The mass has ended...
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    I've only had experience with one parish that celebrated EF, and they had another organist who covered those masses. Their OF was certainly informed by the EF, including ad orientem, the fact that the pastor said the canon silently, and the way the mass ended (I think).

    We'd get to "the mass is ended, go in peace," and then the priest and servers would go down the steps and kneel facing the altar, and we'd pray to St. Michael, the Virgin Mary, and maybe some other prayer or two. It's been a few years, forgive my forgetfulness. And then, rather than a recessional down the center aisle, they'd retreat to the sacristy behind the altar/sanctuary, usually to a soft organ piece, sometimes to a hymn, sometimes nothing at all.


    Just curious if this is a common practice from EF times, or where this comes from exactly. I've heard of other OF parishes doing the St Michael prayer toward the end, but not like this.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,466
    Isn't the last Gospel after the Ite Missa Est?
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Yes, Adam, in the EF, the Last Gospel is read following the Ite Missa Est.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Well this is how they ended the OF ... and I can't recall how the EF ended there (I only went twice, once singing at a Missa Cantata and my brain was spinning just trying to keep up).

    Idk if its a practice that comes from the EF or its just a pious thing they do. Like I alluded to, a lot of their practices were coming from mutual enrichment of the forms, but then the pastor there is just a tradition minded dude.

    [unrelated, or maybe not, he's the type who wears a cassock at all times, and when he came to the classroom to present little medallions of Saint CantRemeber he was fully vested]


    Lots of words for my simple question, so I will be quiet now. Just curious about where they got that practice from.
  • Arthur Connick
    Posts: 496
    ryand, saying the prayers to St. Michael and the Virgin Mary is similar to how an EF low Mass would conclude.
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    I can't imagine the priest just recessing to the sacristy. I think that would be perceived by many - rightly or wrongly - to be rather insular and unfriendly. In most places the people are accustomed to having the priest be available and greet them after mass.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,466
    little medallions of Saint CantRemeber


    My patron.
    Thanked by 4bkenney27 Andrew Motyka Patricia Cecilia ClergetKubisz
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    That would be proper if it were a low mass. However, shouldn't we be trying to make Sundays high masses?
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    I can't imagine the priest just recessing to the sacristy.


    Welcome to my corner of the liturgical world. It's more common here than not. One priest I know scoots off the altar, then disappears into the sacristy and locks the door with a resounding CLICK. The message could not be more clear.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    These were usually weekday masses I would play for. The priests WERE always available at the front doors on Sundays. They weren't (to my observation) trying to be distant.

    I'm simply wondering where this practice came from, as it randomnly entered my mind this morning.
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 397
    ryand--I know that (in the EF) the practice of entering the sanctuary from the epistle-side door and exiting through the gospel-side door is specified in something--Fortescue, I suspect, thinking about it--as normative at Low Mass. (If there is only door, obviously one uses only the one door--sorry, that observation occasioned some giggles on the part of 'munchkins' aka 8-and-9-year-old boys being trained as EF servers. In our parish, the place where the gospel-side door ought to be is where St. Michael is spearing the Enemy so you'd have to fight your way through St. Michael to punch a new door--ah, not recommended. :-)

    Our priest will normally process out through the nave at the weekend Masses and through the sacristy door at daily Mass in both Forms, after having done at least the Prayer to St. Michael if not the entire Leonine prayers at the end of every OF Mass, and of course the entire Leonine prayers at the end of Low Masses. However, if he does not process out and greet people outside after Mass, it means that 1) he is dashing off to assist a brother priest and really does not have time to greet people (it's a way-out-in-the country parish and the other OF/EF parishes he would be going to are each over an hour away); 2) the weather is horrendous; or 3) he's not in good health. Otherwise, he very much enjoys 'visiting' with people after Mass. We are all accustomed to that signal.

    Julie--that is appalling. No brother priest to offer some gentle/not-so-gentle fraternal correction?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,196
    I guess it would make sense if the priest wanted to perform his prayers after Mass without interruption. But beyond that it does seem . . . unusual.
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,022
    There is a difference in how the sacred vessels are dealt with. Typically they are taken out of the Sanctuary by the priest (who is the only one who can touch them without gloves) because, while have been purified during the ablutions, they're not totally purified, and the colths use to purify them are still with the Chalice. At High Mass they are put on the credence table, off the altar, so that the sacred ministers can recess to the outside. As to how the poeple should feel about the priest ignoring them, remember, he has just celebrate the Eucharist (offered the Mass) in Persona Christi - not in the person of Fr. Bob. We should feel blessed to have priests moreso than friendly, hand-shaking, friendly ministers.
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