Alter Server guide

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Just wanted to let you all know. I am the administrator for my church’s website and we posted a nice little booklet for alterservers. It is very comprehensive and I am just about to copy it off for all the servers at my church. I will warn you it is currently lacking the ringing of the bells during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I will be adding it soon, like within the next couple of days.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Thanks.

stmaryslakeport.org/alterserverbooklet.doc

:gopray2: mrcrister
 
Thank you. my son is interested in becoming an Altar server. This will be helpful for him to study.

BTW, there are some spelling and grammatical errors that you might want to correct. If you need help with that, send me a private tell.
 
I am in the middle of publishing our manual too. I will read through yours. I do notice a few terminology issues that you may want to change.
  1. Eucharistic Minister is the preist. not the Communion ministers
  2. SInce the Precious blood is poured into the chalices after consecration they should not be called wine chalices…
  3. the processional and the recelssional are not part of the Mass.
It might be beneficial for you to include instructions for Benedictions, funeral Masses, and Masses for the celebration of Sacraments like COnfirmation, WEddings and baptisms.

Servers are used for stations of the cross too.

Nice to see someone doing a manual
 
THurifer2 said:
  1. SInce the Precious blood is poured into the chalices after consecration they should not be called wine chalices…
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But the Precious Blood should not be poured into anything after the consecration.
 
Thanks so much to you all. I know I have quite a few errors. I knew gramatics were off but I’m surprised at the number of naming issues I had. I had my pastor at my church look it over. I suspect he never actually looked at it. Oh well. Thanks much! I’ll be sure to correct all that. I’m hoping to print them off sometime this week so it will corrected soon.

Thanks again
 
Just to add a couple more:
I find that reverence is never stressed enough (if at all in most cases). Sure, it’s up to the disposition of the individual’s heart, but it is never a waste to make a friendly reminder. Altar Servers help set the tone of the Mass. If they are reverent and worshipful, the congregation will see this an be inspired to be more that way themselves.
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The book of Prayers is the Sacramentary. The Sanctuary (as written in the guide) is the area that contains the altar.
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As an Altar Server, I also find it important to let what I do during Mass be a reflection of how I serve Christ the rest of my life. I would suggest to anyone leading the Altar Servers at the parish they belong to highly encourage the Servers to involved in local ministries like soup kitchens, nursing home visitations, etc. among serving Christ in their family, workplace, and school. Just some thoughts.
 
mrcrister said:
Thanks so much to you all. I know I have quite a few errors. I knew gramatics were off but I’m surprised at the number of naming issues I had. I had my pastor at my church look it over. I suspect he never actually looked at it. Oh well. Thanks much! I’ll be sure to correct all that. I’m hoping to print them off sometime this week so it will corrected soon.

Thanks again
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The Sacramentary is a book. The Sanctuary is a physical place.
 
Apologies to anyone who finds this uncharitable, but I believe that someone who administers a parish website and publishes documents guiding practices should spell “altar” correctly.

JSA+
 
The main path to walk down is also the “aisle” not an “isle”. I’m sure many would prefer to be lounging in the sun on an “isle”, but instead they are processing down an “aisle” instead. 😃
 
blackrobe said:
Apologies to anyone who finds this uncharitable, but I believe that someone who administers a parish website and publishes documents guiding practices should spell “altar” correctly.

JSA+
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Catholic90:
The main path to walk down is also the “aisle” not an “isle”. I’m sure many would prefer to be lounging in the sun on an “isle”, but instead they are processing down an “aisle” instead. 😃
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Believe you me but spelling really isn’t my forte. Actually I noticed that the version I have online is MUCH older than what I thought I had done. I have it printed out but can’t find it on the computer. I assure you both of these WERE corrected. I’ll make sure you can see the final result. Thanks much for all your help. I’m correcting as I speak…well type.

Thanks
 
There are many terms that are off; servers may wear cinctures, rather than ropes. Water and wine go into cruets, rather than crucibles, etc.

