Fostering Young Vocations (Part 4)

And I will go unto the altar of God, to God who giveth joy to my youth.

A Report on Altar-Boy Camp from Taylor, SC

National Catholic Register has a great report by Mr Brian Mershon on a training camp held at Prince of Peace in Taylor, South Carolina in late July, an event which proved to be an enormous success, well beyond the organizers expectation.

Father Christopher Smith, administrator of Prince of Peace, and Father Renaurd West, both priests of the Diocese of Charleston, together with Michael Cunningham, a third-year seminarian for the FSSP whose home is in nearby Spartanburg, S.C., offered boys and young men of all ages the opportunity to learn altar-boy movements and rubrics as well as experience three daily Masses culminating with a Missa Cantata (Sung Mass) on July 25.

In addition to the academic and spiritual activities, seminarian Cunningham led afternoon activities in football, while Father West competed head-to-head on the basketball floor. The camp was free to all, with funds donated for food and training materials by area parishioners, other Catholics and businesses. “I was at most expecting 10 or 15 from our parish,” said Father Smith. “The initiative of people who were enthusiastic about the project led to 62 boys and young men coming from as far away as Ohio.”

Added Father Smith, “I was stunned by the response of the boys, their families and those who wanted to defray the cost of the camp. I should learn to trust in God's providence more!” Parishes dedicated solely to the traditional Latin Mass and sacraments periodically host altar-boy camps and training sessions, but a diocesan parish hosting one in the midst of South Carolina and drawing more than 60 boys is unique.

Read the full article by clicking here. (Fr Smith is a regular contributor to one of our sister CMAA blogs, the Chant Café, and we have had more than one occasion to highlight his articles here.)

TLM Altar Boy Camp in Taylors, South Carolina

Prince of Peace Parish in Taylors, South Carolina, is offering later this month an opportunity for young men to learn how to serve the traditional Latin Mass, along with some other summertime activities. (See here for details from the parish website.) The training camp will be held from July 23-25, on the Prince of Peace campus, given by our good friend Fr. Christopher Smith, who writes for Chant Café, and whose articles we have occasionally reproduced here, and other clergy of the diocese. To register, please email Mr Brian Mershon: bcmershon@gmail.com, or call 864-292-6492 for more details. The camp is being offered at no cost to the participants, along with materials for the boys to take home with them to keep studying and learning about the traditional Mass. The parish is accepting donations to offset the cost of providing these materials.

Dominican Rite Altar Boys' Manual

I am delighted to announce that, thanks to the work of my Dominican Brother Corwin Low, O.P., of our Western Dominican Province House of Studies, Dominican Liturgy Publications can now make available paperback copies of The Dominican Altar Boys’ Manual. This booklet was first published in 1945, and has been in the public domain since 1964. Those interested in a copy may order here.

This booklet contains all that is necessary for training young men to serve the simple (Low Mass) and sung (Missa Cantata and Solemn) forms of the traditional Dominican Rite Mass. There are also many other pointers and aids for servers generally.

I am sure that many of our readers who are not training servers for Dominican Rite Masses will also be interested in the wealth of information on the Rite available in this booklet.

I also ask our readers to offer a prayer for Brother Raymond Bertheaux, O.P., professed as lay (cooperator) brother for 56 years, with decades of service in the missions and nine years at the Dominican Curia in Rome, who will be buried tomorrow in our Province Cemetery in Benicia CA. He was one of the most exacting teachers for me when learning to celebrate the traditional Dominican Rite Mass and was my server many, many times. R.I.P.

Dominican Rite Server Camp, Anchorage Alaska

A guest report by Bro. Peter Junipero Hannah, O.P.

The Western Dominican Province of the Order of Preachers – of which I am a member still in formation – sends its student brothers to a ministry site for one year of our formation to gain experience “out in the field,” so to speak. I did much teaching and preaching (in various non-liturgical settings) over this period, but one of the most rewarding of my ministries was working to train a group of boys in how to serve the Dominican Rite.

Holy Family Cathedral currently offers the extraordinary form in the Dominican Rite every Sunday, and the servers for this Mass on my arrival tended to be adults. As the year progressed, three boys specifically began to express interest in serving, so I and the other main adult server began to incorporate them into appropriate roles, for example boat-bearer, junior server, and even thurifer. Two more boys came forward shortly thereafter, and I and the other adult trainer began to realize we could use a more “in-depth” workshop to school our growing team of young servers.

I have included here a number of photos from various parts of the week. One will note that in the shots of the Missa Cantata, I acted as “M.C.” out of necessity. The Dominican Rite traditionally does not have a Master of Ceremonies, but due to the newness of the Mass for all the servers, I needed to be on hand to direct the various stages and movements.

Schedule of the Server Camp Liturgies

As we know, extraordinary form masses are not something one can just “pick up” after even a number of tries, especially when frequency is limited to one day a week (Sundays being the day this Mass is offered). So Fr. Vincent Kelber, O.P. (the usual celebrant for the Dominican Rite at Holy Family) and I decided it might be a useful thing to run a “Dominican Rite Camp” some week of the summer, where our team of boys could get the training and repetition necessary to really begin to understand and master the necessary movements and rubrics.

