Q: I’ve wondered recently what a parish can do to enhance Assembly participation at weddings and funerals. I realize that, most of the time, the Assembly is composed of Catholics and non-Catholics on these occasions, but even when the church is full of Catholics for a wedding or a funeral, it seems that the level of Assembly participation is diminished: muted responses and singing, hesitation with posture changes. I’m sure the difference in the ritual creates some uncertainty among well-practiced Catholics. And I honestly like the thought that an Assembly who are familiar with each other and who pray together …

Q: I’m emailing with a liturgical/pastoral question. I’m on pastoral year as a seminarian this year and have been tasked with training altar servers. In the fifth grade class, we have several non-Catholics (I know one is baptized Presbyterian, not sure about the others). My gut told me that they should not be allowed to serve, and I told them so, but when asked to give a reason, I floundered and said something about needing to be in communion with the Church. I want to speak to these students again in order to apologize if they felt rejected, but then …

Q: As an extraordinary minister of holy communion, may I administer viaticum to the dying? And if I do it, may a priest administer it again later? Oh, and if I have one host left when I bring communion to the sick, may I consume it? == A: An extraordinary minister of holy communion may indeed administer viaticum to the dying. The Church is anxious to share communion under those circumstances, so permissions are broad. Yes, a priest may administer viaticum again later, and so may you. But it’s a good idea to keep the pastor informed, so he knows …

Q: Like many of us, I am so appreciative of everything that you do to educate and enlighten us. At the parish where I serve as the volunteer choir Director, a new, young, and very conservative pastor was just put in place back in June. Over the past month, he has instituted the use of kneelers for the reception of communion. Additionally, he has eliminated participation of the laity by discontinuing the offertory procession. We no longer have extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist either. In checking the USCCB guidelines, the proper posture for the reception of the Eucharist is to …

Q: It is my understanding that there isn’t a prescribed order for lighting Advent candles.  If so, if we place the pink candle at the 9 o’clock spot, we can start lighting the 1st purple candle at the 3 o’clock spot on the First Sunday of Advent.  Thanks for your guidance. == A: Here are some previous posts: https://paulturner.org/advent-wreaths/ The blessing is in the Book of Blessings. Just light one candle on the first Sunday, increase to 2 candles on the second, and save the pink candle to join the others on the third Sunday.

Q: I am touching base about the OCIA with a question regarding the reception of validly baptized candidates for full communion.  In short, does the OCIA say anything about when they should be received into full communion? All I can find is OCIA 409 that states the high point of their reception will be at the Easter Vigil.  Yet, the OCIA, as far as I can tell, does not specify when baptized Christians seeking full communion should be initiated.  RCIA 409 says the same. That being said, are OCIA 409 and RCIA 409 generally referring to Catholics baptized as infants …

Q: With all due respect to GIRM 85, I suspect it is fairly common practice in the United States to regularly rely upon the hosts reserved in the tabernacle for distribution during Mass. As far as I know, the GIRM does not comment viz. which ministers are entitled to access the tabernacle during Mass in order to facilitate Communion.  If it has, are any exclusions made? Perhaps there is something I have missed here?   Maybe the matter is addressed in some post-Conciliar instruction or the like?   If not, then I ask – as far as you know, is the …

Q: Our parish is growing rapidly, and we do not have enough room in the church proper for everyone. So we’ve added seats right outside the front door of the church and have two large monitors. Now we’ve outgrown that space, despite the fact that we’ve added a fifth Sunday Mass. Our pastor wants to add seats in our church hall, which is on church grounds but not attached to the church. There would be monitors, and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist would bring Holy Communion to those in the hall. I’ve told Father that I think this set-up will …

Q: I just stumbled on to your blog and have a question.  I’ve noticed a strong trend lately that when a person dies, while the family dutifully sees that the full Catholic funeral rites are celebrated, only the very immediate family are invited to attend and a celebration of life or prayer service is held for friends and extended family.  Is this becoming the new standard practice?   In my experience, these services are warm and reverent and most often include clergy or religious leading prayers, though unlike the wake before the funeral, tend to take place afterwards — sometimes two weeks …

In my time as a deacon, I have worked with quite a few priests.  As is normal, they each have slightly different ways they like to have things done during the Mass and I always do my best to remember and accommodate them.  A question in my own mind has come up as I am now working with a pastor who is a fairly new priest and our associate pastor who just celebrated 25 years of ordination. When we do weekend Masses, we have two extra bowls we use for our extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to use.  One of …