|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Fake Mass
|
Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
|
Posted
No, I don't want to debate the validity of anything debatable, I want to talk about seminarians learning the rite. Finally, I'm in my last year of seminary, so I'm taking what's formally called "Liturgical Celebration I" and informally known as "Fake Mass Class."
I'll be doing my first real fake mass (ie. the whole thing together, in class, assessed) in about a month's time, so I've been doing fake fake masses with my seminarian classmates to prepare, breaking the order into four parts and working on one each week.
I was just wondering how other people worked through this process. What surprised you about presiding at Mass (etc.) when you started doing it, or practicing it? If you've helped other people go through this process, how did you do it?
I think we're lucky, in that we go in to this comfortable presiding at celebrations of the Hours and other devotions, from very informal to pretty solemn, and preaching at these from time to time. So, we go into this with decent general presidential comfort, and we're just learning the Mass as 'one more rite,' rather than having to get used to projection, movement around the sanctuary, reading from a book someone else is holding, etc. Serving and emceeing mass a lot helps with familiarity too (not to mention just going every day).
--------------------
Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Vaticanchic
Shipmate
# 13869
|
Posted
In the CofE, deacons are normally ordained priest a year after leaving seminary for the final time, and so this duty generally falls to the training incumbent.
In my case, it was a senior AC priest in a nearby parish who helped me practice, though I had been deaconing at different priests' masses, often daily, often simple, sometimes very grand, during the year before.
--------------------
"Sink, Burn or Take Her a Prize"
Posts: 697 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
|
Posted
A friend of mine told me she was really uncomfortable doing the fake Mass at seminary, because it felt too real and she wasn't ordained.
I can't speak to it directly, but it seems to me pretty similar to a wedding rehearsal. Some of our priests don't say all the words at the rehearsal, as if saying them would render the next day's service unnecessary; but others know that going through all the words might be helpful to the couple, and, as intent counts, it is just a rehearsal.
--------------------
I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Olaf
Shipmate
# 11804
|
Posted
Sorry, Hart, I can't help you with presiding, but as a person who speaks regularly in public and plays for services in emergencies...record yourself and listen. For me, it helps quite a bit with pacing and breathing. Often when you're "up front," time slows down and you speed up!
Posts: 8953 | From: Ad Midwestem | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Olaf:
Sorry, Hart, I can't help you with presiding, but as a person who speaks regularly in public and plays for services in emergencies...record yourself and listen. For me, it helps quite a bit with pacing and breathing. Often when you're "up front," time slows down and you speed up!
Yes, watching a video of yourself isn't fun, but it is useful. I did it what seems like two lifetimes ago as part of teacher training, and now we do it as part of preaching class. Not Lit Cel for some reason though.
--------------------
Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
|
Posted
The local Episcopal seminary had a "Practicum" for third-year students where they did, among other things, the "fake Mass" type of thing you've mentioned. All the vestments, gestures, words, the whole nine yards. One of the students told me it wasn't uncommon for a student to weep the first time he or she was dressed in a chasuble. So I think it was taken very seriously, and I'm sure yours is too.
I have one suggestion which touches on some of the comments about "using all the words," if I understood that correctly. I think it's critical that you practice with all the words and all the gestures. I work with a Christian Formation program called Godly Play, and it requires the storytellers to learn the stories by heart. Here's the thing: We encourage them to practice with all the props and manipulatives that are part of the storytelling, because you can't really memorize the stories without them. Picking up the little Moses character and moving him to the little Mount Sinai actually helps you remember the words from the Exodus story. I hope you (all) don't find that comparison to be trivializing the work of the priest, because I don't think it is.
I believe there's a parallel to learning how to preside at the Eucharist. It seems to me that learning the words of the Great Thanksgiving would be so much easier if you learned them with the postures and gestures that go along with them. I think there's muscle memory that comes into play. I hope that makes sense.
--------------------
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Barefoot Friar
Ship's Shoeless Brother
# 13100
|
Posted
I think in some respects you will always be learning, too. And I know you'll keep your eyes open to that.
I never really had anyone sit down and say, "ok, this is what you do." Well, Circuit Rider did teach me a whole lot, but I remember most of it being by demonstrating and then just mimicking what he did. Of course, Ye Olde Methodists™ don't have the same requirements on them as you do, at least as I understand it.
