The Catholic Family Podcast

Comment by Ozguru

March 26, 2008 @ 3:08 pm

Wow. Great podcast. It was interesting to spot the differences between the US and Australia.

Here, the hosts are not removed from the tabernacle before the mass - the tabernacle is treated as usual until after communion. As in a normal mass, the tabernacle is opened at the “sign of peace” so that the hosts can be distributed along side the hosts consecrated in this mass (the three priests consecrated 1250 hosts).

At the end of mass, one ciborium is left on the main alter (the rest of the ciboria magically vanish). This is carried to the altar of repose (Our Lady’s altar for our church) and left visible on the altar until midnight. At midnight the priest would normally lock it in the tabernacle (but we couldn’t find the key so he moved it to the tabernacle in the sacristy with the rest of the ciboria that vanished at the end of mass).

Moving the other ciboria (after communion) must be done by a priest, deacon or instituted acolyte (as per the new rules for the mass outlined in the GIRM) - that was me this year. As the priest starts the final procession to the altar of repose, one of the agile altar servers turns off the red light (because Christ is leaving the sanctuary).

From Our Lady’s altar, we take a shortcut behind the altar to the sacristy and emerge from the other side of the church to strip the cross and the candles from the church.

We had three priests, four instituted acolytes, one senior server (female), five altar servers (three boys, two girls). Deacons are a bit scarce in our diocese - I believe there are only two left (although this will change after WYD08).

Comment by Ozguru

March 26, 2008 @ 3:13 pm

I forgot to mention the foot washing. We had six people (four of them were candidates for baptism). Father washed their feet, I dried them. My daughter (one of the altar servers) carried the towels (one per person).

After their feet were washed, each of the six went to a different place in the church were there was a basin and washed peoples hands. The congregation would queue up at the nearest basin and the recently foot-washed person would pour a little water on their hands and someone would then dry them (the sponsor of the baptisimal candidate in four cases, an acolyte in the other two cases). This meant that most of the approximately 500 people were involved in some way.

I have never seen this done before - this year was the first time. I am not entirely sure it was a good idea - after all, Peter asks to have his hands (and head) washed in the reading and gets told “no” by Jesus.