Newbie

A newly ordained priest-friend who is in town temporarily came to help out the boss by saying Mass today. As the boss was in a meeting for most of the day, he carefully laid out everything my priest-friend would need to say Mass on a little table right next to the altar as my friend is not familiar with the sacristy and parish from a presbyteral standpoint. The boss put out the sacramentary on the altar, set up a chalice, set out the cruets of wine and water, counted out exactly how many hosts my friend would need and placed them in a ciborium, and set the tabernacle key on top of the chalice so my friend wouldn't get confused as to where it was when the time came.

Next the boss asked me to help my friend out by showing him how to get into the confessional gracefully without having to jump over the door (the boss mimed this action for me like he was a high jumper - it was hysterical) and to make sure the newbie had everything he needed to say Mass. I did, and my friend did just fine.

Except for one little thing. Following Mass, he returned to the sacristy where I was waiting for him and confessed with a laugh that he forgot to consecrate any hosts except the priest's host. Apparently the ciborium just sat there on the side table unused, but thankfully we had plenty of previously consecrated hosts in the tabernacle for the congregation. I laughed, and then set out to make sure the sacristan-volunteers didn't accidentally put the ciborium into the tabernacle.

I wonder what one would do if one had multiple ciboria and weren't sure which ones had already been consecrated and which ones the priest forgot to consecrate? (Fortunately, we knew). I hope that scenario doesn't come up much.

You have to watch these new priests all the time...