I imagine I'll have something about it in seminary. And I imagine by then I could probably teach the course. But I'll be paying attention anyway, because I'm sure I'll learn something.
--------------------
Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. -- Desmond Tutu
Posts: 1621 | From: Warrior Mountains | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
|
Posted
This is different for Russian Orthodox priests. I don't know about the other local churches but there is a strong tradition in the Russian Orthodox Church of the "Forty Liturgies". That is, a newly-ordained priest will either concelebrate the Divine Liturgy or serve as chief celebrant but under supervision, every day for the first forty days after his ordination. I have seen an example of the latter, in which the new priest served while the senior priest stood in the altar, guiding and correcting as necessary. I suppose it's like those intensive driving courses. You spend a block of time learning and constantly having that learning reinforced every day, and by the end of it you know what you're doing and it becomes instinctive.
While I am sure that there is some preparation that goes on beforehand in terms of instruction, there will generally be an expectation that his service as a subdeacon and deacon, and the intimate link and interaction between the service of the latter and that of the priest, will have given him some very good idea of how a priest serves over time. Yet, allowing for local exceptions, as far as I am aware, there would be nothing like the sort of thing described in the OP, in which somebody not ordained to the priesthood would stand in the priest's place, saying and doing what a priest would at the Divine Liturgy.
It is partly for this reason that many of us have concerns when somebody is elevated through the orders very quickly - subdeacon one day, deacon the next day, priest the next - especially in the missions where, due to clergy shortage or working priests, there isn't the opportunity to serve the "Forty Liturgies". Quite apart from the matter that such a person will not have the instinctiveness about altar service that comes naturally from serving in lower ranks for a while, how will he then train a subdeacon or deacon when he himself existed in those orders for little over 24 hours? That isn't to call into question the holiness, piety, or worthiness of such priests - many of them are fine, I am sure - but simply to acknowledge that there are problems with this approach, although it is often done out of necessity, and even though there are glorified precedents for this. My own parish priest was a subdeacon for over a year, a deacon for four years and, as a newly-ordained working priest with a family, went to stay at a monastery and managed twenty-one daily Liturgies, which isn't bad going for the missions.
As subdeacon, I have seen newly-ordained priests do/not do things that I knew were wrong but haven't felt that it has been my place to say anything. Although there was one occasion when I did have to correct a senior deacon because I knew what he was doing wrong, and my bishop knew that I knew, and looked at me to signal me to go out into the nave and correct him. It was awkward, but needed to be done because it wasn't one of those things that could be quietly ignored without affecting the rest of the service. Then I have heard stories of nuns and elderly ladies who intimately know the Liturgy from regular attendance similarly correcting new clergy, and the latter receiving the help with good grace, so maybe it isn't so bad.
Perhaps in fast-track cases, we would benefit from adopting the "fake mass" method but I think that there would be something of an aversion to it due to the honour in which that role is held, and the perception that somebody saying the words and doing the actions of that role without being ordained to it might be seen as not showing the respect due to it, without there being any suggestion of wilful mockery.
--------------------
If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Circuit Rider
Ship's Itinerant
# 13088
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Barefoot Friar:
... I never really had anyone sit down and say, "ok, this is what you do." Well, Circuit Rider did teach me a whole lot, ...
Took me all of five minutes, which let's you know how much I really know. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
--------------------
I felt my heart strangely warmed ... and realised I had spilt hot coffee all over myself.
Posts: 715 | From: Somewhere in the Heart of Dixie | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
PD
Shipmate
# 12436
|
Posted
"Dry Mass Class" was the term in my seminary, and in some respects it was a throw back to the 1950s. One of the tutors taught one how to execute the rubrics, but no-one was terribly bothered with the theory and theology behind them. When they had drilled that into you, they issued you with a missal, a chalice and paten and a set of altar linen and you were sent away to practice with the results being reviewed once a week by your tutor.
However, this all happened before ordination to the diaconate, so most of us needed a refresher before ordination to the priesthood and eventually most dioceses started including a Dry Mass Class in their Post-Ordination Training classes (a.k.a. - Potty Training.)
The big thing about 'Dry Mass Class' was that it was big wake-up call that ordination was only three or four months away. Quite a few guys had strong emotional reactions to that realisation.
