Short form of thanksgiving after mass and communion

For altar servers to use after mass and communion.
1. Almighty God, I thank Thee for the privilege of having served about Thy altar, and for all the graces and blessings I have received in this Holy Mass. I thank Thee for the inestimable gift of receiving Thy most sacred Body and Blood in Holy Communion, bringing refreshment, joy, preservation, and sweetness of heart.
Glory be ...

2. Almighty God, I acknowledge and repent of those faults and negligences that I have committed during this mass, through sin or human weakness; for lack of custody of the mind, the eyes, the hands; for lack of attentiveness; for lack of preparation; for slowness in service. I resolve by Thy grace to amend my life.
Glory be ...

3. Almighty God, I dedicate the rest of this day, and the rest of my life, to Thy service. I resolve to live my life in the spirit of the Mass, uniting myself to Thy Sacred Heart, and being faithful to Thee even unto death. May I always be swift to serve Thee, in matters small and great, always corresponding with Thy graces each moment, and persevering to the end.
Glory be ...

We fly to Thy protection, O holy mother of God. Despise not my prayers in my necessities, but save me from all danger, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.

Particular Examen for Altar Servers

The Particular Examen is part of traditional Catholic spiritual life. It is sometimes associated more with Ignatian spirituality, since it is given such emphasis in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. However, this is not so; though it was popularized by the Jesuits in their retreats.

The idea this. Central to growth in the ascetic life is examination of conscience. A general examination of conscience is a general overview of our moral behaviour, perhaps using the commandments, or the virtues, as a structure. We are recommended by spiritual masters to make an examination of conscience each evening; liturgically, this is done before Compline, and then we call to mind our failings during the Confiteor. I remember a devout priest saying that the best and fastest way to progress in the spiritual life was to make a careful daily examination.

A particular examination of conscience is tailored to our own needs. What is my predominant moral weakness at the moment? It might be anger, it might be sloth, it might be lust. In the particular examen, I am especially rigorous in looking for this weakness, and for my efforts to overcome it. This follows logically on the general examen, and applies it to our own lives.

There is a useful short article by Fr Hardon SJ, on examination of conscience: http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Christian_Spirituality/Christian_Spirituality_012.htm

How should altar servers become more diligent about their service of the altar? One tool, is a particular examen for altar servers.

Here is a method.

1. After mass, kneel quietly in the chapel. Make a thanksgiving for all the graces received during Holy Mass, and also during Communion if you have received it.

2. Ask Almighty God for the grace to bring to mind any faults, failings, or negligences that you have committed during your service of the altar, through human weakness or sin.

3. Examine yourself on the details of your service of the altar. Spend a couple of minutes on this. If you find you have many faults, concentrate on remembering the most important two or three, rather than being overwhelmed by many faults.

4. Ask God's pardon for these faults that you have committed, and for grace to improve in the future. Remember always, that our development in the Christian life depends on His grace - without Him, we can do nothing - so ask insistently for grace.

5. If possible, make a resolution to improve next time. Be specific, eg I will practise saying the Confiteor so that I can do it without stumbling or mispronounciation.

6. Say a short prayer of reparation. The 'Obsecro te' from the missal or breviary is ideal for this purpose, since it was identified by Pope St Pius X especially for use by the clergy, to ask indulgence for faults committed during mass owing to human frailty.

7. Finish with a short and joyful prayer to Our Lady, for example the 'Sub tuum praesidium'.

Here be a list.

Here is a list that might be useful during a particular examen. This is a work in progress, and suggestions for improvement of this list will be gratefully received.

Have I remained recollected and reverent at all times?
Have I abstained from chatter, frivolity, gazing around, all irreverence?
Has my posture been reverent, when standing, kneeling, sitting?
Have I given the responses clearly and correctly?
Have I carried out all my actions correctly, at the right time?
Have I avoided both undue haste and undue slowness?
Have I been prompt to assist the priest as needed?
Have I been dressed appropriately for the service of the altar?
Has my dress been clean and modest?
Has my personal appearance been respectable and clean?
Have I attended to the prayers being said?
Have I served with my attention on the altar rather than members of the congregation?
Has anything I have done caused distraction or scandal to anyone?
Did I prepare spiritually for mass by saying a suitable prayer of preparation?
Did I avoid excessive haste by arriving for mass in good time?
Did I leave the sacristy at the end of mass with undue haste, without ensuring that I had assisted with clearing the altar and credence table?
Have I assisted with clearing the altar after mass as required?
Have I made my thanksgiving after mass?

