How Much Traning Do Your Altar Servers Receive?

[ChurchTorch]

Wow, where do you go to Mass? I really doubt very much if the altar servers I see would know how to do half of that list. As mentioned in a previous post, most would have no idea what a paten is or what it is used for. How often do you see a paten anymore? The only time I see it is at the TLM, and a couple of more orthodox churches I attend. Almost no one uses a paten. Most people receive in the hands, so what’s the use?

My parish has several Masses each Sunday. We do all of the following (except incense at the elevations) at one of them. I have a fairly firm grasp of the Order of the OF and EF Masses and I would say there is ultimately more to do for a server in the OF depending on the circumstances. My only point is that it did not have to do with the Mass being the OF but rather how people choose to deploy servers.

The patens are pretty much useless in a functional sense except for one very important thing. Their sign value. They say very clearly that the Blessed Sacrament is important and that we care.

 

[Brendan]

Are they commissioned readers in this case while dressed as altar servers?

Yep, if they are going to emulate the clerical role, might as well go whole hog. The older altar boys are trained ( by each other) and commissioned as Readers. For a given Mass, two will Read instead of other duties. The cantor or organist will do the Psalms on Sundays.

The best part of all of this (and the reason my pastor does it), it that it both prepares and encourages boys to look at the priesthood.

One thing I didn’t mention was that there is no schedule. If a boy is present at Mass, he serves.

The whole thing is modeled on the priesthood. If a priest is present, he serves in some capacity, even if simply vests in choir, Likewise, the altar boys.

So by the time they are finishing up their high school years, they have spend the last 12 years or so serving at Mass for almost every Mass they have ever attended.

They have no problems with standing up in front of the congregation and reading God’s Word, they know all the parts of the Mass to an incredible detail, such as when to stand up and go turn the page on the Sacramentary, so it’s timed at just when the priest is finishing up that page.

We have 1-2 boys go into the seminary each year, our parish of 900 families has 6 men in the seminary right now, and have had 11 ordained from our parish in the last 10 years.

 

[ChurchTorch]

Yep, if they are going to emulate the clerical role, might as well go whole hog. The older altar boys are trained ( by each other) and commissioned as Readers. For a given Mass, two will Read instead of other duties. The cantor or organist will do the Psalms on Sundays.

That doesn’t make sense to me. The readings from the OT, NT epistles and responsorial psalm are properly those of the laity. That’s true at Papal Masses, National Shine Masses and just about any other Mass that I know of where there are trained lay readers. Sometimes seminarians read those readings but not the ordained – be they deacons, priests or bishops unless of course there is a shortage of trained lay readers at any given Mass.

If (and I mean IF but course there is NOT) there was a dispensation available to altar servers to proclaim the Gospel, then doing so would be “emulating the clerical role.”

It actually seems like it would be better for them to leave their liturgical garb in the sacristy on the days they read and enter the sanctuary from the nave where the rest of the people sit.

One thing I didn’t mention was that there is no schedule. If a boy is present at Mass, he serves.

I think that’s excellent. A little competition is good.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

This is a nice list. Our altar servers do all these things except that we don’t have incense very often. 2 of our priests are very affected by it and since all the priests come out to distribute communion at every Sunday Mass, it is only used at liturgies like the Easter vigil. However, all the master servers (high school aged) are trained in how to use the thurifer.

Really? If a priest was celebrating Mass by himself (VERY common), if not for the servers at the OF Masses who would:

Light the candles before Mass

Carry the thurible, incense boat crucifix or torches in procession?

Help the priest prepare the censer for censing the altar?

Hold the Sacramentary at the opening prayer?

Flank the ambo with torches at the Gospel?

Assist with preparing the censer at the Gospel?

Hold the folder of general intentions?

Dress the altar?

Place the sacred vessels, and Sacramentary on the altar?

Help with the procession of the gifts?

Assist the priest as he accept the gifts at the foot of the sanctuary?

Help the priest prepare the censer for the offertory?

Cense the priest?

Cense the faithful?

Washes the priest’s hands?

Place the ablution cup and purificator on the altar?

Ring the sanctus bell(s)

Provide incense at both major elevations?

Hold the communion paten?

Assist the priest in purifiying the sacred vessels after communion by the pouring of water and handling of fresh purificators?

Clear the altar.

Hold the Sacramentary at the closing prayer?

Carry the thurible, incense boat crucifix or torches in recession?

Extinguish the candles after Mass?

There’s more than that…

I’m curious if some servers don’t receive adequate training because those responsible for training have no real concept about the responsibilities of servers at the OF Mass? In any event that’s really sad.

 

[PatriceA]

My daughter received training on three different saturdays, two hours each and then she was put on the schedule. We always have three servers at our masses.