PD
--------------------
Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mamacita:
I have one suggestion which touches on some of the comments about "using all the words," if I understood that correctly. I think it's critical that you practice with all the words and all the gestures. I work with a Christian Formation program called Godly Play, and it requires the storytellers to learn the stories by heart. Here's the thing: We encourage them to practice with all the props and manipulatives that are part of the storytelling, because you can't really memorize the stories without them. Picking up the little Moses character and moving him to the little Mount Sinai actually helps you remember the words from the Exodus story.
Good ol' engaging multiple learning modalities (what? I'm Gardnerian!).
One thing I heard a priest say was the most important thing learned in seminary before presiding at the Eucharist was that while the professor encouraged them all to learn the words by heart, the professor also said to never rely on one's memory but read it from the book. That way you avoid some (not all!) of the inevitable slipups.
And then there's always the best advice I ever heard for anyone serving at the altar: "Just breathe."
--------------------
Looking for a simple solution to all life's problems? We are proud to present obstinate denial. Accept no substitute. Accept nothing.
--Night Vale Radio Twitter Account
Posts: 10281 | From: Beervana | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
|
Posted
One CofE theological college in the AC tradition had what might be described as dummy altars in each student's room.
--------------------
sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
PD
Shipmate
# 12436
|
Posted
By the time I was priested the gestures and words went together, so much so that I find it difficult to celebrate in a Low Church manner. The verbal side of celebrating is noticeably less fluent when I am using the customary (for me) ceremonial.
Of the various version of the liturgy I am most comortable with the Anglican Missal (American Edition) or the 1928 BCP; after that the English Missal and the 1970 Scottish Liturgy. I do not find changing between version of the text that I am familiar with difficult, but it might be a bit hairy if you put CW or 1979 BCP in front of me. Come to think about it CW would be particularly bad as I would half-remember the 1980 ASB and stagger about accordingly!
Of course, this precisely illustrates the point of Dry mass Class - to get you familiar with the liturgy so you do not make an ass of yourself at your first Mass.
The little altar in the rooms idea sounds nice. The favourite places for practicing when I was at Sem. were the vestment chest in the sacristy, the altar in the former chapel, and the map chest in the back corner of the library all of which were about the right height - 3'4"
PD
--------------------
Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
PD
Shipmate
# 12436
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
Ha - I bet i know which college it is - but only ONE altar in each room?
Nicely on target, Leo. Trouble is I now have to get the coffee off my keyboard.
PD
[ 06. September 2012, 15:31: Message edited by: PD ]
--------------------
Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Choirboy
Shipmate
# 9659
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spiffy:
One thing I heard a priest say was the most important thing learned in seminary before presiding at the Eucharist was that while the professor encouraged them all to learn the words by heart, the professor also said to never rely on one's memory but read it from the book. That way you avoid some (not all!) of the inevitable slipups.
Almost. Not that I've ever presided at mass. However, I've led my share of the prayers of the people. For some reason, whenever I read our diocesan cycle of prayer in which we are asked to pray for all Ecumenical Ministries, it comes out as "Ecumenical Mysteries".
Cue the Circus.
Posts: 2994 | From: Minneapolis, Minnesota USA | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
|
Posted
Practice the choreography -- ideally with someone else observing you. Practice, practice, practice.
Practice with the liturgy simultaneously, sure, but as noted previously, always have a written liturgy to refer to. No matter how many times you have participated in the liturgy, no matter how many times you have practiced your part aloud, there are days when your mind will go completely blank up there.
A colleague of mine's pastoral mentor even suggested keeping a copy of the Lord's Prayer within easy view during the Words of Institution...because there are times when you'll forget even that.
--------------------
Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
anne
Shipmate
# 73
|
Posted
A couple of things that were useful to me:
Thinking consciously about who you are 'talking to' at different parts of the mass - is it God or the congregation? - will help this to show in your voice.
Make sure you practice wearing the vestments appropriate to your tradition - that way you'll put the book somewhere that you can still see it around the arm of the chasuble.
If your tradition uses more than one Eucharistic Prayer, practice with more than one - in the CofE Common Worship offers a number of prayers and the pattern of gesture is quite different in some of them.
Welcome to lifelong learning on this (and everything else about priesthood.)
With every blessing
Anne
--------------------
‘I would have given the Church my head, my hand, my heart. She would not have them. She did not know what to do with them. She told me to go back and do crochet' Florence Nightingale
Posts: 338 | From: Devon | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
|
Posted
Readers in the CofS are advised to always carry a copy of the Lord's prayer in their Bibles always, as insurance against the time they forget.
