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I understand that a new Altar servers' Sodality was set up last weekend and that details are available here.
I'm not joining. I joined the Archconfraternity of St Stephen forty-five years ago and I use its 1962 Handbook to this day when I serve. There is no reason to set up a new organisation, other than in an attempt to gain some form of "ownership" of the Extraordinary Form in the Church in England and Wales.
I'm not a member of the LMS either, for similar reasons.
And I normally attend OF Mass, even when I know by whom and how it's going to be celebrated.
Anything which tends towards the fostering of disunity ought to be shunned.
UPDATE:
What's all this about? This was in response to what I think was an intemperate message telling me (as it seemed to me) that I had to join this Sodality if I were to be considered a "real" 1962 EF Mass server. I responded "assertively" and was then made aware that those attending OF Mass when EF Mass was easily available were not considered necessarily suitable for serving at EF Mass. Lots of paraphrase here!
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10 comments:
well said, that man.
I don't agree with 'berenike' nor with this blogger although I would not want to push on him/her something they don't want.
Disunity is not, in my opinion, the reason behind the setting up of this new society. No more, using the same analogy, was the Holy Father's when he issued 'Summorum Pontificum'. The reason is, to my understanding, to ensure some continuity in those of our boys & men who wish to serve EF Masses properly.
Without wishing to denigrate those who serve the OF Mass, I'm sure it has to be agreed by attendees at those Masses that the servers are not always, in fact rarely, properly trained or even in many cases properly behaved.
I believe the ruling on serving is that the server should have made their First Holy Communion. I KNOW several servers where this is not the case. How can you expect a 6/7 year old to respect the sanctity of what they are doing when they haven't even reached the age of reason? Have you seen some of the girls serving? They totter around the sanctuary on high heels tossing their hair behind them.
No, sir/madam, the Society of St Tarcisius will serve a very useful purpose not for the LMS but for the Church.
As we used to say we serve AMDG - in case your Latin or memory are rusty that means 'Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam' - 'To the greater glory of God'
David O'Neill (a proud LMS member & 'geriatric' server.
Throwing a nutty again.
Dear David:
Yes, but, No, but.
TTony may wrong, I don't know, but you don't adress the point.
Is the Arch-confraternity so compromised by trendies that another is necessary? (It may well be, I 'd like to find out.)
You only manage the point, which I doubt any follower of this blog would dispute, that like much in modern liturgical practice, altar service generally lacks ......(fill in).
But if sayone hears mass, OF, said by FrX (He's Opus Dei, or whatever, ) amongst other things, FR x somehow manages to have servers who don't seem to lack it.
Without Fr X, I don't know if you can manage continuity.
BTWThe whole thing abt Holy communion 3-4 years after the age of reason is another kettle of fish.
God bless.
Unlike TTony,Mike, I'm not in the business of 'knocking' something about which I know very little i.e the Archconfraternity of St Stephen. None of us know precisely what the longterm effect of the Society of St Tarcisius will have on the Church. All we do know is that it's AIM is to ensure that servers of the EF of Holy Mass are properly trained to carry out the required duties AMDG.
David O'Neill
"Anything which tends towards the fostering of disunity ought to be shunned."
I agree.
For information, from one who knoweth:
The Society of St Tarcisius has been set up not to foster disunity, nor to claim ownership of the mass, nor with the claim that you have to be a member to be a 'proper' server, nor to denigrate servers of the OF or the Archconfraternity of St Stephen.
The reason it has been set up was simply that there was a demand. Parents of young boys wanted some vehicle for training their sons in the old mass. More experienced servers wanted to learn how to serve the Missa Cantata or High Mass. There was a wish for a network of those who regularly served the old mass, to share information, to support one another, and to learn to serve our Lord in a greater spirit of devotion.
The Society is spiritual and liturgical, not polemical or controversial.
Anybody who would like to see our membership leaflet should see the website, or email me at secretary@saint-tarcisius.org.uk
Saint Tarcisius
Fidelis usque ad mortem
You know, I assumed this was going to be for extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Is there any evidence St Tarcisius served at Mass?
No more than that he was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist. What is known (from tradition) is that he was a young man (12 yrs of age-ish) who gave his life to protect the Blessed Sacrament.
I will comment no more on this ridiculous argument. It seems to me that TTony's best bet is just not to join the new society.
David O'Neill
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