Reflections on an Installation Mass

This past Sunday, Reverend Eugene Delmore SJ was installed as the fifth pastor of our little parish church of Saint Rita of Cascia in Tacoma.

The Most Reverend Eusebio Elizondo MSpS, Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle, was the principal Celebrant. He was joined at the altar by Fr Delmore and his Jesuit Superior, Reverend John Fuchs SJ.

It was my second time serving as Master of Ceremonies, and my first for Bishop Elizondo.

What a preacher! There were a couple of times during the Installation Mass where I thought the Bishop was about to levitate. I’ve rarely seen a man so on fire for the Lord. He did have a tendency to improvise, though never with the actual texts of the Mass.

No, he changed the changeable bits – which is fine – but it meant that the servers and I were constantly on our toes. Since I was standing behind the Bishop, he couldn’t see me signaling the servers, and sometimes he would do it by himself, sometimes well before the point that a strict reading of the Order of Service would indicate.

The servers waited for my signal before moving, as they were trained to do. I suspect this might have inadvertently contributed to the number of incidents where the Bishop felt he should signal them. He settled down a bit as we got further into the liturgy.

It was kind of nerve-wracking, truth be told.

The one genuine screw-up was entirely my fault. It occurred during the one time in the Installation Rite where I was actually required to speak. It didn’t help that the Bishop improvised a little, but I failed to catch it in time.

I was so wrapped up in what I was supposed to do next, that I forgot one of the most important rules for MCs – keep the Bishop in view at all times!

Other than the one hiccup, it went well. It was beautiful the way the liturgy unfolded. The servers moved with precision and kept their hands folded and eyes on me.

It was everything the Mass should be: beautiful and dignified.

And there was incense. And bells. Fr Delmore requested bells during the elevation, in addition to our normal use of them during the epiclesis. So the server rang the bells three times during the Eucharistic Prayer, instead of just once. It was beautiful, and it added to the dignity of the rite.

It is my hope that we will continue this laudable custom in the future. I’m cautiously optimistic.

This Mass was, I think, our first small step towards implementing the ideas of the “new liturgical movement” called for by the Pope. There’s lots of work to do, but this is, I think, a very good beginning.