Jengie
--------------------
"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by PD:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
Ha - I bet i know which college it is - but only ONE altar in each room?
Nicely on target, Leo. Trouble is I now have to get the coffee off my keyboard.
PD
Each little altar appeared to be part of the fabric of the building, a structure erected in the 1960s. Presumably the architects had not foreseen the advent of the Westward position. On the other hand, perhaps they had foreseen the reform of the Reform?
--------------------
sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
|
Posted
There was no "Mass training" at St Stephen's House when I was there. The Principal (Edwin Barnes) thought it was the job of a curate's incumbent to do it. He had a point, but I think he overlooked the fact that the incumbents themselves might be pretty clueless.
My training incumbent was excellent, and I studied how to "do Mass" by deaconing every Mass I attended during my deacon's year.
I think I've said this here before, but I'll repeat it anyway. For my money, the best advice for a would-be liturgical president is the same that Laurence Olivier allegedly gave to would-be actors: "Say the lines and don't bump into the scenery."
--------------------
"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Readers in the CofS are advised to always carry a copy of the Lord's prayer in their Bibles always, as insurance against the time they forget.
The Lord's Prayer simply terrifies me (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration - but I do need to have the written form beside me). The longer I have been in ministry, the more nervous I am in leading it.
It's a bit like actors who have been in long-running plays. Apparently, after about 8 months of doing 8 shows a week, they tend to start forgetting their lines ...
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pyx_e
Quixotic Tilter
# 57
|
Posted
While deeply engrossed with a teacup and saucer a spider walked across the altar up and over the saucer. My incumbent whispered in my ear “If this was real you would have to eat that.”
Fly Safe. Pyx_e
--------------------
It is better to be Kind than right.
Posts: 9778 | From: The Dark Tower | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
|
Posted
but the rest of the CofE does.
--------------------
sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Readers in the CofS are advised to always carry a copy of the Lord's prayer in their Bibles always, as insurance against the time they forget.
The Lord's Prayer simply terrifies me (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration - but I do need to have the written form beside me). The longer I have been in ministry, the more nervous I am in leading it.
Try having the people sing it instead. Associating music with texts aids recall.
Ask me to pray the Slavonic Our Father in a speaking voice and I'll not be able to get past the first line without difficulty. Ask me to sing it and I'll probably manage about three quarters of it, and my parish has only been doing it since the end of June.
--------------------
If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
seasick
...over the edge
# 48
|
Posted
leo
You know full well that the place for the discussion of the ordination of women is Dead Horses. Remarks like that do nothing to further discussion in any case.
seasick, Eccles host
--------------------
We believe there is, and always was, in every Christian Church, ... an outward priesthood, ordained by Jesus Christ, and an outward sacrifice offered therein. - John Wesley
Posts: 5769 | From: A world of my own | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sober Preacher's Kid
Presbymethegationalist
# 12699
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Scrumpmeister:
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Readers in the CofS are advised to always carry a copy of the Lord's prayer in their Bibles always, as insurance against the time they forget.
The Lord's Prayer simply terrifies me (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration - but I do need to have the written form beside me). The longer I have been in ministry, the more nervous I am in leading it.
Try having the people sing it instead. Associating music with texts aids recall.
Ask me to pray the Slavonic Our Father in a speaking voice and I'll not be able to get past the first line without difficulty. Ask me to sing it and I'll probably manage about three quarters of it, and my parish has only been doing it since the end of June.
That's what CRIMOND is for ![[Angel]](graemlins/angel.gif)
--------------------
NDP Federal Convention Ottawa 2018: A random assortment of Prots and Trots.
Posts: 7646 | From: Peterborough, Upper Canada | Registered: Jun 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
|
Posted
I wasn't aware that the CofS had gone over to singing the Metrical Psalms in Old Church Slavonic ... must be all those asylum-seekers in the Western Isles!
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
I wasn't aware that the CofS had gone over to singing the Metrical Psalms in Old Church Slavonic ... must be all those asylum-seekers in the Western Isles!
Seldom do I use "LOL" because I think that most times that people use it, they are not actually laughing out loud, but I certainly was this time. Thank you for that. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Here's what we use, rather than Crimond, (pace, SPK).
