Family involvement in mass

dgarofalo08

I am sure this information is in one of my several books but I thought it would be easier to ask on here. I am having a catholic mass and I was wondering how many "roles" I can fill in with family/friends to allow them to participate in our special day. I beleive there are two readings and a responsorial psalm. Also, if I have family members that are eucharistic ministers are they usually permitted to give out echarist with the priest? Who traditionally brings up the gifts? Anyone else willing to share how they included their family? Thanks!

mica178

There's the person who reads the intercessions also.  If you have a family member with a great singing voice, you can have that person be your cantor.

Calypso1977

a typical novus ordo mass usually has 2 readings and gift bearers.  family and friends can fill these roles.  the priest may or may not allow you to have EM's. 

ideally, the folks doing readings or briging up the gifts should be catholic.  the priest may even require them to be catholic.

we had a latin mass so we had no readers or gift bearers. 

eclaire426

You could have family members (cousins, nephews, etc.) as altar servers too.. this usually works best if they are already altar servers at their home parish.

GulfCoaster

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_family-involvement-mass-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:e23c6ba3-e3b5-4ec9-9363-15c974f8369aPost:b1c83d36-325c-468f-8215-933194c2acde">Re: Family involvement in mass</a>:
[QUOTE]a typical novus ordo mass usually has 2 readings and gift bearers.  family and friends can fill these roles.  the priest may or may not allow you to have EM's.  ideally, the folks doing readings or briging up the gifts should be catholic.  the priest may even require them to be catholic. we had a latin mass so we had no readers or gift bearers. 
Posted by Calypso1977[/QUOTE]

Ditto this.  Some parishes don't use Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion  (which actually is the "correct" term according to the Church -- only a priest is properly called a Eucharistic minister, but that's a subject for another thread) at weddings.  Many weddings don't have enough people receiving to truly "need" an EMHC and it may end up just making things more complicated to have additional people up at the altar.  You may or may not be permitted to have an EMHC, depending on how many people will be in attendance and what your parish's policies are.  Ask your priest about this question, because only he would be able to answer.

The opportunities I see for family or friends' involvement would be EMHC (if allowed), gift bearers, readers (2 readings and the general intercessions), cantor (Psalm and other music), and altar servers.  Our readers were required to be Catholic.  We had my husband's grandfather and two friends as our readers.  The giftbearers, however, were not required to be Catholic and our priest let us have my MIL (Catholic) and my stepmother (non-Catholic) bring up the gifts.

[Deleted User]

All of our siblings were in the wedding. We had 2 readers, both were family friends. Our gift bearers were my husband's Grandma and my Godmother. You could also have someone sing, but since no one in our family really sings, we just hired someone that our church had recommended.

Your family members that are EME's should be able to be involved in the wedding (ie: a reader). One of our readers was also an EME and he served at our wedding.

ZeenonClare

You can also ask family or friends to serve as ushers.

ootmother2

I was one of the gift bearers at my daughter's wedding and an uncle of the groom was as well.  I'm Catholic but the groom's uncle is Lutheran.  No problem there at all.

The priest didn't ask the religion, I'm sure he assumed the MOB was Catholic though.  No one questioned the uncle

ellen73

What church are you getting married in?  We were at St. Charles in North Olmsted but had a priest from another parish (a family friend). We ended up having 3 readers (including prayers of the faithful; friend, 2 SILs), 3 Eucharistic Ministers (FIL, BIL, sister; at least 250 people were at the Mass), godparents brought up gifts and cantors (friend, niece). 

MegaMultitasker

Another thing you could do is get corsage/boutinerres for your God-parents.

We're also having a small candle off to the side "In Memory of", it'll be subtle, but it's in honor of my Grandmother and FI's Grandfather and God-mother to honor their memory

mswood1977

We had 3 Readers (Old Testament, New Testament, Prayer of the Faithful), 2 gift bearers and our altar server (who was a family friend and already serves as an altar server in our parish).  I have been to weddings that had 2 people do the Prayer of the Faithful (alternating prayers) so they had 4 readers.  Typically the cantor sings the Psalm so you don't need a reader for that, but if you have a talented family member they could serve as your cantor.  We also included my brother who was not a member of the wedding party by having him escort my grandmother in to the church during the seating of the mothers.  We had a small wedding so we did not need EMHC, but could have chosen 1 or 2 if needed so long as they already serve as EMHC in their home parish and had proof of this (such as a note from their priest).

RecoveringActor

At my parish, it's traditionally the parents who bring up the gifts, which is how we're doing it.  We're having a family member as an altar server, a family friend as the organist, a family friend as the cantor, plus family to do the 2 readings as well as intercessions.