A Ritual for Laypersons: Rites for Holy Communion and the Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying

Rating:
Summary: An intermediate ritual book for lay ministers
Review: Communion of the Sick is the basic ritual book needed by lay extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist who take the Eucharist to adults who are homebound or hospitalized. A Ritual for Laypersons is, in effect, an intermediate ritual book. Chapter 1 contains basically the same material as Communion of the Sick; Chapter 2 covers Communion and Viaticum (final rites). Chapters 3 and 4 cover pastoral care for the sick, adult and child respectively. Note that the sacrament of anointing is reserved for the ordained; this book contains rites lay persons can administer. Chapters 5 and 6 contain commendation of the dying and prayers after death respectively.

The volume is very usable, providing a sufficient variety of texts that a minister can select appropriate texts for the specific individuals to whom they are ministering.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful liturgical book for lay ministers
Review: This book contains various rites of the Catholic Church (Latin-rite) that may be used by lay ministers when distributing Communion outside Mass or during visits to the sick and dying. It's main plus point over other liturgical books is that it collects in one small, handy volume the instructions, rubrics and rites pertaining to the lay minister; hence there's no need to skip over pages of rites reserved for the ordained priest or deacon.

The ritual contains the following: Holy Communion Outside Mass, Holy Communion of the Sick, Viaticum for the Dying, Pastoral Visits to a sick adult and sick child, Commendation of the Dying, Prayers after Death, with a supplement of prayers from the Order of Christian Funerals for various situations. It also contains a short selection of scripture material taken from the NAB with revised NT, and the Revised Psalms of the NAB.

Fully approved by the NCCB, published in 1993. That explains the choice of the Revised Psalms: we should keep in mind that some time later, the Revised Psalms was considered inappropriate for use in liturgical texts.

Presentation-wise, the book has a nice stamped cover and spine. The binding is appropriate and beautiful. The print size is appropriate, and like all liturgical books, the rubrics are set in red and a smaller font. A ribbon is provided. Overall a pastorally helpful edition!