in those days. Those were the golden days of my youth.

Let me put some perspective on that last statement.
 I was an altar server from the age of five and, from the age of nine, my family home was less than fifty yards from St Michael's and St Martin's Church, Hounslow.

Now Hounslow, for the geographically challenged, lies at the eastern end of London Heathrow Airport's main runway (Are you still with me? Please hang on for a few minutes more).

Priests arrived in Hounslow from all corners of the world, on a weekly basis. We had many fine American priests, French ones, German ones and so on.

And I was in the firing line for the duties of default server.
 Most mornings I would troop into the sacristy never knowing who the celebrant might be or where he was from.

But, in the midst of all this multi-cultural ministry, never once did the words or format of the Mass differ.

Every Mass was the same.

Why?

Well, of course, because the language and words were constant.

But, also, the priest was invisible. He had no identity.

Well that's not quite true. He had the identity of Christ ( but I didn't fully appreciate that then).

And, with such an identity he was, of course, truly Christ like, diminishing his own presence to act as the link between us, the great unwashed and Almighty God.

I don't think you get such an aura of priestly invisibility at a new Mass but I am open to correction as I never (or hardly ever) attend a new Mass; I am not experienced in the ways of the new other than by distant memory.

Of course, there are many theological distinctions between the OF and the EF but I like the late Father Hugh Thwaites' summary of them.

The new Mass, he said, is like water, while the old Mass is milk.

That is a very apt way of comparing the two in my book.




 

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!).

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.