Bro. Peter Junipero and the Participants in the Program

To our delighted surprise, the announcement of the camp quickly generated more work than we had anticipated. I decided, almost as a side thought, to put an announcement in the parish bulletin for the camp, which would run mornings for one week, Monday through Friday, and involve about an hour and a half of catechesis and instruction on basic liturgical theology, the history of the Dominican Rite, and practical aspects of serving, culminating in a Mass served by members of the camp. We would adjourn to a local park afterwards for lunch and recreation. Within a week the announcement had gotten out by word of mouth, “through the grapevine,” as it were, and we had no less than twenty-six boys signed up ranging in age from 7 to 17.

Lunch in the Park near Anchorage Cathedral

We had to cut off sign-ups simply because I and the other trainer could only handle so many boys at one time. Alas, the wonderful problem emerged that, at the close of the week, the original six boys did not get the repetition they needed to feel comfortable with all the movements, since we decided to distribute as many boys as we could to serving roles each day, allotting two servers for each of the Low Masses celebrated Monday and Tuesday (senior and junior), and four servers for each of the Missae Cantatae celebrated Wednesday through Friday (senior, junior, thurifer, boat-bearer).

Study Session on the Latin Responses and Rubrics

Needless to say, the tremendous interest in learning to the serve the Dominican Rite among our Catholic boys and young men was wonderfully encouraging. The training sessions in the parish hall each morning involved everything from memorizing the Confiteor and Misereatur (which slightly differ in the Dominican and Roman Rites), to presentations on liturgical symbolism from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, to a lesson from Fr. Kelber on the history of the Dominican Rite in relation to other rites, to practicums on the parts and order of the Dominican Rite Mass, to proper posture, movements, vestments and their symbolic significance, etc.

Rubric and Movement Practicum

Other than the sheer pleasure of leading such a week, what was especially fascinating for me was observing was the sense of camaraderie that developed among the boys, and their sense of responsibility for the sacred dignity of the Mass as it was taught and experienced each day.

Missa Cantata: Waiting for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar

The older boys tended to take charge of the positions demanding more responsibility (e.g. senior server), the “middle” group of boys got to fill in at other spots and follow the leadership of the older, and the youngest boys (7 and 8 year olds), though they did not get a chance to actually serve, were champing at the bit in anticipation of being able to serve in the near future. A kind of healthy competition developed to memorize the Confiteor and Misereatur first, to remember the moves correctly, and to learn more about the sacred liturgy.

Missa Cantata: Ministers at the Side for Postcommunion Prayer

The final day we seized the opportunity to show the excellent USCCB video Fishers of Men, and speak about vocations, highlighting that every Catholic boy is called to a mature Catholic manhood, which means knowing and living the faith as a father, whether that fatherhood is exercised in leadership and service to a physical family, or in Holy Orders as a spiritual father.

The effort and training required to serve the extraordinary form well is an excellent mental, physical, and spiritual training for this fatherhood. On a basic human level, boys learn etiquette, teamwork, responsibility, seriousness of purpose, and duty to God. On a deeper level, they of course draw near to the font of Fatherhood, the Triune God, as they reverently serve the priest acting in persona Christi at the altar of God.

The Vocations Talk

The fruit of the camp was to produce a list of 10 boys whose families were willing to commit to weekly attendance at the Dominican Rite, and an additional list of about 12 more who were willing to come about once a month. Fr. Vincent and I took the list of servers committed weekly (plus 2), and scheduled three more additional weeks of training, taking 4 boys for a week at a time, and giving them a bit of repetition to better master the movements.

Bro. Peter Junipero with Two of the "Graduates"

It appears indeed that there is a plentiful harvest waiting to be reaped to meet the call of the Holy Father that the extraordinary form be more widely disseminated, and affect in a healthy way the liturgical balance and sensibility of the Catholic faithful. I am deeply grateful to God that I was able to be an instrument in serving Holy Family Cathedral in this ministry over the last year, giving me as it did a deeper familiarity with, and even greater appreciation for, the Rite of my Order which goes back to its very beginnings, and has been an extraordinary (pun intended) font of holiness through the ages.

Sts. Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, and all Dominican saints, Orate pro nobis!

Dominican Altarboys' Manual

I am pleased to announce that, through the kindness of Fr. Paul Keller, O.P., we now have available on our sidebar under "Dominican Rite--Texts" at Dominican Liturgy a scan of the

Dominican Altarboys' Manual according to the Rite of the Order of Preachers: Compiled from the Dominican Ceremonial (New York: Province of St. Joseph, 1945).

This booklet presents very complete instructions and photos on how to serve the Dominican Rite Mass in the Low Mass, Missa Cantata, and Solemn Mass forms. Although there have been some accomodations to Roman practice (e.g., the manual gives the Roman, not the Dominican, order for lighting the altar candles), these do seem to represent the customs in force in the Eastern Dominican Province before the Council.

This text may be downloaded in PDF format, for printing or consultation on your computer, at Dominican Liturgy. This resource will be especially helpful for communities where the Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite is celebrated, and there is a Dominican who fills in or regularly celebrates, should he decide use the traditional Mass proper to his Order--as, with his provincial's permission, he has the right to do. This download now allows all servers to be properly prepared for such a necessity.