Dear Linda:

Thank you for the kind remarks. I am pleased that our apostolate is helpful to people.

As to the Catechism of St. Pius X, this catechism did not have a wide-spread distribution outside of Italy as far as I know.

It is a good Catechism. An online version of the Catechism is found here. There are other online examples of this Catechism but I link this one with the Catholic Information Network (the grandpappy website for those of us with Catholic websites) because they include notes where the Canon Law or other Church legislation has changed since the publication of the St. Pius X Catechism.

People who use any document like this from the past needs to remember that the Church may change disciplinary items. Such things as a "vigil" Mass and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are two of those changes.

Speaking of the Vigil Mass, it is true that the reason for the Vigil Mass was to provide an opportunity for those who could not legitimately celebrate Mass on Sunday. It was never meant as an ordinary practice.

Unfortunately some people tend to go to the Vigil Mass in order to keep Sunday to themselves. Sunday is NOT a mental health day, or the mow the grass day. It is officially the LORD'S DAY. The late Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, issued an apostolic letter, Dies Domini, where he reminds us that Sunday should be kept holy.

The idea behind the possibility of Vigils comes from ancient Jewish tradition. The Jews consider the beginning of the day to be around sunset of the previous evening. Thus, Saturday Evening is actually Sunday according to this tradition.

Now, of course, if people wish to follow this ancient tradition, then they need to keep holy the ENTIRE 24 hours of "Sunday" defined as beginning from around sunset Saturday evening to sunset Sunday evening.

Sadly, as mentioned, many use the Sunday vigil as a way to keep the calendar Sunday to themselves. This is improper if that is what they do.

This is a matter of conscience. Technically, one may satisfy their Sunday obligation by celebration of the Sunday Vigil Mass on Saturday evening. The Church does not ask questions but leaves us to our conscience. (Of course it would help if priests INFORMED the consciences of the faithful about this).

Kudos to the monastery who has the correct understanding of this and practices it.

As for receiving the Eucharist from Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, since the allowance of Extraordinary Ministers are so abused in this country as to make them "ordinary" instead of "extra-ordinary," I prefer myself to receive from a Priest or Deacon. When that is not possible I try to receive from a male extraordinary minister as that is the way it should be if bishops were installing the official ministry of acolyte as they should be. But, if none of that is possible, I will receive from a extraordinary minister (male or female). Why? Because regardless of my personal preferences the Church allows it. What the Church allows is allowable. It is childish, in my view, to pout about the Church allowing something that is not my preference and to especially insist on my preference like a kid in a temper tantrum. Thus, I accept the teaching and practice as I long ago resigned from being Pope of the universe :)

To teach others that my preference is the correct teaching, however, is a real problem. This is departing from communion with the Church to form one's own brand of orthodoxy. I would mention this to the Friars and they need to correct this misinformation.

Canon Law states in Canon 230.3:

When the need of the Church warrants it and ministers are lacking (referring to priests and deacons), lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes (referring to not being in the officially installed offices of lector or acolyte), can also supply certain of their duties, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion, according to the prescripts of the law.

You see, if things were done correctly, those serving at the altar, distributing the Eucharist, reading from the Lectionary, or presiding over the prayers of the people would be priests, deacons, and "installed" lectors and acolytes. The regular laity should not be doing any of this unless there are not enough priests, deacons, AND installed officers. (the regular altar servers and extraordinary ministers distributing the Eucharist are "commissioned" for that task when needed, but they are not "installed" Lectors and acolytes unless they are laymen installed by the bishop).

The problem is that priests, deacons, and installed officers all must be men. Political correctness is bruised by this.

Also, in the liberal's attempt to turn the Mass into a fellowship meeting, restricting these functions only to priests, deacons, and installed officers eliminates the round robin "participation of the laity" in these functions. Well, the laity may participate, either as installed officers, or from the pew. That is the laity's role in the Mass. Extraordinary ministers are to be strictly that -- EXTRA-ordinary.

The problem of the Extraordinary becoming ordinary could be nearly eliminated if bishops would just exercise the installation of the offices of Lector and Acolyte to lay men (other than candidates to the priesthood).

Anyway, regardless of all this, it is legal for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to distribute the Eucharist, therefore it is legal and permissible for us to receive from them (even if we suspect the parish is not properly utilizing the extraordinary ministers).

It is patently improper for anyone to say that we are not to receive from an duly commissioned Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

Certainly one should not make a mad dash to get in line where the priest is distributing. If I can be in the line where the priest is distributing, great, if not, then I receive from the Extraordinary minister as the Church allows.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

P.S. I mentioned the Grandpappy of Catholic Websites, the Catholic Information Network. If I may digress into some personal vanity (I'll have to confess this in the Chapter of Faults), some may be interested to know that our website, saint-mike.org is also one of the pioneers on the Web. We came in what could be called the third wave of pioneers. At the time we went online there were less than 35,000 websites on the Internet. Now there are something like 10,000,000 websites or more? I can't believe we have been doing this that long (since 1996).