Also, I must admit to being less-than enamored of the somewhat “hip” style in which the document is written. Little gems such as “what the heck is this guy doing, telling me…” are representative of the secular culture and have no place in a parish document. :tsktsk:
 
gallo said:
Just to add a couple more:
I find that reverence is never stressed enough (if at all in most cases). Sure, it’s up to the disposition of the individual’s heart, but it is never a waste to make a friendly reminder. Altar Servers help set the tone of the Mass. If they are reverent and worshipful, the congregation will see this an be inspired to be more that way themselves.
Click to expand...
Thanks much, I will be sure to include reverence.
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mrcrister said:
Just wanted to let you all know. I am the administrator for my church’s website and we posted a nice little booklet for alterservers. It is very comprehensive and I am just about to copy it off for all the servers at my church. I will warn you it is currently lacking the ringing of the bells during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I will be adding it soon, like within the next couple of days.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Thanks.

stmaryslakeport.org/alterserverbooklet.doc

:gopray2: mrcrister
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Your manual may be the best thing since sliced bread but you lost me on the title page with “Alter” Server.
 
mercygate said:
Your manual may be the best thing since sliced bread but you lost me on the title page with “Alter” Server.
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Yeah as I said before this is an old version. Somehow the pretty updated version file was lost and this old misspelled version was posted. I have already corrected the misspellings. Thanks!
 
mrcrister said:
Yeah as I said before this is an old version. Somehow the pretty updated version file was lost and this old misspelled version was posted. I have already corrected the misspellings. Thanks!
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That’s a relief! I guess you DO have an idea what a cold bath a very simple thing like mis-spelling a word like “altar” can be…
 
The updated and edited guide is published. This is the final copy of the 1st edition.
 
The guide is pretty good, I would include a reflection at the end something to think about in this way…

The reflection should stress how the boys or girls would conduct themselves in imitation of Jesus or Mary respectively.

The people serving at Mass should be ever thoughtful of their imitation of holiness and ideal. A boy should seek to imitate Christ in seeking to live life as a man in Sacrifice and submission, and a girl should seek to imitate Mary as the ultimate in humilty and abandonment of self will.

I saw nothing, (maybe I missed it) of the Priest being in the person of Christ and as such we also respect the office he is serving. I did not see any bowing toward the Priest after he bows to you, or acknowledging the Priest.

An Altar server is there to serve God, the Priest and the people, and to look how to best serve the Priest as He celebrates the Mass. All to often instead of looking at the Priest the servers look to their duties or at the people, awareness of service is very important.

Nice booklet, I just think a bit of spirituality might help focus it,
God Bless
Scylla
 
Chatter163 said:
There are many terms that are off; servers may wear cinctures, rather than ropes. Water and wine go into cruets, rather than crucibles, etc.

Also, I must admit to being less-than enamored of the somewhat “hip” style in which the document is written. Little gems such as “what the heck is this guy doing, telling me…” are representative of the secular culture and have no place in a parish document. :tsktsk:
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I see your point but the way I wrote it was to appeal to our younger servers (some are very young at least maturity wise…not my choice) and to make it a little more friendly to younger folk. I agree that it should be more formal but this is not really official, besides the fact that I have run it by many senior church members (wiser rather than older) and they have “given it their blessing” for its purpose.

Thank you, however, for the corrections.
 
mrcrister said:
I see your point but the way I wrote it was to appeal to our younger servers (some are very young at least maturity wise…not my choice) and to make it a little more friendly to younger folk. I agree that it should be more formal but this is not really official, besides the fact that I have run it by many senior church members (wiser rather than older) and they have “given it their blessing” for its purpose.

Thank you, however, for the corrections.
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I agree that you can be happy-go-lucky but you MUST be accurate.

One of the best books for teaching people to pray the Liturgy of the Hours is *The Divine Office for DODOS (Devout, Obedient, Disciples of Our Savior). * It’s light-hearted and funny but it is totally accurate.
 
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