Powerful Prayers.

Obsecro Te. I beseech Thee, most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, grant that Thy Passion may be to me a power by which I may be strengthened, protected, and defended. May Thy wounds be to me food and drink, by which I may be nourished, inebriated, and overjoyed. May the sprinking of Thy Blood be to me an ablution for all my sins. May Thy death prove to me life everlasting, and Thy cross be to me an eternal glory. In these be my refreshment, my joy, my preservation, and sweetness of heart. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

Sub tuum praesidium. We fly to Thy protection, O holy mother of God. Despise not my prayers in my necessities, but save me from all danger, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.

DF

Liturgical Gesture

From The Celebration of Mass by Canon JB O'Connell, part 2, chapter 2.

"Liturgical Gesture.
That the actions of Mass may be performed with the greatest reverence, propriety, and dignity, the rubrics regulate in detail the posture, movements, and gestures of the Celebrant. The general principle underlying these minute directions seems to be, not merely that the priest should act efficiently, decorously, and reverently, but also that when he stands at the altar as the representative of Christ he should lay aside, as far as possible, all individual peculiarities, and even the smallest idiosyncrasy, exaggeration, or affectation which might attract attention to himself, and withdraw it from the great Act in which he is engaged. Hence the rubrics concerning the position of the Celebrant's hands, the movements of his eyes, and the various liturgical gestures, aim at eliminating not only what savours of irreverence, indifference, or carelessness, but also all mannerisms or extravagances even of an apparently "pious" character. The rubrics keep the priest's movement, his looks, and his voice, within due bounds - they are laws of restraint. They are rules which aid the priest's personal sanctification, as they constitute a very real spiritual discipline. It is no small act of self-training and self-control, day after day, for example, to genuflect quite erect, or to hold one's outstretched hands parallel to one another and not extended beyond the width of the shoulders, as the rubrics require."


Though this paragraph refers to the Celebrant, the principles apply also to altar servers:

1. Actions should be performed with the greatest reverence, propriety, and dignity;
2. Posture, movements and gestures should be carried out carefully and in accordance with the rubrics;
3. Efficient, decorous, and reverent actions and speech;
4. No idiosyncrasy, exaggeration, or affectation;
5. Nothing that would distract anyone's attention from the mass;
6. Hands and eyes should be controlled;
7. No irreverence, indifference, carelessness;
8. No excessively pious gestures which fall outside what is prescribed;
9. Movements, looks, and voice, should be disciplined.

The restrained spirit of the traditional mass is characteristic of genuine spirituality in the Roman tradition. Rubrics about voice or movement must be carried out; they must be carried out exactly, carefully, devotedly. They must not be done half-heartedly; they must not be exaggerated. Custody of the mind and of the senses must be assured.

At one time, Catholic priests were renowned for their self-discipline. This was modelled on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve. Discipline was maintained through the ethos of the traditional mass, office, mental prayer, and rule of life. It was a tried and tested method for working out the salvation not only of the priests themselves, but of their people also. The charism of traditionalist orders and fraternities today is the same, and they are being blessed abundantly by our Lord.

Altar servers, to be worthy of the name of a 'servant of the altar', should strive after the same spirit: the self-discipline of a true soldier of Christ. Of all the actions we carry out in our lives, those that are carried out nearest to the altar touch most closely on our salvation - let these actions be a model for the rest of our lives also. Words clear and correct; gestures precise, manly, and unexaggerated; discipline of our eyes, hands, senses, words. A true and fervent spirit, which regards more the Lord rather than one's self. A remembering in Whose presence we are, and Who we serve.

DF

Fathers Dale, Fortescue, and O'Connell

Once upon a time, there were three writers in English on the Rubrics of the Roman Rite.

Act One

First came Fr Hilarius Dale, who wrote "The Ceremonial according to the Roman Rite" in the 1850s, as a translation of the Italian work of Baldeschi. It went through a number of editions, until it was largely superseded by Fr Fortescue's work.

Msgr. Giuseppe Baldeschi (1791-1849) was an Italian Vincentian, who had been MC at the Basilica of St Peter's at Rome. His four-volume Esposizione delle Sacre Cerimonie (A Summary of the Sacred Ceremonies) was first published in 1830, and became the standard text on the Roman Rite.

