áudiam vocem laudis, et enárrem univérsa mirabília tua
During the Mass, I was amused to see one of our altar servers go into the sacristy, wash his face, and blow his nose in the hand towel (start about 3:59 in). Then he busted out a few moves and did his hair. My guess is that he didn’t realize we were live-streaming.
He came back and got back on track, though – one of those “I’m still waking up here, man!” kind of moments one occasionally goes through at the daily Mass. 🙏🏼
Blessed Feast day.
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The Mass from the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 🙏🏼
You’ll note that I forgot to light the candles. 😬 We have Adoration until 11:45, then there’s a lot to put in place quickly, and some of our daily Mass servers are vacationing in some holy sites out in the otherwise wild west of the USA.
But like anything else, once you realize it, it’s okay to simply go about the business of getting it done. I realized it while saying the prayers before the Gospel.
So afterward I took off my maniple, a French tradition which signifies the Mass is interrupted – such as for giving a Homily, which is not a part of the 1962 Missal and is done outside the Mass (for instance, if you watch JFK’s funeral Mass, the Homily is simply read after the Mass is ended,) – lit the candles, replaced the maniple then continued with the Mass.
To not do so intentionally was, I believe, classified as a mortal sin. As for making mistakes – commenters note that the only perfect liturgy is the Heavenly Liturgy and we will always have some element of your human condition present.
One Priest I know left out, during his first Mass in the Extraordinary Form, the Pater Noster (Our Father). I practiced the Mass for two months daily, motions, pronunciations, bows, etc, prior to saying it in public. I knew it too well, and eventually, come Easter, I made every mistake in the book thinking I finally had it down. It comes in time.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
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