Hello everyone! I wanted your outlook on something. I have been asked to be a liturgical minister at my parish and I have a choice of an Altar Server, Lector, or Eucharistic Minister. I wanted to know what people think of each of these and any experiences they have had as one. I wanted your outlook before I made a decision.
Hi! My parish only permits children younger than their senior year of high school to be altar servers, and since I came into the Church spring of my Senior year, I never was one. I sing in the choir (sometimes) and am an EMHC. I have been told I should try to be a lector, but I’d be more focused on my own nervousness than the Mass, I think (what if I mispronounce one of those odd Hebrew names?).
My experience as an EMHC is a wholly good one, but I dislike - no, cannot stand - distributing the Host. I feel out of place and wrong doing so. I enjoy helping distribute the Precious Blood, however. Because of the odd layout of my parish (it’s organized so that at noon on Easter and the Fall equinox, the sunlight streams onto the Host at the moment of consecration), the EMHCs have to do a sort of “dance” to get around. We are in much greater need at my parish than the other parishes in town because we have only one priest and no deacons.
I think as an EMHC, the wonderful experience is being able to actually bring Christ to others. My only concern is: “do they really believe it?” and I worry sometimes because, what if I give the Precious Blood to someone in mortal sin?
If you have a good voice and can read aloud well, good lectors are always appreciated! I recall there is one gentleman at my parish who is a lector, but I can hardly understand him as he wheezes a lot. I find it annoying (it’s generally older women who do this) when someone reads to us as if we were little children. Declare the Word with PRIDE, not apology, I say!
Hope this helps!
