FRIDAY POTPOURRI: TO SERVE AND TO PROTECT

I grew up in a very small, ethic parish in which I was related to half of the congregation.  It had no boundaries so people could come from quite a distance.  We lived a couple of blocks away so if they needed a server, we got the phone call.  During the snowstorms of the ‘70s, my parents would slap cross country skies on my feet and send me off to serve morning Mass where it would be me, Fr. Ozimek, and Mrs. Bailey the organist having Mass - everybody else being trapped in their houses.

One day I walked in and Fr. Ozimek said, “You’re serving?”  Having been on the altar quite a bit at that point I responded, “Yeah.  I have to serve again.”  He got a very serious look on his face and corrected my sentence, “No.  You GET to serve again.”

He was correct.

In the absence of instituted acolytes, paragraph 100 uses a great word: lay people may be “deputed” to serve at the altar.  That word makes me think of a sheriff of a small town during the taming of the West tossing a gold star with the word “deputy” on it to someone who would help keep law and order in the town.

Now that I think about it, maybe it isn’t all that different.  Save for the star.

Altar servers have several possible jobs:

crucifer one who carries the crucifix

thurifer one who carries the thurible (the incense)

They also carry the candles, the bread, wine and water, and may even be deputed to act as extraordinary minister of Holy Communion along with a list of other jobs that any particular parish may load upon their shoulders.

WHEN YOU ARE BOTH CATHOLIC AND A CELIAC

YOUR INPUT IS REQUESTED. AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE IF YOU HAVE ANY INSIGHT THAT MIGHT BE HELPFUL PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT OR EMAIL ME PRIVATLY. THANK YOU.

Years ago there was a large article in the newspaper about a family who left the Catholic Church just as their daughter was about to receive her First Communion. The girl had celiac disease, a disease that is just starting to come into the public conscience now but was virtually unheard of then. If you want to know more about the disease please look here – but the long and short of it is that celiac cannot have any gluten which is part of wheat, rye, and barely. If you know someone who has this disease you know that there are significant lifestyle changes that are required of this person. Think of everything we eat that is made of these grains and think of a restaurant menu and consider how difficult it would be for this person to enjoy going out with friends. Think of going on a picnic and not eating the chips and salsa, the birthday cake, drinking a beer, or many of the processed foods that most people don’t think twice about eating unless they are watching their waist line. And this list doesn’t even include other things to look out for such as medicines, lip balms, and vitamins which often contain gluten.

So back to the little girl. The family left the Catholic Church because at the time there was no alternative to receiving the host except for receiving the Precious Blood alone (which is perfectly acceptable.) But not wanting their daughter to stick out, they chose to leave the Church and go to a Protestant Church that did celebrate communion but was not so picky about of what it was made.

I remember thinking, “How could someone leave Jesus for a symbol?” It was beyond my ken and I partially wrote it off thinking, “If they truly knew what they were giving up, this would not have happened.” Well, that may be theologically true, but like trying to take a celiac to a fast food restaurant, the stress that the situation can cause may be quite trying for them. For that family it was easier to leave.

One of the biggest problems is that celiacs and their doctors are largely flying blind. There just isn’t enough known. Can the itsiest, teeniest, tiny bit of glutton be Okay? “Probably,” says one doctor. “Probably?” Would you be comfortable with “Probably?” If someone handed you a pill and said, “It probably won’t kill you,” would you take it? At least you would think twice. There is a question as to whether beer is safe. Can celiacs drink beer? We don’t know for absolute sure

Now the Catholic celiac comes to Mass. One option is of course to only receive from the chalice. Fine. As long as it isn’t the chalice into which the priests puts a crumb of the host during the fraction rite. (This is not something to worry about at Saint Sebastian.)

Another option is a gluten free host – which I believe is actually a virtually glutton free host. Is it Okay? Maybe. But here is the trick – how do you get the gluten free host the Catholic celiac? You cannot put their host in among the other hosts (there is less gluten in a gluten free host than there is in a tiny crumb of a regular host.) It had been our practice to have persons with celiac disease to come up into the sanctuary with the extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to receive – which worked great with those we had who are rather self-confident people and have no problem standing up in front of so many people. But now we have a few more joining us – some kids – and this is not such a great option.

HERE IS WHERE I COULD USE SOME HELP: Do you have any suggestion as to the best way to get gluten free hosts to Catholic celiacs? The first trick is making sure you show up on time to warn the priest that one is needed. Then where are they distributed? One should not be handling regular hosts and then when the person comes forward, wash your hands, dig out a pyx (setting the ciborium down somewhere,) distribute, and then go back to what you were doing before. (Or do you?) If a separate line is needed how do you keep non-celiacs from receiving thereby short changing someone who needs it? It may be that I am over thinking it. *sigh* But just the same – if you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate hearing about it.

HERE IS A CATHOLIC CELIAC SOCIETY WEBSITE WITH MORE INFORMATION.

