Liturgical Law concerning Children as lectors?
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,486
    Hello LiturgicalBrains:

    Does anyone know the liturgical law concerning Children reading at Mass?
    Obviously they cannot read the gospel,
    but is there any Law regarding them reading the Old Testament, Psalm and Epistle?
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,089
    Paul Turner's website is a good source for liturgical Q&A. He happens to have answered this question:

    https://paulturner.org/children-as-lectors/

    Thanked by 1irishtenor
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 112
    This would be primarily a question for diocese or parish level guidelines. Your diocesan liturgy office may have something on the topic of qualifications for readers / lectors.

    Related to this, the Ecumenical Directory provides that the bishop can on a case by case basis permit Christians from non-Catholic traditions to proclaim readings.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    It is totally bizarre that not-yet-confirmed but baptized persons can read at Mass.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,025
    It is totally bizarre that communicants are unconfirmed.
    Thanked by 5Liam Andrew_Malton CHGiffen PaxMelodious smt
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    yes, but the law, although it need not prohibit or clarify every last situation, does not rule out children reading at the First Communion Mass, since the idea of a Mass with children receiving First Communion would perhaps make this sound, at least to some people out there. (it is a terrible idea, but it's possible that a child around age seven or eight could read a reading without trouble.)

    Plus, the problem goes further that that child First Communicants are not confirmed, although that's a separate question (you could in theory have children who are confirmed but not fully initiated, not having communed — the longtime practice of the West!), because we're also admitting non-Catholics to read even occasionally, who by definition haven't received confirmation (the chrismated Orthodox aren't going to do it, so they're talking about Prots).
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 112
    Although, consider the very long custom of having altar boys stand in for ordained acolytes, and the acolyte is the highest of the minor orders, the lectors are junior to them… so if someone is qualified as an altar boy it would seem there shouldn’t be much grounds for saying they can’t be a reader… other than suitability to actually proclaim the reading.

    GIRM 101 says that lectors and readers must be “truly suited to carrying out this function and carefully prepared”. I would read that suitability part as indicating both basic skills / competence, and also at least something of spiritual discernment of a calling to this service (rather than it just being that student’s “turn” in the school rotation or something like that), carefully prepared I would take to mean something more than just able to pronounce the words.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    Lectors do not read ordinarily sing the epistle. The subdeacon does and if there is a lector, he is only needed when you have more than one reading on Ember Days, on Holy Saturday, and at the real vigil of Pentecost. (The lector can of course substitute for the subdeacon and sing the epistle at a merely sung Mass.)

    But I also don’t think that little boys should be serving in the positions more closely configured to the priest and therefore to Christ. I barely think that teens should do it. College age and a little older is perfect. Which would ensure that in both our modern practice and basically anything historically done the servers would have been confirmed.

    Now I’m not the least bit scrupulous about having a competent layman singing the epistle or extra readings at the TLM, but given the actual history of how readings work — and that the reader is a substitute in the NO for the instituted lector, the subdeacon in the TLM — not being confirmed does seem to be a problem.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • francis
    Posts: 10,848
    Bring back simultaneous SOI

    https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2017/05/no-more-christian-bar-mitzvah.html?m=1

    Understanding of what is happening is not necessary in order for these Sacraments to be valid and effective. So, Confirmation is not a graduation ceremony that marks the completion of confirmation classes or a rite of passage for teenagers. In fact, this full three-fold initiation into the Church should be done as early as possible in life, as it opens up the person to grace and a spiritual maturity that is more likely to deepen and maintain his faith into adulthood, and keep people in churches after adolescence. The Catechism quotes St Thomas in this regard, explaining why people do not need to be aware of what they are going through in order to benefit from this triple sacrament. Salvation is as open to infants, the mentally handicapped and the uneducated as it is to the intelligent and educated:
    Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood, man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: “For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years.” Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood.
    Thanked by 1hilluminar
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    Yeah. But I don’t think that they should be simultaneous. The Apostles didn’t do it this way; St Peter has to go confirm someone in Acts, and in Rome, the adults baptized at Easter were at least confirmed by another minister, i.e. the pope.

    At least baptismal should be administered separately. Losing pontifical confirmation on an ordinary basis would be an incalculable loss, and too many people advocating for reception of all three sacraments of initiation on the same day by children born to Catholic parents don’t stop to consider this.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    It's already lost in non-sacramental substance in many places: the pontiff (often an auxiliary or mission bishop From Away) comes and goes in under two hours, likely never to see any of the confirmands again. We'd need multiples more more dioceses and ordinaries to counter that.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,167
    I spent one summer going to daily Mass with my dad. I was the altar server and the lector for those Massses.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,486
    I just wonder about the reasons. It's a done deal...
    This is a movement in our parish...the Sun 11 has always been the most traditional "High Mass" with full choir, incense etc... Now a group wants to turn it into a " family teaching mass" and this little group have the pastors' ear. And I am being pressured to do kiddie music. So far I've decided to ignore that.

    In my long experience...anything connected to the words " family mass" is usually awful.
    Isn't that a misunderstanding and lack of love for what the Mass already is? EVERY mass is already a family mass!
    Thanked by 5hilluminar Liam LauraKaz irishtenor francis
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    That’s terrible.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    Usually the "family mass" is the mid-morning Mass (930/10AM), allowing the late morning Mass to be more oriented towards adults.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,848
    ... not the same day... just within a reasonable early time of young age.
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 392
    Does anyone know the liturgical law concerning Children reading at Mass?

    The Directory for Masses with Children (1973), par. 22:
    The principles of active and conscious participation are in a sense even more
    significant for Masses celebrated with children. Every effort should therefore be
    made to increase this participation and to make it more intense. For this reason as many children as possible should have special parts in the celebration: for example, preparing the place and the altar (see no. 29), acting as cantor (see no. 24), singing in a choir, playing musical instruments (see no. 32), proclaiming the readings (see nos. 24 and 47), responding during the homily (see no. 48), reciting the intentions of the general intercessions, bringing the gifts to the altar, and performing similar activities in accord with the usage of various peoples (see no. 34).
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