Six Reasons Why Altar Rails Are Returning and Firing Up Eucharistic Devotion

[Michie]

In churches across the country, pastors are installing altar rails. Some parishes are bringing the rails back to old churches after they were torn out decades ago. Other parishes are adding them to new churches that never had them.

The altar rail is coming back by popular demand. It is changing the way people see the Holy Eucharist. Best of all, the move is highly popular and awaking enthusiasm among the faithful.

After the Second Vatican Council, many churches removed their altar rails, claiming it divided “the people of God” from the priest in the sanctuary. The idea was to turn the Mass into “a shared, communal worship experience.” However, it also removed the sense of the sacred that once dominated the church, and Eucharistic devotion waned.

A Catechism in Stone

Continued below.

Six Reasons Why Altar Rails Are Returning and Firing Up Eucharistic Devotion

In churches across the country, pastors are installing altar rails. Some parishes are bringing the rails back to old churches after they were torn out decades a

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[Wolseley]

20 years ago, the new pastor of the parish I was attending at the time had the altar boys (who were dressed in cassocks and surplices!) bring up kneelers at Communion; these were set to the side, and people had the option of receiving kneeling or standing, as their choice.

But then, he also wore a cassock; he threw out all the missalettes and replaced them with new, solid hymnals; he hired a talented organist and forbade (forbade!!!) the use of guitars, drums, flutes, tambourines, kazoos, tin whistles, etc., in the celebration of the liturgy; he started using an ambo on the altar to hold the Lectionary; he re-introduced Consecration bells, and had at least two Novus Ordo Masses every week conducted in Latin.

Since that time, I have seen a lot of these things slowly seep back into parishes I have attended over the years; the bells at the Consecration are practically standard these days in my diocese, and I can't remember the last time I saw a missalette (thanks be to God).