The original edition was dedicated to Cardinal Wiseman, and was published with his approbation. The first volume of Baldeschi, on the ceremonies of low mass, was omitted, as being less necessary. However, the Pontifical ceremonies for a bishop in his own diocese were not included in Baldeschi, who was writing in Rome, where the diocesan Bishop - being the Pope - has a ceremonial particular to himself. Fr Dale therefore compiled these parts of the book, largely using the Caeremoniale Episcoporum, and his own studies in secondary sources.

Fr Dale said that his work had been done with two objects in mind: "the first, to secure, as far as possible, identity of practice and arrangement in our several churches; the second, to bring them, in their ceremonial provisions, into more complete accordance with the rule of Rome - the centre both of doctrinal unity, and of that ritual uniformity, which is incidentally connected with it." Emphasis on the practice as used in Rome, and advocating its use in England down to the last detail, are entirely characteristic of his book.

A quick survey of the Internet shows that reproductions of both the Italian edition, and a translation by Fr Dale from 1873, are readily available at moderate cost. See Amazon.co.uk for the English edition, at £18.99. This should be in the collection of any serious MC or Rubrician! Alternatively, a scanned version of the original 1853 edition can be downloaded from Google books.

Fr Dale's book went through several editions, certainly into the 1910s. I don't know when the last edition was published, nor do I have a note of the year of death of Fr Dale.

Act Two

Fr Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) was a scholar of some weight, writing on liturgy and Byzantine scholarship, speaking 11 languages fluently, as well as being an artist, calligrapher, amateur photographer, and adventurer. The late Michael Davies wrote a book called The Wit and Wisdom of Fr Adrian Fortescue, and considered him to be 'the greatest authority on the liturgy of the Roman Rite the English speaking world has ever known'.

In 1907 Fr Fortescue was appointed missionary rector of Letchworth, where he spent the rest of his life. He found the practicalities of parish administration a trial, but was venerated by his parishioners. In order to raise money to build a church in Letchworth, Fr Fortescue set himself to produce a revised edition of Fr Dale's book.

In fact, Fr Fortescue's book Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, first published in 1918, was more of a new work than a revision of Fr Dale. He conceived a great distaste for the preceding book, being "especially scathing about the over-literal translation, rendering grandiloquent Italian phrases so slavishly that, as he said, the book could hardly be understood without translating it back into Italian."

Fr Fortescue clearly had little taste for his work, which he described as having being done “turpis lucri gratia” (for the sake of filthy lucre), i.e. to raise funds for his church.

“Try to imagine for one solid year of my life... I spent all day comparing Merati & Martinucci & Le Vavasseur, to find out where the thurifer ought to stand before the Magnificat, who takes off the bishop's left glove, what sort of bow you should make at the Asperges. I had to look serious, and discuss the arguments for a ductus duplex or the other thing, whatever it is called, at each candlestick, when you incense the altar. Conceive a man, said to be made in the image of God, spending his time over that kind of thing. Even now that the burden is over it fills me with rage to think of those days. ..."

Fr Tim Finigan has described Fr Fortescue as having "an intimate acquaintance with the rubrics of the Roman Rite, but also a proper appreciation of the spirit of them. Fortescue was not a rubrical pedant and took a practical approach to the ceremonies." (The Life and Work of Fr Adrian Fortescue, by Fr Tim Finigan, is available on the website of the church of Our Lady of the Rosary Blackfen: http://www.rosary.freeuk.com/

In fact, Fr Fortescue had little time for some of the niceties of the Roman Rite, advocating a simplification of the Rubrics. In the preface to the first edition of his Ceremonies, he advocates a reeuction in the number of solita oscula, and of genuflections:

"Two points occur which one might hope the authorities would simplify. One is the constant kissing. Certainly this is a very ancient sign of reverence; in some few cases, as, for instance, to kiss the hand ofa bishop, no one would wish to see it abolished. But would not the actions gain in dignity if the endless kissing of objects and of the celebrant'shand by the deacon ceased? At such a simple action, so constantly repeated, as the deacon performs incensing, are eight "solita oscula." He has to kissthe spoon, the hand, the hand, the spoon; the thurible, the hand, the hand,the thurible. If only from the point of view of artistic effect these repeated inclinations of th head are not graceful. If all kissing werereduced to the chief cases of the paten and chalice and at certain more important moments, of the hand of the bishop, the general effect of a ceremony would be calmer.....In the same way, have we not rather too much genuflection? ..."
(Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/liturgy-l/message/31273?o=1&d=-1)

In Fr Fortescue's own church, built and adorned partly by the proceeds of his book, the liturgy was carried out to a high standard, and in accordance with the rubrics. Nonetheless, it is clear that his interest was largely in the history of the rites of the mass, East and West, and that ceremonial bored him. Often he shows an impatience to be back to his scholarship, leaving Rubrics to others, who are by implication rather dull ceremonialists.

