HOW TO SERVE AND PRAY AT LOW MASS
Arrive in good time.
If you have to pass through the church, kneel down, pray to Our Lord and say your Guild Prayers before Serving.
If you enter by the sacristy, vest first, and then go into church or a side-chapel and say your prayers.
Always walk slowly and reverently. Genuflect to the ground, keeping your body upright, and facing forward.
Prepare the cruets; light the candles beginning by the one at the Epistle side; prepare your book if you use one. Help the priest to vest.
If you are not serving at the Blessed Sacrament Altar, tell the priest if you or other people want Holy Communion, stating the number. If you forget this, you can still present altar-breads to the priest up till the Offertory, or even any time before the Elevation.
Never talk or play in the sacristy.
When the priest is ready for Mass, take the Missal if this is the custom, bow to the Cross, and preceed the priest, offering him Holy Water with your right hand and then making the sign of the Cross yourself. Ring the sacristy bell if this is the custom. If you are carrying the Missal, lean it on your left arm to do all these actions.
On reaching the Altar, be at the priest's right: receive the biretta if he is wearing it, kissing first his hand, then biretta (NOTE A, p.29), and genuflect, even if the priest only bows (NOTE B, p.29). Put the biretta on the step or the credence table, and if you have to put the Missal on the stand, go round by the side.
Then if necessary, close the sanctuary gates, genuflect and go to the foot of the steps at the Gospel side so as to be on the priest's left. Have your book open ready.
When the priest comes down and bows or genuflects, kneel directly on the floor.
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