MASS BY THE NUMBERS

Years ago my family was heavily involved in the restoration of an old silent movie theater in my hometown. It became the home of a professional company that produced shows for younger audiences and families. The family reupholstered every seat, installed windows, repaired plaster and painted, cleaned, and any other number of odd and dirty jobs to get the theater up and running often spending long hours late into the night.

The day the theater was to open they worked until the last possible moment, went home, showered and changed, and came back and ushered for a great little show called, “Cheaper by the Dozen.” When the show was done the director stood up to offer thanks for all those who played a role in the opening of the theater. Those who played obvious roles in the production, those who gave much money, those who were important people from the city were all given gushing thanks and flowers, but no mention was made of anybody who volunteered to do the actual grimy work of making the building itself useful let alone presentable.

As such things go, the people who were forgotten didn’t mind so much, it was those who love those who were forgotten that were hot under the collar. (Read: Me.)

I suppose that is one reason (as you all well know) I am so opposed to clapping at mass. Those for whom we clap of course do work many hard hours and deserve some recognition. But have you ever stopped to consider how many people it takes to make mass possible at an average size parish on a typical weekend; those whose efforts are not always obvious but whose services are heavily depended upon none-the-less? (We may not notice some of them when they do their job, but we would sure notice when they did not!)

Consider the numbers.

Here are some of the people that you might need for the whole weekend.

SEXTON - A sexton is the person who gets to church earlier than everyone else because he unlocks the place. Of course this role is often undertaken by the priest, sacristan, or janitor so we won’t count it.

SACRISTAN – This is the person who gets everything ready for mass by making sure all the altar appointments are ready and what not. Some places have a sacristan (or two!) for each mass others have only one. For the sake of argument we will count two for a whole weekend.

JANITORS AND ALTAR GUILDS – The church has to be cleaned. Even if there is a cleaning company (rare) there are still some things that need extra care. Let us suppose that you have one janitor and three Ladies who change candles, straighten books, and polish the brass.

LAUNDERER – All the altar linens must be cleaned in a special way. That is, they cannot be simply thrown in the wash. In addition they must also be ironed and in some cases, such as with corporals, heavily starched. Then there are the server’s cassocks and surpluses or albs and such things often done by another team of people. Let us cut the difference and say that there are two people doing everything.

ART & ENVIRONMENT – You might have one person doing this or a whole committee handling this. Then again, it might just be the pastor! They decorate for the high holy days as well as make sure the sanctuary is properly appointed throughout the year. The also keep the plants watered and make sure everything is in keeping with the liturgical season. Let’s say you have a three person committee that does everything from setting up the Christmas trees to having flowers at the Marian shrine in May.

COORDINATORS OF MINISTRIES – Somebody has to keep track of the servers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and lectors, assign them to the masses and make sure they are showing up. This is a huge logistical job. Most of the parishes I have been at have three different persons doing this so I will use the number three.

LITURGIST OR LITURGY COMMITTEE – Some places have this, others don’t, and many that do are using people already being mentioned so I will not add numbers for them.

MONEY COUNTERS – A delicate topic indeed, but necessary none-the-less. It is best to have at least three people and to have at least three teams of three. But for the sake of argument, we will only count three in total.

Now hear is a list of people that need for every mass on each weekend.

SERVERS – I like to use many, but here I am only allowed three a mass, and since many people only use two, so perhaps three works out to be average.

LECTORS – Let us just say one though many people use two.

EMHC – Here is bone of contention. I know some people will say that they are overused and maybe so, but that is not the point here. To keep mass under an hour here we use about eleven per mass.

MUSICIANS – This is hard to calculate. You might have a choir so let us assume there are 20 people in it. And there might be three more masses at which there is only an instrumentalist and a cantor. Let us average it out to six people per mass.

USHERS & GREETERS – Often these are the same people. How about we only use four for per mass though at this parish we usually have six.

CLERGY – Of course you need a priest and some places there are deacons. Let us count that as two.

GIFT BEARERS – At least two.

So, the total number of people needed to get the parish up and running for a weekend with four masses is:

Those needed only once: 17
Those we multiplied by 4 to cover all the masses: 116
For a grand total of: 133

(And we didn't even get into those who work with the RCIA or, as is in some places, youngsters and the like.)

Your parish may have a great deal more people in these roles or somewhat less. But these are the people I have in mind when I baulk (thanks for the correction in spelling) at singling obvious people out for applause at mass.

These (what Pope Benedict emphasizes as) secondary roles make it possible for the Church to fulfill their primary role of prayer and worship. They are not more involved because they get to “do something”, everybody is doing something and most of the people are doing the most important thing. But it is nice when ALL of the “secondary – though necessary – jobs” are done well. It sure makes life a lot easier and more pleasant.

So for all you unsung behind the scenes people out there: THANK YOU!