Sunday Celebrations in the absence of a priest

[Peter Jones]

The Directory is worth a read, given that in, perhaps, the not-too-distant future, there will an increase in SCAP.

The Directory - surprisingly perhaps - makes no mention of the fifth century practice in Rome, where the city churches did not have "Mass" on a Sunday but a Service of the Word with Holy Communion. Mass - with the Eucharistic Prayer - was celebrated by the Pope and a piece of consecrated bread (fermentum) was sent from that celebration to the city churches where the non-consecrated bread and wine was deemed consecrated through contact with the fermentum.

Say today, within a Deanery where two or three churches might not have a priest on any given Sunday -

i) Could the practice of the fermentum be revived?

OR

2) Could a number of consecrated elements be taken straight from the Dean's Mass, in a ciborium, to outlying churches?

I suggest that such practices could link the outlying communities with the Mass being celebrated (some distance away) much more consciously and strongly rather than the practice of communion from a reserved Sacrament in a tabernacle. Please discuss sensibly and keep on topic.

[Peter Jones]

I should note that the Directory urges people to go to a full Sunday Mass, if possible, even if Mass is in another town. Yet given a lack of public transport in some areas on a Sunday, circumstances for a SCAP could arise.

[Southern Comfort]

For better or worse, the Church has moved on since 1988. That legisation has to a certain extent been superseded by Redemptionis Sacramentum, 2004, especially these paragraphs:

[164.] “If participation at the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible on account of the absence of a sacred minister or for some other grave cause,”[269] then it is the Christian people’s right that the diocesan Bishop should provide as far as he is able for some celebration to be held on Sundays for that community under his authority and according to the Church’s norms. Sunday celebrations of this specific kind, however, are to be considered altogether extraordinary. All Deacons or lay members of Christ’s faithful who are assigned a part in such celebrations by the diocesan Bishop should strive “to keep alive in the community a genuine ‘hunger’ for the Eucharist, so that no opportunity for the celebration of Mass will ever be missed, also taking advantage of the occasional presence of a Priest who is not impeded by Church law from celebrating Mass”.[270]

[165.] It is necessary to avoid any sort of confusion between this type of gathering and the celebration of the Eucharist.[271] The diocesan Bishops, therefore, should prudently discern whether Holy Communion ought to be distributed in these gatherings. The matter would appropriately be determined in view of a more ample co-ordination in the Bishops’ Conference, to be put into effect after the recognitio of the acts by the Apostolic See through the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. It will be preferable, moreover, when both a Priest and a Deacon are absent, that the various parts be distributed among several faithful rather than having a single lay member of the faithful direct the whole celebration alone. Nor is it ever appropriate to refer to any member of the lay faithful as “presiding” over the celebration.

[166.] Likewise, especially if Holy Communion is distributed during such celebrations, the diocesan Bishop, to whose exclusive competence this matter pertains, must not easily grant permission for such celebrations to be held on weekdays, especially in places where it was possible or would be possible to have the celebration of Mass on the preceding or the following Sunday. Priests are therefore earnestly requested to celebrate Mass daily for the people in one of the churches entrusted to their care.

from which it seems clear that services with distribution of Holy Communion in general are in the course of being discouraged.

In a southern diocese such a celebration has actually been banned on Sundays (but not weekdays) for a number of years. One reason for this was that such services were being regularly scheduled on Sundays alongside regular Masses. For example, Fr X would preside at a Mass in his own parish, and then abandon the second Mass to become a SCAP while he went off to another parish to supply for Fr Y or Fr Z who was away (and pick up a fee for doing so). This was felt to be an abuse and thus all Sunday SCAPs were stopped.

[alan29]

Did I understand correctly that weekday "communion services" are discouraged? They have certainly been extremely common in this neck of the woods - a couple every week up to recently. And led by a single eucharistic minister.
If held on a Sunday, would people envisage a rather more low-key musical contribution?

[Peter Jones]

Did I understand correctly that weekday "communion services" are discouraged?

If I am away here on a weekday, I never, ever arrange for a eucharistic celebration in the absence of a priest. There are plenty of other parishes nearby where daily Mass is available and I encourage the faithful to attend one of these. I do realise that my circumstances are different from a town with one catholic church. In a big city, the next parish is only a short bus ride away. (There are five other parishes within a mile-and-a-half-or-so radius of my own)

[alan29]

Did I understand correctly that weekday "communion services" are discouraged?

