Alter servers

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Montie_Claunch

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I went to a young adult group thing and talked to EDIT the priest . We talked about this and that and it came around to alter servers. And discovered that there wasn’t an age limit on being an alter server (I’m a recent convert and didn’t know) and said I could be an alter server during one of the daily masses. I said I would be delighted. I want to know first what all alter boys do. I had never payed attention to the alter servers before all that much. Could anyone tell me what all the alter server does during daily mass (I’ve never seen alter servers at a Daily Mass)? Thanks and God bless
 
They assist during mass. Some things the servers do is march in the entrance and end of mass processions, carry the candles and cross, assist the priest when he washes his hands, brings things back and forth from the side table and the alter. Each church can be a little different on what the duties are.
 
Welcome to the club 😉 I am “only” 25 and serve during weekdays, too.

Much will depend on the style of your parish, but during weekday masses, you will most likely not asked to carry the cross or work with incense (thuriferar/navicular). But the cross is usually just carried in front of the processionw hen entering/leaving church, so tha’s quite easy if you’e got strength enough (I can’t carry our usual cross - WAY to heavy for me).

“Candle-cyrrying” might occur, but only of there are two servers or more, so you could ask your counterpart when what to do. Usually, it is just walking in and getting candles again for the reading of the evangelium.

Some parishes require due to their layout the servers also to hold the missal or any other book at certain times during mass, but that’s not always the case. A few weeks ago, I was holding the benedictionale for our priest so that he could read the blessing for a couple (they’ve been married 60!!! years).

But you’ll be asked to assist in the preparation for the eucharist (possibly fetch bread and wine if it is not standing near the altar, give bread and chalice to the priest, hand wine and water to him, assist in the washing of the hands, and after communion, pour water in the chalice so that the priest may drink it together with the left-over wine, take the cleaned vessels from the altar).

Best would be to ask your priest to take some time and teach it to you (shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes or so to go through the usual procedere of your local mass), perhaps you can write it down, or start serving on sundays with the younger ones and learn from them - weekday masses can only be easier 😉
 
Our church has girls who serve as well. I think this is great. I always wanted to serve at mass and it was forbidden at that time. I know girls can’t become prist but they can learn to serve the church in other ways. Not all boy who serve mass become prist either. I love to watch the kids( at our chuch they are kids). They are so cute and I always notice their shoes under their robes. It is such a verity of shoes. God bess them all !!!
 
SHOES! 😃 That’s something, really. Sneakers, sandals (without socks/with socks), usual ones, pink ones, green ones, we have them all, it is really cute, but the older servers teach the young ones to wear dark shoes for large celebrations - as if anybody would care 😉 .

Looks especially great because at our parish servers wear coloured talars according to liturgical season (red, green or lilac) with a white rochette.
 
My Mother’s funeral mass was during the week. The alter server was a long time parishioner and an old family friend. He is 40 and has been serving since he was a kid. I remember Mom making some comment long ago about Louis was probably going to be an alter boy even when he went to college. Hopefully, it made her smile to know she had a very “experienced” server for her mass.
 
Sandals are fine footwear – quite biblical, but sneakers have no place in the sanctuary. Colored “talars” have no place on the vesting of an altar server.
 
Cran said:
SHOES! 😃 That’s something, really. Sneakers, sandals (without socks/with socks), usual ones, pink ones, green ones, we have them all, it is really cute, but the older servers teach the young ones to wear dark shoes for large celebrations - as if anybody would care 😉 .
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OK, I’m wearing my flak vest. Have at me: ** I CARE**. If you can afford dark shoes for “large celebrations” you might as well get the wear out of them for every Mass. Whatever has become of public decorum?

Looks especially great because at our parish servers wear coloured talars according to liturgical season (red, green or lilac) with a white rochette.Altar servers wear rochettes? What country is this?
 
mercygate said:
OK, I’m wearing my flak vest. Have at me: ** I CARE**. If you can afford dark shoes for “large celebrations” you might as well get the wear out of them for every Mass. Whatever has become of public decorum?

Looks especially great because at our parish servers wear coloured talars according to liturgical season (red, green or lilac) with a white rochette.
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Altar servers wear rochettes? What country is this?

Well, I only own black and dark blue shoes, but I’ll tell the other ones that people do care, maybe they feel more motivated then 😉

And the country is just at the left corner on this post: Germany. I hope the word talar is correct 😊 I used just the German for English, and obviously, it is a word, but the same?
We wear this outfit: images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.st-dionysius-recke.de/bilder/messdiener.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.st-dionysius-recke.de/gruppen/mjr.html&h=347&w=504&sz=126&hl=de&start=13&um=1&tbnid=N2ykwwycM0-vfM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmessdiener%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN
This is not my parish, but all the same (but we have the red ones in green and lilac, too ;))
 
Oh, I just noticed a term-confusio: Rochette is in Germany not only the vestment of the bishop, but is also widely used for alb/surplice (as my dictionarry translates “Chorhemd”),and talar might be in this discussion better named cassock, although we have ones with zipper 😉

I do apologize for my laziness in looking up English words and the confusion that may have arisen due to it 😊
 
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Cran:
Well, I only own black and dark blue shoes, but I’ll tell the other ones that people do care, maybe they feel more motivated then 😉

And the country is just at the left corner on this post: Germany. I hope the word talar is correct 😊 I used just the German for English, and obviously, it is a word, but the same?
We wear this outfit: images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.st-dionysius-recke.de/bilder/messdiener.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.st-dionysius-recke.de/gruppen/mjr.html&h=347&w=504&sz=126&hl=de&start=13&um=1&tbnid=N2ykwwycM0-vfM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmessdiener%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN
This is not my parish, but all the same (but we have the red ones in green and lilac, too ;))
Click to expand...
AHA! That explains it.

English doesn’t have a cognate word for “thaler” (other than dollar but that’s something else) in the sense you use it.
In English we call your undergarment (rochette) a cassock and the overgarment is called a surplice or cotta depending on the length.

BTW: Your English is quite good!
 
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