[ 08. September 2012, 07:37: Message edited by: The Scrumpmeister ]
--------------------
If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
|
Posted
Here is a version of the Lord's prayer in Common Metre (yes it is suggested singing to Crimmond). There are however a variety of versions out there for congregational singing with varying levels of metrical pace imposed on them. The closer to the original the less metrical and the more metrical the further it gets from the original. For a piece that is the only piece repeated Sunday by Sunday moving too far away from the words feels awkward. However we are metrical singers and do sing. So it is a bit of a bind.
Jengie
--------------------
"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
|
Posted
That isn't bad for metrical singing. The first line is grammatically incorrect, though. It is in the third person while it should be in the second. (The Father is being addressed; not spoken about).
Does anybody have a link to Crimmond, either as sheet music or a recording?
--------------------
If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
|
Posted
You really need a link to this hymn tune?
Jengie
--------------------
"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Olaf
Shipmate
# 11804
|
Posted
From this site, you can find a harmonized PDF with descant. There is even a more awful MIDI recording than at the site linked above by Jengie.
Posts: 8953 | From: Ad Midwestem | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
You really need a link to this hymn tune?
Oh, yes. I know the one. Thank you.
It's one of those hymns that I seem to have picked up, maybe from visiting other churches for special occasions or perhaps listening to American Christian radio programmes in my Caribbean childhood, but which I cannot remember being sung regularly, if at all, at any church to which I have belonged, which is why I did not know the name of the tune.
--------------------
If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
|
Posted
Well, it happened. And I think it went pretty well, certainly I got positive feedback from people. I'll get more detailed comments later.
The whole experience was actually slightly surreal, but in a positive way. It definitely makes me feel more comfortable about moving into that kind of presidential role, in terms of being able to get a grip on the technique. While we were genuinely praying throughout (and there were some very prayerful moments for me), I also know how totally different when the elements actually become consecrated.
I decided not to wear a stole. Call it superstitious, but it just felt more appropriate. Looking down and seeing alb and chasuble was odd enough. It was definitely helpful to get a sense of how different arm movements feel in these vestments, especially as I never normally where anything that feels like a chasuble. I wear albs quite often anyway, but they have sleeves. I managed not to knock anything over with the fabric, so I survived that pitfall.
I'd practiced the opening rites enough that they flowed well, and then the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word gave some nice time to breath. Preaching 'got me into the mood' for what was coming next, which is an odd way to put it but captures the experience quite well.
The offertory is the part that I found the hardest when I was practicing, but it went fine, at least externally. I think that might be a part that takes the longest to make prayerful, because it's the most complicated part. The Eucharist prayer was actually a very peaceful experience (I did 3... I'm not sure if EP1 would be so peaceful!).
The rest of mass went fine. It was an interesting embodied reminder of what formation is leading to, as well as a useful exercise in starting to learn the rite and relax me that it's not all that difficult to get handle on.
--------------------
Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Olaf
Shipmate
# 11804
|
Posted
Thanks for the follow-up.
I suppose the good thing about the offertory is that you [and perhaps a server and deacon] are the only ones who would really notice if you made an error. Many of us common pewfolk probably don't pay any attention at all.
Two questions pop into mind:
Did you have the assistance of a "deacon"?
Will your next Fake Mass be a Pontifical one? ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Posts: 8953 | From: Ad Midwestem | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adam.
Like as the
# 4991
|
Posted
No deacon, just a regular server, and definitely nothing pontifical! I wonder how bishops-elect practice? I assume I'll never need to find out.
Next semester, we start adding other rites into the mix and "deacon"ing for each other.
--------------------
Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog
Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Trisagion
Shipmate
# 5235
|
Posted
Having just got a new bishop, I can tell you that there was a great deal of practising.
--------------------
ceterum autem censeo tabula delenda esse
Posts: 3923 | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Triple Tiara
Ship's Papabile
# 9556
|
Posted
...... for years.
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
--------------------
I'm a Roman. You may call me Caligula.
Posts: 5905 | From: London, England | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mama Thomas
Shipmate
# 10170
|
Posted
Glad it went down, OK, Hart. God bless you from now on until you come to the Real Thing (well, and after too!)
Pax et bonum
--------------------
All hearts are open, all desires known
Posts: 3742 | From: Somewhere far away | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view
