Q: Your 2021 book “Guide for Servers, Second Edition” has on page 40: “On solemn occasions, the members of the assembly who are to present the gifts may be led forward by servers carrying a cross and candles.”

I cannot find anything in the Roman Missal or Ceremonial of Bishops that permits the cross and candles in this procession. I think including them is contrary to what General Instruction of the Roman Missal, n. 73, conveys: 

“First of all, the altar or Lord’s table, which is the centre of the whole Liturgy of the Eucharist, is made ready when on it are placed the corporal, purificator, Missal and chalice (unless this last is prepared at the credence table).

The offerings are then brought forward.”

Removing the cross and candles from the altar is not consistent with making it ready. Do you agree?

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A: I generally do not recommend cross and candles for the procession of the gifts, but, as I note in my book Let Us Pray, the American bishops included this as an option in their Introduction to the Order of Mass, #22.

I don’t know if such a commentary exists for you in Australia, but in the US, this book provides this practice as an option.

This does not necessarily mean removing the cross and candles from the altar. It could mean taking up the processional cross that had been set aside after the entrance procession along with two auxiliary candles for this purpose.