Wednesday, December 17, 2014
ALTAR RAILING RESTORATION WORK UNDERWAY AT SAINT JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH, MACON, GEORGIA
It is finally happening and after 10 years ago having been removed, the altar railing is being restored to St. Joseph Church. We are using some of the original railing but new marble has been fabricated as well. There will be two gates in the center (which aren't quite ready) and one gate in the middle of both of our side chapels. Apart from the gates, it should be completed by Sunday or early next week before Christmas. What a nice Christmas gift for the parish!
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24 comments:
WOW....you made my day...my week...my month...my year...my LIFE.
Congratulations to Father and St. Joseph's from the western part of the diocese! I can't wait to see it.
Oh Father, how wonderful! For Christmas! Will people be invited to kneel for Holy Communion? Will you have the white rail cloths that are flipped into place just before Communion?
Congratulations. And your parish is so blessed to have you. I hope this last week before Christmas is one of great graces for you.
Yippee!!! Awesome news!!!
"Will people be invited to kneel for Holy Communion?"
Why would people need to be invited to kneel? If anyone wishing to receive while kneeling, simply goes to the altar rail and kneels, can one imagine that--contrary to Vatican directives--the priest would decline to give them communion there?
Wow! Looking good! Thank you.
What's to stop the next priest from dismantling? God forbid.
This is about a $200,000 project given by donors for this purpose, one a huge bequest.
At the ordinary Form Mass those distributing Holy Communion will stand behind the rail without moving and people will either stand or kneel to receive as is their option.
For the EF Mass people will kneel and the priest will travel the length of the railing.
The bishop would stop a priest from dismantling this as the bishop is the one who approved it being restored. I could not have done this without his approval in other words.
Will there be altar rail cushions to kneel on in front of the altar rail?
Beautiful! Hope other churches follow.
Yes there will be a cushion the full lenght
Why distribute is two different ways? Do we now have an Ordinary Sacrament of Communion, as well as an Extraordinary Sacrament of Communion? You have a rail, move up and down the rail and people simply stand or kneel at the rail as is their desire. Heck with more than a tenth of second to be at the rail before receiving people may even be able to contemplate what they are doing.
Templar, you are surely right. I know of many churches which have retained their rails and everyone kneels for Communion in both forms of the Roman Rite. I pointed out in an earlier comment that the reason for rails is not to facilitate kneeling Communion but to distinguish the sanctuary which is the preserve of the clergy from the nave.
If FrAJM stations a female EMHC behind the rail in order to minister to a standing communicant in the OF he is negating this important distinction and could have saved himself a lot of money.
Fr, please do not put female EMHC's (or any) behind the rail.
"Heck with more than a tenth of second to be at the rail before receiving people may even be able to contemplate what they are doing."
Two points in this one sentence:
(1) Distribution of communion goes much faster when the priest moves back and forth along the altar rail. Because he then does not have to wait a moment for each communicant to move into position. Those moments of waiting add up to a large part of the total time communion of the faithful takes.
(2) For the communicant, reception at the altar rail is a much more contemplative and deeply spiritual experience. Because while waiting for the priest to approach, he can concentrate on prayer of preparation, rather than on getting himself into position. And after receiving, he can remain a moment for a prayer of thanksgiving, rather than having to move on and proceed on the fly.
Father, if you distribute back and forth across the rail for the NO, you'll surely cut Communion time, and thus, perhaps, cut the need of EMHCs.
The church rules that allow Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion do not distinguish between men and women, and there would be no reason to exclude them here at St. Joseph. I am not a EMHC, but the parish could not run without good people like them and our other volunteers.
Parishes couldn't run without EMHCs, Parish Councils and other volunteers? Really? However did we manage for the first 2000 odd years?
I wonder how we did it without phones, computers, cars, blogs and the like. Templar is 2015!
The parish could do very well without EMHC's, thank you very much.
From Redemptionis Sacramentum (Pope St. John Paul II)
-norms concerning how Mass is to be celebrated and how the Eucharist is to be treated.
People who oppose the Church’s teachings serve in special roles at Mass (e.g., lector, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion) -Prohibited
(I wonder in how many parishes that is not always the case)
The term “eucharistic minister” and similar terms are used - Discouraged
If the chalice is offered to the laity then I concede that EMHC might be a necessary evil, but there is no reason why they should be in the sanctuary. The priest(s) and deacon(s) take a section of the rail to administer the Host, moving along it, and those who receive the precious Blood (which won't be everybody) move to the side and receive standing from a minister who remains on their side of the rail.
Women (or men for that matter) in street clothes should not be in the sanctuary and should not handle the Body of Christ unless there is an urgent reason for them to do so.
Congratulations, yes, simply walk down the length of the altar rail as in the EF, let them stand or kneel, it also looks less "clunky" this way as well :)
With respect Father, cars, blogs, computers and phones are changes that occurred in the world. Their utility effects (for pro or con) the world AND the Church. Parish Councils, EMHCs are purely Church "things". They effect only the Church and not the world, so your comparison is apples and oranges. To this very moment SSPX Parishes run without EMHCs and parish Councils proving it can be done, and based on results it can even be argued done better, when the laity act in a Lay capacity, and the clergy in a clerical capacity, and never the twain shall meet.
If I may…the church I served as pastor was old and had an altar rail. I chose to have the congregation come down and kneel for Communion in both kinds.
On a good Sunday, we would have 150 people in church, and I and an Elder would serve them all moving up and down the rail as they knelt to receive.
It always went quite smoothly and could be done in 12-15 minutes tops.
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