If I am away here on a weekday, I never, ever arrange for a eucharistic celebration in the absence of a priest. There are plenty of other parishes nearby where daily Mass is available and I encourage the faithful to attend one of these. I do realise that my circumstances are different from a town with one catholic church. In a big city, the next parish is only a short bus ride away. (There are five other parishes within a mile-and-a-half-or-so radius of my own)

We are urban too with one church a short distance away. I think the feeling is that something should be happening in church every day and we don't seem to have many alternatives to the eucharist. And our congregation gets more elderly which can be a problem with getting around. At ours we have started reciting morning prayer before mass - maybe that might be a way forward on weekdays where there is no priest.

[Southern Comfort]

Did I understand correctly that weekday "communion services" are discouraged?

Yes. See para 166 quoted above. "The diocesan Bishop must not easily grant permission for such celebrations....."

Of course, where they are already being held, the question is how to foster communities of prayer without changing things too violently. It's a very delicate area.

You often hear people say "If I didn't get Communion, I wouldn't bother to come." That's precisely the point. With the emphasis on "getting Communion" rather than a time of prayer with the local community, we are in danger of changing from being a Eucharist-centred (some would say Eucharist-dominated) community into a Communion-fixated community. If Communion is constantly divorced from the action of the Eucharist, i.e. the Mass, there is additionally a danger of devaluing the Mass. After all, why come to Mass if you can always "get" Communion? That's what Rome is really worried about, and more than a few bishops too.

People whose main purpose is getting Communion as spiritual food are forgetting that the communal reception of Holy Communion is an action, the culmination of what happens in the Eucharistic Prayer. Without the EP it has a different meaning and, the theologians tell us, the fruits of receiving it are different outside Mass from within Mass. Yes, it's the same Jesus; no, it's not the same graces you are getting.

Am I right in thinking that we have discussed this topic before on this Forum?

[Peter Jones]

Am I right in thinking that we have discussed this topic before on this Forum?

Yes. But I do not think we attempted before to connect outlying SCAPs with a principal celebration of Mass in an area. If the fruit of that sacrifice is taken to the SCAPs, what graces are received?
(Decides to look up some sacramental theology.....)

[Peter Jones]

Put another way..... "we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice" (EP III) - can that be done by a separated assembly, without a priest and 10 miles from the altar? How might a connection be made?

[alan29]

What are the practicalities in carrying large quantities of hosts from a central celebration to outlying communion services. I wholeheartedly agree with the points about hiving communion off from mass. During a recent episcopal visitation we were instructed that we all came to Mass on Sundays to worship Jesus in the Eucharist. Harrumph!

[Peter Jones]

..... If Communion is constantly divorced from the action of the Eucharist, i.e. the Mass, there is additionally a danger of devaluing the Mass.

Absolutely! And also a danger that Communion is seen as something of a "commodity" (albeit freely-given).

[Peter Jones]

During a recent episcopal visitation we were instructed that we all came to Mass on Sundays to worship Jesus in the Eucharist. Harrumph!

I suggest meditation on the doxology concluding the EP......

[Peter Jones]

What are the practicalities in carrying large quantities of hosts from a central celebration to outlying communion services?

A veil, possibly, over the ciborium - a white cloth to wrap around - a strong, secure box or case - a secure car boot. (Memories of a Deanery visitation Mass where a former, deceased Bishop was present at the celebration. I was being given a lift home by the Cathedral Dean. I noticed not just a locked but also sealed box on the back seat of the car (Too big for the boot) - "What's that?", I asked ...... "That's St Chad", came the reply.)

[alan29]

During a recent episcopal visitation we were instructed that we all came to Mass on Sundays to worship Jesus in the Eucharist. Harrumph!

I suggest meditation on the doxology concluding the EP......

Aye...... <keeps counsel about what he would actually like to suggest>

[Peter Jones]

Put another way..... "we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice" (EP III) - can that be done by a separated assembly, without a priest and 10 miles from the altar? How might a connection be made?

Just realising that I could be drifting into the realms of old manuals of theology that asked questions such as:

If a priest walked by a bakery and (even inadvertently) muttered "This is my Body", was all the bread in the shop now consecrated?

and

On A Sunday, I am sick in bed one hundred yards from the church but I can just see the altar through my bedroom and a church window. As I can see the host and chalice elevated during the Canon, have I fulfilled my Sunday obligation?

I can't help feeling that if all that was on offer for the faithful in a particular area on a Sunday was a SCAP, many would feel very dissatisfied. (Their gruntles would be thoroughly dissed.)