Hey, and least we forget, Community first, then we focus on what ever else it is that we do. Because with out Community what does Christ have, Huh, that's right nothing. So.... just remember that when you come walking into church in the middle of the homily." Hey, that's right... I'm here, Carry on." But ya know if I was a eucharistic minister I would be the ultra cool community people. Rumor has it some churches have buttons for their eucharistic ministers. Maybe I can make some for my parish. They might say "Extraordinary Poser" It's kind of like using plastic for serving at your dinner party.
Good one Maureen. I've seen peopel like you just wrote about. I love it when the eucharistic ministers all wait until after communion to take the host. (have you seen them pull this fancy little maneuver yet? This is a big no no.) Then Father sits down and they "clean up everything" and the next thing you know someone is talk'in coffee and doughnuts next door in the community center, and Father is saying " The mass is ended, now go in Peace to love and serve the Lord, and someone had better save me a danish."
This is like some beautiful dream. No, don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up...
For every person who volunteers to be an "Extraordinary" Minister, a vocation to the priesthood is killed.
Now I could understand this, if there was some viable reason for having them. Say, if having enough Ministers would speed things up enough to allow me to catch the Eagles game on TV, then of course I'd be ok with it. As it stands now, they tend not to carry the game on TV out here, so there really is no purpose.
I realize that the post is in jest / humor, but it brings forth some valid points to consider.
We have such a priest shortage in this country (at least in N. Indiana where I live) that we need extraordinary ministers for distribution of the Eucharist, just from a practical standpoint.
My parish has one priest (our pastor) who serves two parishes which are roughly 3-4 miles apart. He says mass at 4;30 Saturday, 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 Sunday, split between the parishes. Eventually one parish will shut down in a year or two, but our pastor will still say 3-4 masses at the one remaining parish.
Two of the masses presently are packed full, approximately 300-400 people, so it is impractical from a time standpoint for the priest to distribute the Eucharist by himself at each mass to everyone, let alone if he also tried to distribute the Precious Blood at the same time.
If we had the luxury of two priests, we as a parish would use them to distribute the Eucharist...but the reality is we need EME's to help. And at times we do have a problem finding volunteers as EME's at our Parish.
We as Catholics had better face up to our shortage of priests in this country, or soon we will be receiving the Eucharist once a month...when the priest travels to each parish every few weekends, kind of like the old Methodist circuit riders.
I am not an EME nor do I advocate the laity consecrating the eucharist or performing 'priestly duties'. We need priests to perform these functions, but the sad state of affairs around here is that the number of priests is few and far between. You should see what we go through to get a 'visiting priest' when our pastor goes on vacation!
Lucy - Save me a danish...LOL
Julie D - Hey girl, thanks for stopping by. I think most of my posts could be considered nightmares if they ever happened.
Tom - Wow, I don't know what to tell you about not having Eagles games shown on your local TV stations. Perhaps this is a job for St. Jude? Is there a patron saint for football?
Hi John - Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
God bless, Maureen
Two of the masses presently are packed full, approximately 300-400 people, so it is impractical from a time standpoint for the priest to distribute the Eucharist by himself at each mass to everyone, let alone if he also tried to distribute the Precious Blood at the same time.
A. Maybe you could cut that time in half by receiving only under one specie.
B. Where does Father get the time to hear all those confessions? After all, it takes much longer to hear one person's confession that it does to distribute to one person Holy Communion.
C. How many vocations to the priesthood has those two parishes produced?
Tom,
Altar rails are pretty helpful, too, I've noticed. The parish I went to where the one priest distributed communion (under one specie) by himself...we got out of there faster than other parishes I have gone to where there was a chorus line of EMs.
Plus, even in parishes I have attended that were lucky enough to have three or four priests, there were still way too many EMs. I don't see how from a practicality standpoint they were necessary.
Maureen
Der Tommissar:
A. Maybe you could cut that time in half by receiving only under one specie.
We often do receive just the Body of Christ (bread)...one priest and one EME distributing. Communion line takes 2 or occasionally 3 songs (no big deal, just FYI on how long it takes to process, I obviously have never set a stop watch to the matter.) The reality is that if mass starts on time and is 1 hour 15 minutes long (normally), that leaves little time for the priest to drive to the other parish and be ready for the next mass. He has little time to speak with anyone after mass (again, not a necessity, but a nice opportunity for both the priest and parishoners) before he has to hop in his car to the next mass at the other church.
