MY
Another of my duties as a summer seminarian is to retrain and standardize the Altar Servers at the parish. The pastor has some elements he'd like to change. For example, he wants to add a gospel procession with candles and incense. It's an older, more reverent tradition and I'm happy he wants to emphasize liturgical reverence.
Unfortunately, the task falls to me, the Master of Ceremonies, to sort out this Monster of Ceremonies. I've bern serving for so long that much of how I serve now is muscle memory born of experience. I never realized the number cues and rules that are now second nature to me. As I juggle genuflections and generations of minor traditions, it's important for me to remember why. Sure, the when, where, and how of bringing up the water and wine is important, but more important is the deeper reality it signifies. Each gift brought up during the offertory represents a history of human labor, offered to the Lord to be sanctified. The wine the servers bring to the altar unites the work of the farmers who grew the grapes, the brewers who fermented them, the drivers who moved the product, the church workers who ordered them with the donations of parishoners, the volunteer sacristans who poured it into the cruets, and many, many more. While I want the servers I train to be technically excellent, professional, graceful, and knowledgeable, above all, I want to instill a sense of the beautiful mystery they're intimately participating in and experiencing from up close.
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Catholic. Archives
July 2023
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