Future Priests of the Third Millennium

A little insight into the life of seminarians from various dioceses preparing for ministry as Roman Catholic priests, including daily activities, personal interests, special events, the spiritual life, news from the seminary, and almost whatever comes to our minds!



Friday, October 20, 2006

Altar Servers


One of my responsibilities on pastoral year is training new servers and monitoring the servers we already have. I recently sent a postcard to my current servers, thanking them for their ministry, reminding them that they were responsible for finding their won substitutes, and listing the dates that they had been absent. I spent a good deal of time on the wording of that postcard; I wanted to be sure no one would be offended. I sent the postcards away in the mail, and was certain that the servers would read the postcard and say, “Oh, I’ll have to be better about that.” In my mind, I saw them all going to check the ministry schedule and then throwing the postcard in the garbage. No such luck.

Within a couple of days, I had several angry parents calling to tell me that I had “made them feel like irresponsible parents.” From the tenor of the conversations, I get the impression that it is somehow my fault that the servers don’t show up when they are scheduled, and that it is OK to miss your own day if you were called upon to substitute for someone else who failed to find their own replacement. So, a few of my servers have simply asked to be removed from the pool. So be it. Others have mentioned that they are just “too old” to be servers anymore. I respond, “I don’t agree, but if you insist . . .”

These conversations were the impetus for me to invite children in younger grades. They want to serve, they are willing to learn how to do it well, and they do not suffer from the all too common adolescent time poverty of many of my other servers.

Ask and you shall receive. I put out my invitation and I now have twenty-three boys and girls in grades three and up who want to be servers. Some are very small, and it will look funny to have me process in with them and direct them around the sanctuary, but I am looking forward to the challenge of becoming a model, teacher and shepherd for my new little flock.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tyler,

Keep up the good work. You cannot please everybody; you will get comments and reactions no matter what you do. Love the Church and people (the Church), and say your prayers. Teach them well; intill reverence for what they are doing, and help them learn not to get caught up in their own duties, but to participate in the whole. God bless!

Anonymous said...

Can we please just have altar boys? I find altar girls distracting (I am a woman myself). Boys still are the preferred, no?

Anonymous said...

You may have heard of the news recently that extra-ordinary ministers of holy communion are no longer permitted to assist with purifying the vessels after mass. This was a permission granted to the United States which expired and then was not renewed. The preferred is that priests, deacons and (instituted) acolytes purify vessels. The same goes for female servers. The preference is for boys, but girls can be permitted. For the long of it, visit http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentContents/DocumentIndex/556

Fr. Tyler said...

All is well with the postcards (finally). I think it has officially blown over. In other news, I did the server training, and sixteen new servers were commissioned on All Saints Day. It was pretty cool to have them all process into the church. Training them was great fun.

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