Courtney McGrailDear Editor, In answer to Fr Oliver Skelly’s letter, “Confusion between Mass and Communion” (IC 29/01/2015), I remember my first ‘experience’ of a Communion service in a hospital chapel where I had entered to attend Mass.
The Communion service consisted of the Liturgy of the Word – then the Our Father was recited and Communion from the tabernacle was distributed to those in attendance. Afterwards as I personally assessed the Communion service I had just ‘experienced’ I came to realise that what was omitted was the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the offertory and the consecration of the Mass – the heart of the Mass. I was so concerned at this realisation that I wrote to The Irish Catholic to highlight it for the readers then.
Fr Skelly’s letter brings to the forefront the need to highlight more strongly the major difference between a Communion service and a Catholic celebration of the Mass.
Catholics are being sleepwalked into the acceptance of priestless parishes and even though it is being resisted at present by the bishops, Communion services could be on the way maybe sooner than we realise.
Catholics need to be aware that a Communion service will never be an adequate ‘replacement’ for the complete celebration of Mass i.e. the Introductory Rites, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist, Communion Rite and the Concluding Rite of Blessing and Dismissal.
Catholics need to realise that the Communion service will short-change them on the complete celebration of the Mass.
Yours etc.,
Kathleen Faley,
Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.