Despite Fr Fortescue's reluctance, his book has become a standard textbook on the ceremonies of the Roman rite (Tridentine). It has been revised and augmented number of times, by Fr O'Connell, and in the USA by Fr McManus, who brought it up to date and in accordance witht he latest decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. That edition, if you can get hold of it on the second hand market, is highly recommended for those who want to learn the rubrics of the 1962 missal. Earlier editions are also recommended for those who want to learn the rubrics of earlier forms, eg pre-1955.

Lately, a revised edition has been produced by Scott Reid, and published by Farnborough Abbey. Dr Reid has not only incorporated the changes to the rubrics made in 1962, but has also tried to make allowances for the changes in the church since then, for example to the adornment of bishops, and the reform in the Novus Ordo of the minor orders. You can get it for £24.51 from Amazon, if you want. I have to confess, I admire the scholarship of Dr Reid, but I don't like his book. This is because I don't like the various changes which he seeks to incorporate. These changes are not the fault of Dr Reid.

Act Three

Canon John Berthram O'Connell was a secular priest of the Menevia Diocese. Unlike Fr Fortescue, Canon O'Connell was deeply devoted to the detail of the ceremonial and rubrics. After Fr Fortescue's death in 1923, Canon O'Connell prepared the third edition of his book, and over the next forty years prepared nine further editions. Quite rightly is the book we have today referred to as Fortescue-O'Connell, since the hand of O'Connell is apparent, tempering the spirit of Fortescue, too often impatient with the detail of the ceremonies.

Not being content with being a reviser of Fortescue, Canon O'Connell himself wrote a guide to the Rubrics of the Mass. Originally published in 3 volumes in 1942, The Celebration of Mass: A Study of the Rubrics of the Roman Missal, itself quickly became a standard work. It is very detailed and precise, breathing altogether a different spirit to Fortescue. Here was a priest who loved the details of the liturgy, and considered exactness to be a form of spiritual discipline - faithfulness in small things being a virtue. Every gesture, every look, every phrase, betokens love for Christ, and should be carried out with care and devotion. Far from wanting to abolish genuflections, and solita oscula, Canon O'Connell wishes us to know how to carry them out correctly.

The book has been published in various editions, including a one volume "omnibus". The original version included excellent black and white photographs of the ceremonies of the mass, which were taken in the chapel of Prinknash Abbey. Later editions either omit these, or include them in a low quality reproduction.

Preserving Christian Publications has done a great service in bringing back into print the 1964 edition of O'Connell, in a one volume form. It's available from them, or from Southwell Books for £27 http://www.southwellbooks.com/celebration-of-mass-the-1983-p.asp.

Finale

Fortescue-O'Connell is a good basic textbook for the Ceremonies of the Roman Rite. It covers the pontifical ceremonies as well as those of low mass and high mass. For pontifical ceremonies, it is recommended. However, its spirit is unduly functional, and indeed careless of the rubrics, so I would not recommend it as a text for Mass, whether Low, or High. It is useful in giving a method for the Missa Cantata which corresponds more or less to current practice in England.

O'Connell is an excellent book on the rites of Mass - Low, High, and to some extent Cantata. It is precise, and is clearly written by someone who not only knows the ceremonies, but values them. As a book designed not only to instruct in the technical details, but also in the spirit of the mass, it is far superior to Fortescue. Some people find him excessively detailed, and there may be truth in this comment. However, if you want to learn the mass, why not learn from someone who not only knew the ceremonies, but entered into their spirit, and took their exact observance as a work of the love of God?

Baldeschi-Dale is an important historical work. It cannot take the place of O'Connell. However, it also exudes the spirit of devotion, and is a useful supplement for those who desire to know more about the sacred ceremonies. For the pontifical ceremonies, when you've read Fortescue, try Fr Dale's version. It is also available freely on line, so why not download it and start using it, while you are saving up for O'Connell?

DF

The dispositions of those serving on the altar

What follows is, in fact, from "The Ceremonial of the Roman Rite" by Joseph Baldeschi, translated by Rev J.D. Hilarius Dale in various editions. It is easy to forget, in an age which is dominated by Fortescue and O'Connell, that this edition of Baldeschi was the standard text in English during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Fr Fortescue disliked its stilted, over-Italianate style - of which more another time - but it does convey a spirit of Romanitas as well as deep devotion, which are sometimes lacking in Fortescue's sometimes over-functional approach.

