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About Letters to the Editor
READERS' FORUM

Readers' Forum -- the lively "Letters to the Editor" of the Adoremus Bulletin provides a forum for exchange of ideas, comment and information on the sacred liturgy -- but the letters column is not normally published online. (Sample letters below).

If you are reading the Adoremus Bulletin in the "online edition" only, you are missing one of the most popular and useful features of the journal. To become a member of Adoremus -- and receive the "hard-copy" edition, including the "Readers Forum", see Membership page.

We are grateful for your letters. While we read every letter, we get so many that it is impossible to answer or publish all of them. In selecting those to appear in "Readers Forum", preference will be given to subjects of widest interest. Letters should be 250 words or fewer, preferably typed. They may be e-mailed. Please include your name, address, city and state (which may be withheld on request). If a letter refers to a previous issue of AB, please include the date of that issue and name of article. All letters may be edited for publication. Be sure to indicate clearly if your letter is NOT intended for publication.

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Readers' Forum for December 2002-January 2003 -- Bishop's choice -- Chart confusing? -- Tabernacle restored to center position -- Kneeling: Ecumenical aspect ignored -- Training for "Lay Presiding -- Dies Irae -- Prayer to Saint Michael -- Bread and wine? -- Here I kneel... -- Adoration and betrayal -- Tridentine Mass -- Dropping Feast Days -- Losing Tradition -- Holy Communion -- Lift up our Hearts -- Singing for the Supper or the Sacrifice? -- Moving the Sign of Peace -- According to the books -- Comparing Translations -- Standing Clarification -- Changes in our Church -- Fraction Rite -- Standing throughout Communion rite -- Which Daily Missal? -- Consecration of Hosts -- More on "Double Genuflection" -- Confusion on "Adaptations" -- Use of choir lofts -- Mass abuses -- Holding hands -- I have been receiving extra copies of the Adoremus Bulletin

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Letter
Bishop's choice
I wish to call to your attention that in the recent Adoremus Bulletin [Nov. 2002] you published on the front page the posture of the people at Mass using the box composed by the Bishops' Committee on Liturgy [editor's note -- this graphic was available in the printe edition only]. However, you have failed to print the footnotes, especially footnote #2, which states: "The diocesan bishop may determine that the people should STAND after the Agnus Dei". I refer you to the Newsletter of the Committee on Liturgy, Vol. XXXVIII, September 2002. It is important for your readership to know that standing may well be the choice of the diocesan bishop from the completion of the Lamb of God until the distribution of Holy Communion.

Best wishes.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman, STD, SSL
Bishop of Erie

Reponse
Thank you. We had printed the complete "American Adaptations" in the October AB, (they appear on our web site), so, for reasons of space, the BCL posture chart used as a graphic in the November AB omitted the footnotes that gave exceptions to the standard postures for the Church in the US, according to the American Adaptations. We hope no one was confused.

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Letter
Chart confusing?
In the November 2002 edition of Adoremus, you included a chart showing the proper posture at various parts of the Mass (now, if we could only get everyone to follow that!). One line in the chart seems incorrect. Line 7 says: "From the beginning of the peoples' response 'May the Lord ... to the beginning of the Holy, Holy' - STAND".

1) I have never in my life (64 years) attended a Mass where we stood up at the beginning of the response "May the Lord accept".... We always say that prayer while sitting, then stand at the end of it.

2) Why does it say to STAND until the beginning of the Holy, Holy, Holy? We remain standing until the end of that song. Then we kneel.

Are we supposed to be kneeling at the Ecce Agnus Dei as we have been for decades?

Thank you for any clarification.
A.V. (Tony) Steinman
Rochester, Minnesota

Response
The chart on page 1 of the November AB was reproduced from the BCL Newsletter. The new Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani changes the ordinary practice in this country of sitting until after the "May the Lord accept this sacrifice".

However, it appears that "to the beginning of the Holy, Holy" is a misprint by the BCL. As you see, the next line states that people kneel "From the completion of the Holy, Holy until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer". The latter instruction, from the end of the Sanctus to the end of the Amen is correct for the Church in the United States.

The chart says that we should stand "from the beginning of the Our Father until the completion of the Lamb of God"; and kneel "From the completion of the Lamb of God ... until the distribution of Holy Communion".

IGMR #43 says: "The faithful kneel at the Ecce Agnus Dei unless the diocesan bishop determines otherwise".

However, according to the same "American adaptations", which makes this kneeling posture explicit (it was not mentioned in the earlier version), the diocesan bishop may alter the kneeling to standing.

Thus, unless there is an order from the diocesan bishop to the contrary, people are to kneel just after they say/sing the Lamb of God, as has been customary for years.

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Letter
Training for "Lay Presiding"
I am a parish pastoral minister and have been asked to sit on a diocesan advisory panel on lay presiding. In preparation for our first meeting, I was given a copy of a book for review by Teresa Cotter on lay presiding that I presume the heads of the liturgy office are considering using as a training manual for those entering this ministry. I found it a feminist travesty. Have you any alternate suggestions to offer on source material on how lay leaders of prayer should be correctly formed according to the mind of the Church? I am open to serving the Church in whatever way I am legitimately called, but there is no way that I can endorse such a blatant attack on the priesthood and the Scriptures. Any help you can provide will be gratefully appreciated.

Mrs. Molli E. Vassar
Uniontown, Pennsylvania

Response
You are right to be concerned that your formation is authentic and "with the Church".

A lay person who is drawn to this service is presumably committed to serious study to prepare for it, and using the original sources is important. Following are some essential documents your group should be studying (Many are available on the Adoremus web site - Church Documents section):

1) Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy.

2) The Roman Missal's Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (IGMR) - regulations on the Celebration of Mass - and the new "American Adaptations". [The new IGMR, though in effect now, does not yet have an approved English translation (but should have soon). The American Adaptations appeared in AB in October 2002.]

3) The Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest (June 1988, Congregation for Divine Worship. Available on the "Catholic Liturgical Library" web site.)

4) The US bishops' "Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest" (ritual book for the US). This may be purchased from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. (See www.usccb.org.)

5) Dies Domini - Pope John Paul II's letter on the meaning of Sunday. (Essential reading for Catholic understanding of the Sunday celebration.)

6) The Holy See's Ecclesiae de mysterio, the 1997 Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest.

7) The new Vatican Instruction on Priestly Ministry would be useful to read. (See related story in this issue.)

The first priority would be to read these documents yourself. A good plan for a group meeting would be to open with Night Prayer and conduct a discussion on each of these in turn, possibly rotating with others who can lead discussion.

The Catechism should always be available for reference at every meeting.

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Letter
I've been receiving extra copies of the Adoremus Bulletin...
I have been receiving extra copies of the Adoremus Bulletin for some time now. I presume that your intent is that I distribute these copies among my friends. That I will do with pleasure.

I live in a small town located in western Pennsylvania. There are four other churches in the vicinity. I have recently started to leave two or three copies in each of these places. Time will tell.

John E. Corthorn, Sr.
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Response
Some people request multiple copies to help get the word out about Adoremus and the work that we do in support of Catholic Liturgy. If you are receiving unwanted duplicate copies, please let us know and we will correct our list right away. Be sure tell us which name(s) we should remove.

If you would like to inform more of your friends about the work of Adoremus, we would be happy send you free packets. Just tell us how many you need.

From time to time we receive requests to send packets or subscriptions anonymously. It is our policy not to send out materials without identifying the sender. If, however, you would like to present a packet to a friend, priest, etc., please let us know and we will mail one to you.

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