Chapter VI. Requisites for Saying Mass

Besides what we have seen in the last chapter, the Missal prescribes various other requisites for the due celebration of Mass. The following especially call for mention here: three altar-cloths, two wax candles, the ordinary priestly vestments, a server, a chalice and paten, clean corporal and purificator of linen, and a Missal. The altar linen and the vestments should be blessed by a bishop or by a priest with specially delegated faculties for the purpose.

The chalice and paten should be of silver, and gilded at least on the inside. They should also be consecrated by a bishop. The difficulty of procuring wholly wax candles was reported to the S.R.C., which answered, December 14, 1904, that bishops should as far as possible see that the two candles for Mass should at least have a greater proportion of beeswax than of other material, and that private priests need not anxiously inquire about the quality of the wax.

Of the vestments, at least the alb, chasuble, stole, and maniple are required under grave precept; the amice and the girdle, as also a pall, purificator, and crucifix, are required under a less serious obligation.

The server should be a Catholic and of the male sex, but if one cannot be procured, a woman may make responses from outside the altar rails (Can. 813).

It is a disputed point among theologians whether the proper colour of the sacred vestments is of strict precept; and they deny that there is a strict precept with regard to the use of a veil for the chalice, a burse, and a. stand for the Missal.