Sidebar: This will change when things are consolidated into one parish in a few years, but until then we are I fear slowly killing this priest. I often wonder how he ministers to the sick, etc. during the week, with just 24 hours in a day. Priests need 'downtime' too....
B. Where does Father get the time to hear all those confessions? After all, it takes much longer to hear one person's confession that it does to distribute to one person Holy Communion.
He hears confessions Saturdays from 9-10:30AM, and usually there isn't that long of a line. Short lines are probably a symptom of lax Catholicism rather than our pastor's entire fault. We also have quarterly or three times a year confession services where about 6 or 8 visiting priests are brought in at one time to hear individual confessions in various parts of the Church (we only have two confessionals) for about a two hour period on a weekday night. Usually this is done twice in Lent, once in Advent, and once at our Parish mission in October.
C. How many vocations to the priesthood has those two parishes produced?
None that I know of, but I have to assume that this has little to do with the EME issue.
Previously in Church history, prospective priests were used in the functions of altar boys, etc., and a Church had 3 or 4 priests to minister the Eucharist at each mass. I don't know if this is any longer the case anywhere...we don't have enough priests or prospective priests to fill these jobs like we once did.
Unfortunate, yes, painful reality, yes, too.
Plus, even in parishes I have attended that were lucky enough to have three or four priests, there were still way too many EMs. I don't see how from a practicality standpoint they were necessary.
I agree, if there are priests, they should be administering the eucharist before the laity are. EMEs shouldn't be an excuse for lay involvement in and of itself.
FWIW, I like Communion to take a long time. I sit up in the front in part so that I can have more post-Communion prayer time and even at that it is over way too soon (and we have no EME's).
Hmmm...perhaps they could alot more prayer time by eliminating the Sign of Peace? Now that's the ticket. 
Rick us just afraid of cooties.
Maggie,
I'm afraid it's the other way around. I'd hate for some friendly soul to walk all the way from the opposite corner of the church to shake my hand and me reward them with a bad case of my cooties. eww
He hears confessions Saturdays from 9-10:30AM, and usually there isn't that long of a line. Short lines are probably a symptom of lax Catholicism rather than our pastor's entire fault.
I never faulted your pastor. Communion is a "one-two punch" sacrament. It relies upon the sacrament of Confession to prepare and sanctify us to receive the graces of Communion. If the faithful aren't preparing their souls, we might as well forget the whole thing of receiving. In fact, we'd be doing better if we forgot about receiving instead of heading to Communion week in and week out, piling damnation upon ourselves.
None that I know of, but I have to assume that this has little to do with the EME issue.
Don't be so sure. We are slowly but surely crowding the priest out of the sanctuary. First it was Lectors and Cantors (sorry, Maureen!), then came the EM's, then came all sorts of ministers.
Throw that into a society which is soaked with materialism and adulation for the pleasures of the flesh, and its amazing anyone would become a priest. "Why do that?" the average young man will say, "I can have a good job, get married and still be able to do nearly everything during Mass that a priest does. I mean, if I'm married I'd also get to hear a woman go on and on and on for hours about everything she's done for the week. That's just like Confession too."
*runs away*
*comes back*
The deal of it is, we are killing the sacredotal mystique. We've killed his influence in society and in our families. Now we're killing his mystiqe vis-a-vis the sacraments. What is there left for him? What is there left for a young man to be challenged by?
I think it would be better for your parish (and for many others) to have to see your priest rush from parish to parish. I think it is good that we see them die slow deaths, due to the service they perform. They die to Our Lord, and they share not only in His Priestly Dignity, but in the passion of his Crucifixion.
Hey Kids,
I am out of town right now, and will be for a few days. As soon as I can, I will slap another breaking news story up there. I don't know if I can top Pat Robertson causing an international incident by calling for the leader of Venezuela to be assasinated. So, people really do watch the 700 Club after all.
God bless, Maureen
At Steve and Tammy Redmon's last roundtable discussion someone proposed automating the host and wine distribution using vending type machines. Problem solved?
Lucy, when your priest exclaims "Save me a Danish" do you think that he is expressing the need for someone try to save Mrs. Dane's husband from his lustful ways with that French poodle?
