Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Children's Sunday Liturgy at Midweek
ROME, AUG. 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
In the wake of our July 28 column on children's Masses a reader from Austin, Texas, made further inquiries: "We have noticed at a parish that we visit occasionally in town that one of the priests regularly uses one of the Eucharistic Prayers for Children for the Sunday morning Masses. This Eucharistic Prayer as written has within it several dialogue/response sections between the celebrant and the congregation. The priest leaves these dialogues out, presumably because they are unfamiliar to the normal Sunday crowd. Is it ever licit to use the children's prayers for a regular parish Sunday liturgy? Does leaving out parts of the Eucharistic Prayer (he never leaves out the invocation of the Holy Spirit or the words of consecration) invalidate the Mass?"
Practically all of norms regarding the use of the children's Eucharistic Prayers indicate that they are designed in order to guide quite young children toward eventual participation in the normal Sunday liturgy. They are thus conceived as a temporary phase and not for permanent use. Therefore, these anaphora are not another option that a priest may use ad libitum, like the first three Eucharistic Prayers, or with some relatively minor restrictions like the fourth, or only for specific Masses like the prayers for reconciliation and particular needs.
They may be used exclusively for those (usually weekday) Masses in which the majority of participants are children in or around the age of first Communion, roughly corresponding to between 5 to 9 years old.
The use of this prayer for normal Sunday Masses -- with or without the acclamations -- is illicit although the Mass is valid. Since the prayer itself should not be used, the question of the omission of the acclamations is moot. The omissions, however, would not affect the Mass' validity in any way.
In the wake of our July 28 column on children's Masses a reader from Austin, Texas, made further inquiries: "We have noticed at a parish that we visit occasionally in town that one of the priests regularly uses one of the Eucharistic Prayers for Children for the Sunday morning Masses. This Eucharistic Prayer as written has within it several dialogue/response sections between the celebrant and the congregation. The priest leaves these dialogues out, presumably because they are unfamiliar to the normal Sunday crowd. Is it ever licit to use the children's prayers for a regular parish Sunday liturgy? Does leaving out parts of the Eucharistic Prayer (he never leaves out the invocation of the Holy Spirit or the words of consecration) invalidate the Mass?"
Practically all of norms regarding the use of the children's Eucharistic Prayers indicate that they are designed in order to guide quite young children toward eventual participation in the normal Sunday liturgy. They are thus conceived as a temporary phase and not for permanent use. Therefore, these anaphora are not another option that a priest may use ad libitum, like the first three Eucharistic Prayers, or with some relatively minor restrictions like the fourth, or only for specific Masses like the prayers for reconciliation and particular needs.
They may be used exclusively for those (usually weekday) Masses in which the majority of participants are children in or around the age of first Communion, roughly corresponding to between 5 to 9 years old.
The use of this prayer for normal Sunday Masses -- with or without the acclamations -- is illicit although the Mass is valid. Since the prayer itself should not be used, the question of the omission of the acclamations is moot. The omissions, however, would not affect the Mass' validity in any way.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
12:24 PM
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