3 Priests, A Deacon and 4 Eucharistic Ministers

This will be the shortest blog post you will ever see from me.......

Why on Earth, would there be a Sunday Mass on the feast of the Epiphany that had Three Priests on the Altar and a Deacon and have not one, not two but four Eucharistic Ministers administering the Most Blessed Sacrament and only one Priest? No one is entitled to handle the Most Blessed Sacrament but the priest unless extreme circumstances have presented themselves.


This is when one would be OK but not great.....

As this very brief section of Fidei custos had not proved sufficient to settle all doubts and questions that were stirring in regard to the permissibility of laymen distributing Holy Communion, the same Congregation four years later issuedImmensae caritatis, which places this topic first among the matters it considers. Here we get a more detailed picture:
There are various circumstances in which a lack of sufficient ministers for the distribution
of Holy Communion can occur:
1.  during Mass, because of the size of the congregation or a particular difficulty in which a
     celebrant finds himself
2.  outside of Mass, when it is difficult because of distance to take the sacred species,
     especially in the Viaticum, to the sick in danger of death, or when the very number of
     the sick, especially in hospitals and similar institutions, requires many ministers.
Therefore, in order that the faithful who are in the state of grace and who with an upright and pious disposition wish to share in the Sacred Banquet may not be deprived of this sacramental help and consolation, it has seemed appropriate to the Holy Father to establish extraordinary ministers, who may give Holy Communion to themselves and to other faithful under the following determined conditions:
3.  Local ordinaries have the faculty to permit a suitable person individually chosen as an
     extraordinary minister for a specific occasion or for a time or, in the case of necessity,
     in some permanent way, either to give the Eucharist to himself or to other faithful and to
     take it to the sick who are confined to their homes. This faculty may be used whenever:
     a.  there is no priest, deacon, or acolyte;
     b.  these are prevented from administering Holy Communion because of another
          pastoral ministry or because of ill health or advanced age;
      c.  the number of faithful requesting Holy Communion is such that the celebration of
           Mass or the distribution of the Eucharist outside of Mass would be unduly
           prolonged.
4.  Local ordinaries also have the faculty to permit individual priests exercising their sacred
     office to appoint a suitable person who in cases of genuine necessity would distribute
     Holy Communion for a specific occasion. ...Since these faculties are granted only for
     the spiritual good of the faithful and for cases of genuine necessity, priests are to
     remember that they are not thereby excused from the task of distributing the Eucharist
     to the faithful who legitimately request it, and especially from taking and giving it to the
     sick.
When we read of "the size of the congregation or a particular difficulty in which a celebrant finds himself," it would fly in the face of common sense to say that the document had anything other than unusual situations in mind—massive gatherings where it would take an hour for a lone priest to distribute communion to everyone, or a health-condition that would make it nearly impossible for the priest to stand long enough to distribute hosts to all of the faithful receiving. It is taken for granted that if another priest or a deacon is available (at the rectory, for instance), he will assist at the appropriate time, and that when no such person is available, it can only be an undue prolongation of the length of Mass that might justify lay involvement. It is difficult to maintain that five or ten extra minutes of silence or good sacred music constitutes an undue prolongation. The liturgy is not, after all, an assembly line in which the chief aim is efficiency, making sure the gadgets move along as quickly as possible. A Mass that once in a while spilled over the clockwork sixty minutes might break the spell of utilitarianism under which almost everyone in the modern West is enchanted. Immensae caritatis also seems to take it for granted that a layman appointed to the role, after all other possibilities have been exhausted, will usually have it only temporarily, for some occasion(s) when his help is desperately needed. "These faculties are granted only... for cases of genuine necessity."
Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist (1973)
Issued in the same year by the Congregation of Divine Worship, this instruction repeats the teaching of Immensae caritatis in slightly different words.

It is primarily the function of priests and deacons to distribute Holy Communion to the faithful who seek it. It is eminently fitting, therefore, that they should devote a reasonable part of their time, in keeping with the needs of the faithful, to this exercise of their ministry. Acolytes duly appointed, moreover, may, as extraordinary ministers, distribute Holy Communion when no priest or deacon is available, when neither priest or deacon is able to distribute it on account of ill health or advanced age, or because of the pressure of other pastoral duties. Acolytes may similarly distribute Holy Communion when the number of the faithful approaching the altar is so large that the celebration of Mass or other sacred ceremony would be unduly prolonged. The local ordinary may give to other extraordinary ministers the faculty to distribute Holy Communion whenever this seems necessary for the pastoral good of the faithful, and when no priest, deacon, or acolyte is available.²

http://www.ewtn.com/library/Liturgy/EXTRMIN.HTM

So truthfully there IS NO EXCUSE for Eucharistic Ministers in my Church on the Feast of the Epiphany, because absolutely NONE of the criteria were met.