 

[ChurchTorch]

This is a nice list. Our altar servers do all these things except that we don’t have incense very often. 2 of our priests are very affected by it and since all the priests come out to distribute communion at every Sunday Mass, it is only used at liturgies like the Easter vigil. However, all the master servers (high school aged) are trained in how to use the thurifer.

Let me make a suggestion.

Surf the web or go to eBay and buy 5 dollars of “white copal incense.” It’s 100% pure plant resin (it will look just like the illegal drugs you see on TV.) Smash some up (I put some in a heavy plastic bag and hit it with a kitchen mallet) and ask your priest to try it once AFTER you graciously offer to clean the thurible and line the inside with tin foil (makes clean-up a snap.)

The pure resin (just as myrrh and frankincense are resins – but far too harsh/strong on their own) is definitely superior to the church incense you buy. That stuff (even the good stuff) is often compressed sawdust soaked in a solvent (like alcohol) that has been laced with an essential oil.

My bishop does not like incense because he’s allergic. He visited our parish to celebrate Mass and it apparently included a local Indian smudging routine where they burned sage in a hibachi (yes, I KNOW!) Several weeks later I coordinated a Mass for him and he was very leery of ALL incense after that fiasco. I set him up with a censer full of white copal and he LOVED it!

 

[ChurchTorch]

My daughter received training on three different saturdays, two hours each and then she was put on the schedule. We always have three servers at our masses.

That’s six times what our servers receive. Sounds good to me!

 

[JRKH]

Yep, if they are going to emulate the clerical role, might as well go whole hog. The older altar boys are trained ( by each other) and commissioned as Readers. For a given Mass, two will Read instead of other duties. The cantor or organist will do the Psalms on Sundays.

The best part of all of this (and the reason my pastor does it), it that it both prepares and encourages boys to look at the priesthood.

One thing I didn’t mention was that there is no schedule. If a boy is present at Mass, he serves.

The whole thing is modeled on the priesthood. If a priest is present, he serves in some capacity, even if simply vests in choir, Likewise, the altar boys.

So by the time they are finishing up their high school years, they have spend the last 12 years or so serving at Mass for almost every Mass they have ever attended.

They have no problems with standing up in front of the congregation and reading God’s Word, they know all the parts of the Mass to an incredible detail, such as when to stand up and go turn the page on the Sacramentary, so it’s timed at just when the priest is finishing up that page.

We have 1-2 boys go into the seminary each year, our parish of 900 families has 6 men in the seminary right now, and have had 11 ordained from our parish in the last 10 years.

Kudos to your parish

Peace
James

 

[Brendan]

That doesn’t make sense to me. The readings from the OT, NT epistles and responsorial psalm are properly those of the laity. That’s true at Papal Masses, National Shine Masses and just about any other Mass that I know of where there are trained lay readers. Sometimes seminarians read those readings but not the ordained – be they deacons, priests or bishops unless of course there is a shortage of trained lay readers at any given Mass.

If (and I mean IF but course there is NOT) there was a dispensation available to altar servers to proclaim the Gospel, then doing so would be “emulating the clerical role.”

Sort of, it was traditionally the role of an ordained (small ‘o’), Lector, which was a member of the clergy.

This clerical role is mostly supressed in the Western Church (but not completely). Traditional orders, such as the FSSP, still ordain men as Lectors, instead of instituting them. Such a person takes presidence over any lay, non instituted readers.

We have an ordained Sub-Deacon in our parish, a Chaldean. He is a cleric, having been tonsured, but is not in Holy Orders. He, needless to say, takes precidence to read, over any altar boy or person in our parish. And he vests in his alb and stole (as is proper) to do so.

It actually seems like it would be better for them to leave their liturgical garb in the sacristy on the days they read and enter the sanctuary from the nave where the rest of the people sit.

, Why?, the seminarians I have seen (who are instituted acolytes untonsured ( thus laity) read at Papal Masses, do so in cassock and surplice.

I think that’s excellent. A little competition is good.

There isn’t any competition . They simply all serve, in exactly the same way that all priests present at a liturgy vest and participate. Go back and watch the video clip I posted.

 

[stanncie]

Wow, where do you go to Mass? I really doubt very much if the altar servers I see would know how to do half of that list. As mentioned in a previous post, most would have no idea what a paten is or what it is used for. How often do you see a paten anymore? The only time I see it is at the TLM, and a couple of more orthodox churches I attend. Almost no one uses a paten. Most people receive in the hands, so what’s the use?

They use patens at my parish and all of the masses are NO. Of course this being a very hispanic parish a lot of people receive on the tongue as no one receives on the hand in latin america. We have at least 4 altar servers at our masses but usually there are six.