Baldeschi discusses in the first section the rules to be followed by the clergy in choir. Although he is referring to the clergy, there is much that altar servers can learn from this approach.

Sections from Baldeschi - in bold type - are interspersed with commentary from the Secretary of the SST.

He first discusses external composure. Here is an extract, which might say something about Italian clergy at the time (although one hopes not!):

"10. The clergy should comport themselves in choir with silence, modesty, and recollection; abstaining from everything that would indicate frivolity or irreverence, such as reading letters, talking, giving snuff to each other, gazing about, sitting cross-legged, lolling in their seats, and other acts of this nature. According to the Holy Council of Trent, every ecclesiastic should exhibit a grave and religious deportment in every action:- "Nil, nisi grave, moderatum, ac religione plenum, prae se ferant." How edifying then should be his demeanour at choir, whilst engaged in the actual service of the Most High!"

I haven't actually observed any altar server reading letters, or taking snuff during the course of mass! However, talking, gazing about, lolling, are all known; giggling during the offices is not unknown.

And is it not time that The Council (by which I mean Trent) was implemented: "They should carry themselves with gravity, moderation, and full of religion. "

The next section deals with internal dispositions. Very important, for man sees the appearances but the Lord looks at the heart. I reproduce the passage in full.

"The internal Dispositions necessary to assist with propriety in Choir.

11. A pure intention of worshipping God solely for His glory, and not through self-interest or vanity. Such despicable ends are evinced by those who willingly assist at choir, whenever their presence redounds to their emolument, but absent themselves when no worldly interest accrues ; as also by those who perform their part with propriety before the eyes of men, but who act with a miserable remissness when removed from public notice."

We are on this earth for God's glory. Sole reason for existence. "To know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next." As a consequence of us living for His greater glory, we work out our salvation in fear and trembling. But His glory comes first. At no time must this be more evident than when we serve about His altar.

"12. A foresight of what is about to be done, the better to avoid those inadvertencies which entail a multiplicity of defects. This should be taken before proceeding to choir, by reading the instructions for the ceremony, and bringing them before the mind with a little serious reflection ; and even in choir, by filling up each unoccupied moment with something like the following deliberation :- After this, I must perform such an action, which must be done in such and such a manner. By acting on this principle, nothing will happen without provision, and all will proceed with regularity."

Preparation. It is a truism in all areas of life that "Prior preparation and planning prevents poor performance." But how often have liturgies been conducted - by those who could and should know better - where elementary preparation has not been done? Fortescue has not been consulted; a practice has not been arranged; proper time has not been taken to check that the altar is set out correctly; the responses have not been learnt.

"13. Attention - seriously observing what is going for ward, and not yielding to thoughts even of a virtuous nature, which in such cases have not their source in God, but in an evil power, as they divert us from the good work which is before us. Most powerful inducements to enliven our attention, are to place ourselves in the presence of God, and to accompany in spirit each word and action, attending to their signification, and yielding to those affections of the heart which the language of each prayer should excite, according to the beautiful recommendation which St. Augustine has given us in his glossary of the Tenth Psalm : " Si orat Psalmus, orate ; et si gemit gemite; et si timet, timete. Omnia enim, qua hic conscripta sunt, speculum nostrum sunt." That which St. Augustine teaches us to do while singing the Psalms, we should observe also in whatever is recited or sung in Mass, or in any other holy function. "

A reminder that the devil doesn't always use suggestions of obvious evil to distract us during mass, but things which are good. Not temptations to gross sin, but perhaps thoughts of the good things we are going to do later in the day, or liturgies we are going to attend later. In such a way our attention wanders. Sin is not so much choice of a bad thing in itself, but a choice of something else in the place of God, or an incorrect ordering in the choice of secondary goods.

"14. Devotion, which serves to inspire us with an internal relish for the sacred exercises of religion, and which certainly is not experienced by those who perform them with reluctance and tedium; and against whom the Lord delivers that fearful anathema: " Maledictus homo qui facit opus Dei fraudulenter.""