Comments welcomed.

This is why I have found a Tridentine Mass to attend on Sundays.

I Am A Wife and Mother, That Is My Vocation

Before I was married, my vocation was to be single and to do that to the best of my abilities. My job was service adviser at a car dealer, well several dealerships. Then I got married. My vocation was to be a wife, to serve my husband and on the flip side, for my husband to serve me and in doing so for us to serve God together as one flesh. My job was still a service adviser. Then 3 years later, I got pregnant, my vocation was to be a wife and mother, my job was still to be a service adviser. So you see over the past 9 years my vocation has shifted, my job has since melted into my past but my vocation has gotten bigger and more occupying, being a mother is a vocation. 

You can never turn off parenthood, at 1a.m. you are still a mother or father. Being a parent is a vocation, it is a lifetime dedication that never gets turned off, no vacations are given, no overtime paid and there is absolutely no sick time. Even if you are blessed with some time away from your children, they are always there, on your mind, in your heart. It is a vocation to be a mother, it is not a job, you serve your children, their needs are not annoyances, but as a mother, they are your main purposes. 

My husband (another vocation) is a mechanic, or as we like to call them now, auto technician. When he goes to work, he punches in, he works hard all day, if he ever took a lunch, he would punch out, when he comes home he punches out, and no one expects him to be a mechanic after he leaves work unless he wants to or he sees an old man stranded on the street, then he would try to help. He is a mechanic, that is his job, but he never gets to take off the husband hat or the daddy hat. If one of his children need him at 2am he is getting out of bed and taking care of it, because it's a vocation. 

Wife, mother, husband, father, single, priest, deacon, nun, sister or brother (both in religious life and in family life), daughter and son, are all vocations. Positions in life that never go away, that are always a part of who we are and how we function. I am a lay person in the church, I realize that the jobs of a priest are many, they are exhausting, taxing and at the end of the day probably lonely, I know it is a hard job, especially today, to be a priest, except, it's not a job; it's a position in life God has called you to, just like wife and mother are the life positions God has called me to. I know it is a hard vocation, but a priest is a priest every day of his life, all day long from sunrise to sunset and all the time in between, there is no day off, contrary to what some might think. It's unfortunate that some priests think they get days off, I don't understand the mentality behind that, because I, as a mother, don't get a day off and as a father, my husband doesn't get a day off, and God forbid either or us think we get a day off from marriage. In my estimation, it is shameful to think anyone gets a day off from their vocation. 

Vocations are the hats we can't take off at the end of the work day. They define us as individuals. There is no retirement from a vocation, a nun is a nun for life, she is cloistered and in a monestary in a life that she has given her will over to. She can't just decide she wants to go to the mall, or I guess she could but then why would she have chosen a cloistered life, it was her choice, I can't see a nun rebelling from this life she has chosen for herself to glorify God with. She has given up those trips to the mall for a life of prayer behind a wall, for the betterment of our society. She chose to be a nun, it is her vocation, it is a hat, more then likely, she will never take off. Those beautiful sisters who teach and nurse and minister to the needy, they will remain sisters every day of their lives, tending to the poor and marginalized, this is the vocation they have chosen, that God has called them too, there is no day off for the sisters and their tireless work for the young, the old and the marginalized. The same goes for priests. 

A time ago, sisters and priests would wear habits, so you would know who they are, now they wear what they want. It's very sad, their habits are gone and they are now in the crowd incognito. The incognito effect has allowed them a day off, they can do as they please. We don't want to over work them, we don't even know who they are anymore. Priests used to wear clericals, it is an honor to be a priest, these beautiful men who belong to our Holy Mother Church, should be identifiable in public, whether it is their scheduled day off or not. Clericals should be worn so we can pay them the respect that they deserve, and if they get spit at because there is such a hate for the church of Christ, well then I would refer them to the beatitudes, St.Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: [12] Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.  

If nothing else is taken from this, I would simply like to say, a vocation is not a job. There is no days off, sick time or vacation. The time clock started the day you decided to be the person God has called you to be. There is no punch out, no retirement and the uniform is one to be worn daily. You'll get a day off when you have finished the race and  you meet our Creator.

St.Paul to the Hebrews 7:1  For this Melchizedek was king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him: [2] To whom also Abraham divided the tithes of all: who first indeed by interpretation, is king of justice: and then also king of Salem, that is, king of peace: [3] Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest for ever.