Q: I’m searching for the basic fault in the way I have understood the basic source a deacon uses when leading a weekday liturgy. Our deacons have used the Missal and have adapted the liturgies there to fit the outline in Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass. That’s the basic error isn’t it? On weekdays a deacon must use not use the Missal at all. Instead, they would use HCWEOM or possibly the Book of Blessings for days such as Ash Wednesday. Is that correct? That means a deacon-led “communion service” does not use the opening collect or prayer after communion, but may use the lectionary texts for the day. Is that correct? How would you suggest that a deacon handle texts in HCWEOM that differ from the current translation in the Missal?
I’m in almost twenty years and still learning.
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A: The go-to resource is indeed “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass,” paragraphs 26-41. It has no collect. It permits the use of the readings from the day’s Mass. The concluding prayer is pretty generic and makes no reference to the preceding celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which many Prayers after Communion imply at Mass.
The deacon uses HCWEOM and adjusts the texts that have a new translation in the missal. A complete revised translation is underway, but we do not have it yet.
I’ve been at it over 40 years, and I’m still learning.