REGINA: You have written about the role of altar boys in the TLM. Does their presence have any effect on the male children attending, do you think?
JOSEPH SHAW: Another advantage the Traditional Mass has is in relation to boys serving.
This is not so attractive in the Ordinary Form, where servers do not play such an important or interesting role, and where serving has in many places become a very female-dominated activity.
At the Traditional Mass it can have an extraordinary effect on little boys, who can find it more difficult than girls to sit still and quiet in the congregation for long periods.
The discipline of serving, and its close involvement with the ceremonies, gives them a new angle on Mass, and they often become rather enthusiastic about it.
REGINA |18