Sunday Meditation: Enough Already with the Hordes of "Extraordinary" Ministers of Communion

Do we really need all these "extraordinary" ministers?

I went to the Tridentine Mass today in Front Royal at St. John the Baptist. It's my Mass of choice if I can do it. Why? It's reverent, filled with a number of large devout families many with babes in arms, and, perhaps best of all, it is quiet, a respite from a world that's "all noise" as Screwtape would have it. There is no loud choir laughing and chatting in the back before Mass starts. There is no cantor who can't sing from the rear but has to come up to the sanctuary to perform.

Aside from an occasional crying infant the Church is quiet. One can actually adore Our Lord in union with the community all of us silently worshiping together. In a world desperately in need of silence, that is a real gift! And come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard a cell phone ring at the Latin Mass. Hmmm.... Are people more aware of what they are doing, perhaps?

Reverence for the Eucharist

I was thinking yesterday at Mass about why we need an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at our little church. It might lengthen the Mass five minutes if the priest communicated everyone. Is that really a grave inconvenience? Wouldn't it just give us more time to adore our Lord -- especially if the organist and cantor would forego the Communion performance?

My fellow blogger, Terry Nelson, has a post this morning that really hit home.... Check it out.

Another problem which may affect reverence for the Blessed Sacrament