St Jose Maria Escriva comments somewhere: "Do you find the mass is too long? That's because your love is too short!" If we are not experiencing an internal relish for the sacred offices of the altar, is it because our life of devotion is inadequate? Liturgical prayer and private prayer (vocal, meditation, contemplation, in whatever degree we are graced) are mutually supportive and mutually enriching. Even an accurate care for the externals of the ceremony, if not infused with a spirit of devotion, risks the condemnation of the Lord: "Cursed is the man who does the work of God fraudulently."

How often do we fail to live up to these great ideals? Every time! The Confiteor before Communion is well placed for an altar server, because by that time he will almost certainly need it. There are prayers given in the Roman Breviary, for use by the clergy after mass or the office, in reparation for the deficiencies they have committed owing to human weakness. The altar server would be as well, after mass or the office, to take a little time to conduct a "particular examination" of conscience and say a short prayer to the same effect - begging the Lord's pardon for deficiencies due to human weakness, and asking for grace to improve in the future. Such is the spirit of the Sodality.

Fidelis usque ad mortem.

The Blog of Arthur Crumly

http://arthurcrumly.blogspot.com/

Arthur Crumly was the Principal Master of Ceremonies to the Latin Mass Society for 25 years, and in the view of reliable witnesses is the most experienced and competent MC of the traditional rite in England today. He has recently started a Blog, about Liturgy and Catholic history.

DF

The Sacristan's Manual

I am at the moment transcribing a number of sections from 'The Sacristan's Manual' by Rev JD Hilarius Dale, for the website. The following striking passage occurs in the preface:

"It may not be inappropriate to add a few words of admonition to Lay Sacristans. They occupy a rank in the Church which is next only to that of the Clergy themselves. Hence, where such an arrangement is practicable, and where the Church has her will and her way without drawback, the Sacristan is a Priest, or at least in Orders. The Pope’s Sacristan is a Bishop - a fact which may be taken as an indication of the importance which the Church attaches to this office. A little thought will show the reasonableness of this estimate of the Sacristan’s duties. In the course of his labours he is brought constantly, and closely, near the Altar of God and the Holy of Holies. He is almost necessitated to touch the sacred vessels and linen ; wherefore, if he have not the right ex ordine, he usually receives it ex officio. The privileges, of which this is but a specimen, are very great and very serious. No one can live in the midst of them and remain the man he was when he entered upon them. No man can be near God without a blessing or a curse. The familiarity with sacred things is, of all habits, the most dangerous where it is not duly appreciated, and its temptations constantly foreseen and counteracted. It is commonly said by Priests, that Altar-boys end in being either angels or the reverse. Now, the first duty of a Sacristan is to weigh the importance of his duties; and it is hoped that even so trifling an effort as the present may lead to this result, by pointing out the necessity of care and cleanliness in all that relates to the Church, and that hence, by the blessing of God, it may indirectly further the ends of personal sanctification."

This passage expresses very well a number of the key principles of the SST. Altar servers - as much as sacristans - are occupying a function that properly belongs to the clergy. There is a minor order in the church of Acolytes, who are clerics, usually on the way to the priesthood, who are specifically instituted by the church to serve on the altar. When laymen serve, we are taking the place which by right belongs to clergy, and we must ensure that we occupy it worthily. The privileges are, indeed, "very great and very serious."

The insight that altar boys end up in being angels or the reverse provides us with a warning. Altar servers approach the Christian sanctuary, attend on the altar of the Lord, and handle consecrated items. If we do this without beseeching God's grace to make us worthy of this office, and doing our human best to correspond with this grace, then we are in danger of falling under the condemnation of the Apostle, of "eating and drinking to our own damnation."

Even carrying out the smallest actions on the altar, but doing them with care and devotion, is a great service to the Lord. We are exhorted to care and cleanliness, to methodical and attentive observance of the Rubrics. By such things as these altar servers fulfil the duties of their office, and work out their own sanctification.

These duties are even more urgent for those of us who serve the Holy Tridentine Mass. Men call it 'Extraordinary' - and so it is, though not only for the reasons that are commonly given. We serve at a liturgy 'not made with hands', which is the work of the Holy Ghost acting through so many saints through the ages. By accepting God's invitation to witness to his holiness through service at the traditional mass, we are setting aside all liturgy which is casual, irreverent, or unworthy of Him. If we participate in a way that manifestly falls short of that required, we run the danger of giving scandal to our neighbour. But if we try our utmost to participate worthily, we contribute to our own sanctification and to that of others.

"Grant O Lord, that what we cannot achieve through our own merits, we may obtain through the intercession of Thy blessed martyr Tarcisius. Amen."

DF