Posted on 07/21/2004 7:23:09 AM PDT by Mershon
By doing what? I conduct the Penitential Rite, prepare the Gifts, read the Gospel, preach, hold up the chalice at the "To Him, with Him, and In Him.." just prior to the Our Father, prepare the Eucharistic cups, dismiss the assembly.
That's plenty to do.
Subdeacons do nothing at a Solemn Mass but stand by and look pretty.
I attend and support the TLM. That said, I have to say you may not understand the duties of the Deacon at the NOM. They have specific tasks whose content has been clearly described by the magisterium: "To assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages—if they are delegated by the ordinary or the parish priest (cf. Canon 1108.1)—in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity" (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1570; cf. Lumen Gentium, 29; Sacrosanctum Concilium, 35; Ad Gentes, 16).
Not true! They assist by saying the responses that the altar boys normally say at a Low Mass, and they hold the paten throughout the Canon of the Mass.
So, they're basically altar boys with better vestments?
Thank you for this. Having attended daily Mass for several years now, and with a master's degree in theology, I am well aware of the many duties of an ordained deacon. I just wish more deacons didn't think of themselves as laymen. Perhaps then, instead of allowing "extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion" to distribute the chalice during daily Mass, they would instead do it as "ordinary ministers."
I believe perhaps my main point was misinterpreted. The deacon and subdeacon at a solemn High Mass are an intergral part of the sacrificial offering. In fact, solemn High Mass cannot take place without a deacon and a subdeacon. Like sinkspur, we have several deacons in our 5-parish area, but none of them have a desire, nor frankly, are properly catechized nor educated in the rubrics for a solemn High Mass. It is too bad. The Novus Ordo can easily take place with 9-year-old altar girls and a priest. The Traditional Latin Solemn High Mass cannot take place without a deacon and a subdeacon. I believe it raises the responsibilities and duties to a much higher spiritual plane--in line with the high respect that should be given an ordained minister of God!
"So, they're basically altar boys with better vestments?"
See my response above to Catholic lady. In addition, I would think that being "an altar boy with better vestments" would be much more important to the liturgy (holding the sacrificial OBLATION) than being replaced with 9-year-old altar girls with pigtails whose feet don't even reach the floor when sitting.
I think the order of deacon is tremendously important.
I am glad to see you are a man of your convictions. I too have met some good ones and see some tremendous good they do in the Church--except that most of them still think they are laymen, based on my personal judgment.
Also, whatever did the pre-Vatican II Church do without permanent deacons?
Oops! I forgot. They actually had lots of priests back then--prior to the GREAT RENEWAL in the wake of that magnanimous council--the greatest of all time--mind you. They had priests back then... And lots of seminarians and boys discerning becoming vocations, and altar boys--lots of them.
They probably have to dress like laymen, by order of their bishops. Many bishops will not allow permanent deacons to wear collars, period.
Our bishop has asked us to wear clericals only when performing diaconal duties; he wants to make sure that we are distinguished from priests. I think that's a good balance.
Oh, and Paul VI decided to reinstitute the permanent diaconate at Vatican II, long before the bottom fell out of the numbers in the priesthood.
"Subdeacons do nothing at a Solemn Mass but stand by and look pretty."
Obviously, you have very little respect for the office you hold as a Sacred Minister, which by the way, a Sub-Deacon is, unless you subscribe to the "straw-subdeacon". Which by definition must be a tonsured cleric as well, in other words not sister mary sunshine & the hippie love dude.
Actually, isn't this what the majority of the people who crowd around the table do in the NOM, stand around & look pretty?
There are no ordained subdeacons, and haven't been for 30 years. The office was abolished in the early 70s, as was the ceremony of tonsure.
You know very well that the Novus Ordo is the Normative Mass, and that the Tridentine is available via Indult.
Just what we need. Two more raddie-traddies to trash the Novus Ordo and Vatican II.
The Tridentine is available via Indult. Ask your bishop.
And so, Father, we bring you these gifts. We ask you to make them holy by the power of your Spirit, that they may become the body + and blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate this eucharist. (ICEL Eucharistic Prayer III)
The NO Mass blurs the difference between the hierarchic priesthood and the common priesthood of the people.
P: Orate, fratres: ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotem.
S: Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostram totius que Ecclesiae suae sanctae.
Rather, it should be shouted from the rooftops that the Tridentine Mass was never suppressed, and is in fact still the official Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, and that the NO Mass is the exception, the experiment.
Mass, whether in Latin or the vernacular, may be celebrated lawfully only according to the rite of the Roman Missal promulgated 3 April 1969 by authority of Pope Paul VI ... notwithstanding the pretense of any custom, even immemorial custom, duly accept the Order of Mass in the Roman Missal. (Notification to the Conferences of Bishops, Notitiae 10 (1974), 353.)
Excellent Posts and very interesting article.
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