Hey Cycles,
I managed to get a minute or two on a computer this morning. Wow, it looks like those non-practicing Jehovah's Witnesses may have saved the day.
Maybe the priest wants to save Mrs. Dane's husband's soul. If Fannie ever comes back, we'll have to ask her.
God bless, Maureen
John, Rick, Maggie, Tom - Good to see you all. I will write more later. Thanks for stopping by.
God bless, Maureen
Hey, have you seen an EM dash to get the consecrated Hosts from the Tabernacle (which is, sadly, located in another room) even when there are more than two priests concelebrating? I saw the jaw of one of the priests drop while witnessing this.
One of our priests sits down while letting EM's distribute Communion. He does not do this anymore - I wonder if our Pastor had a talk with him
Good blog.
patron saint of football? i suppose it might be st. sebastian who is the patron saint of athletes.
right now, however, i believe he is involved in helping lance armstrong rise against his allegations of doping in 1999. he's kinda busy.
hth.
cycles2k, All I can say is that must be one good looking poodle.(eeewwww.)
Der Tommissar, at my parish we have confessions befor every mass for a half hour, and on Saterdays from 10 to 12. On Sundays they only have confession at the 9 O'clock , and 11 O'clock masses. The other 3 masses on that day do not. But here's the catch. We the parishoners know if we want to make it into the confessional we must get there at least a half hour befor father starts hearing confessions. Why, because every Tom Judie and Frank come over to our church for confession. Many of the other Catholic Churches in the area tell their parishoners to go to Holy Rosary for confession. (like this group of priests don't have enough to do with out hearing the confessions of every parish in the county.) There is always a line of people that winds around the back of the church befor every mass, and the first 10 to 15 are Holy Rosary parishoners. I've watched people come in just befor father starts confessions and see the look on their faces. It's a look of "You've got to be kidding me"? I feel sorry for them. Their priest is doing them a disserves. (and the priests at Holy Rosary)
That should say Saturday....oops.
I am an EME and I think we are overused. I posted to the same effect on my blog, but we have 4 priests in our parish full time. When we first moved here, there were always at least 2 priests at each Mass to distribute communion. Now we are going to the 9:00 every Sunday, and there is usually only the celebrant. Last 2 weeks, the one of the 2 deacons we have are there too, but if you think about it, 4 priests + 2 deacons = communion uder bother species and no need for EMEs.
I can see for Communion calls, there are a lot of people inour parish (3000) and a lot of shut-ins, using the EME sparingly, but I just can't understand why we have so many of them at Mass.
I liked this one, too Maureen, (But I like everything you do-the kid wearing a bathing suit to Mass is my fave!) This one just struck a little too close to home.
very interesting blog and comments. Though also a little say esp the comment about it being good that the priest is worn to the bone and dies on the job 
I don't believe for a minute that that is God's calling on his life.
There is a great need for clergy (in all denominations) ... the question must be - why are so few men (and in other denominations- women) responding to the call of God on their life?
in your churches it seems it's hard to get your confession heard because of the lines - again lack of priests - meanwhile out there is a whole world of generations Xers who do not know Jesus Christ, God the Father, or have felt the joy of the Holy Spirit.
That's something for us not only to chew on, but do something about!!
be blessed.
Hi Lorna,
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
Well, about Tom's comment on the priest wearing himself out to the bone....Tom and the other commenters and I tend to joke a lot, so I am sure there was some jest in his comment. In fact, I would say having a sense of humor and joking around are almost a requirement for being a commenter here.
However, back to your comment... there have been Christians throughout the centuries who have been mauled by lions, decapitated, intentionally starved, etc., etc. so to say that a priest couldn't or shouldn't be called to a difficult life is probably not true. After all, most priests in this country drive cars, go to movies, eat at resaturants. I would venture to say being a priest in Africa would be more difficult.
God bless, Maureen
I was at a Tridentine Mass the other day, and saw the efficiency of the altar rail. The priest sped back and forth along the altar rail quickly putting Communion on the people's tongues. Let me tell you--he had it in my mouth before I barely had a chance to open it! If they still used this efficient method, there would be no time problem.
But I guess having Communion go by very fast IS important. We wouldn't want a chance to pray or anything--or the Danishes to get stale.
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