What is it Like to Serve at Mass?

[TrueLight]

For those who serve or have served in the past:

How does one become a server?
How long have you been serving?
Do you serve in the OF or EF?
What do you most like about serving?
Do you have a set time to practice? How often?
Do you get nervous?
What is the primary thought in your mind while serving?
Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?
Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest?

Thanks for being patient with my curiosity.

 

[laszlo]

How does one become a server? In my time (1947) I had to learn the text and attend several practice sessions

How long have you been serving? Over 20 years

Do you serve in the OF or EF? One for only.

What do you most like about serving? Everything

Do you have a set time to practice? How often? After the initial practice there was no refresh session. Accomodate to the changes was expected w/o practice. Practice was required for pontifical masses always

Do you get nervous? Do not remember, except, when I became lector, which on that time meant to interpret the mass w/o any written help (1958 onward)

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving? Attention what to do. Avoid routine

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life? Yes, sometimes filled it up

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest? Yes, but never was primary.

 

[CatholicZ09]

How does one become a server?
Anyone who wishes to become a server usually approaches the priest of his/her parish. They are the to whom you should talk.

How long have you been serving?
I have been serving for a few years.

Do you serve in the OF or EF?
OF.

What do you most like about serving?
Helping with the priest and being in the Sanctuary. It’s magical, almost.

Do you have a set time to practice? How often?
Practices at my parish are only when you first start. Practices for special Masses like Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are usually a few days in advance or the day of the event.

Do you get nervous?
If it’s a complex Mass/service, then yes. If it’s just a regular Sunday mass, no.

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving?
“Am I doing everything right?” Haha.

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?
Yes.

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest?
Yes.

 

[ProVobis]

Thanks for asking.

How does one become a server? I learned to become a server in 1957 at priest and nun invitation. Most boys in Catholic schools were given the opportunity.

How long have you been serving? 1957-1961

What do you most like about serving? Service to God

Do you have a set time to practice? We all had upper-grade mentors to teach us after we memorized the Latin responses which took about a month. Our first serve was for a full week of Masses. Later we learned to serve at weddings, funerals, novenas, benedictions, confirmations, and Solemn High Masses. The high point was being the MC; there were only four of us who made that grade.

Do you get nervous? Yes, especially at the nun’s Mass or when serving alone.

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving? Not to make mistakes. Nuns and parents tended to get quite critical.

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life? Definitely.

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest? Many, if not most, who served in my class had thoughts of becoming priests. I don’t know how many if any, eventually became priests.

 

[CalCatholic]

For those who serve or have served in the past:

How does one become a server?
How long have you been serving?
Do you serve in the OF or EF?
What do you most like about serving?
Do you have a set time to practice? How often?
Do you get nervous?
What is the primary thought in your mind while serving?
Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?
Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest?

Thanks for being patient with my curiosity.

Good luck in your journey to the Church!
I would wait at least one year after becoming a new Catholic Christian and experience the Mass in its fullest before I would consider becoming a Eucharistic Minister. To become a Eucharistic Minister, first I would check your parish bulletin (usual in the back) and there is a list of people to contact for the different ministries, if not contact the parish office. I have been serving for a little over five years. There is an initial meeting and training for new ministers and a meeting a couple times a year. I serve at most of the Masses that I attend. I got a little nervous at first, worried about spilling our Lord’s blood or dropping His body on the ground (no pressure), but as you get better at concentrating on what you are doing you can put those worries out of your mind. Serving in the Mass has absolutely helped my spiritual life, it helps you concentrate on the Mass and it puts a responsibility on your shoulders. Whether you are an ordained minister or a lay minister (like me) the people in the parish know you as such and you have to live your life as such, at church and away from church. Would I want to be a priest? Early on I did, but I am married so it is not an option. Perhaps the Deaconate one day.

 

[curlycool89]

How does one become a server?

I signed up for it by talking to the Campus Minister.

How long have you been serving?

Currently, 1 year. Although I also did a couple years about a dozen years ago when I was a young’n (I don’t remember much).

Do you serve in the OF or EF?

English OF at my College’s Chapel

What do you most like about serving?

Serving. I don’t really know, I’ve just always been a helpful person, and I really like Mass. It means less scrambling to get people signed up before Mass (it’s a chapel, so although there is a schedule people are often subbed in).

Do you have a set time to practice? How often?

No. I went through the walk-through the first time before Mass, and I’ve watched others serve (it’s a small Chapel, so it’s not that much to do).

Do you get nervous?

First time? A little. Now? Not at all.

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving?

The Mass? Pretty much what’s usually going through it, with a few “cues” to remember to do something.

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?

Don’t know, but if I had to give a definite answer I’d say probably no. My spiritual life has deepened in the last year, but there are several things I’d cite before alter serving. I think of it more in the way of the thinking of St. James (“I’ll show you the faith that underlies my works”).

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest?

A friend of mine is currently formally discerning with a religious congregation and did alter serve. But from what I understand, the call preceded the alter serving.

 

[TrueLight]

Good luck in your journey to the Church!
I would wait at least one year after becoming a new Catholic Christian and experience the Mass in its fullest before I would consider becoming a Eucharistic Minister.

Is that the proper term? Eucharistic minister? Thanks!

Actually, I have no desire to serve. Also the parishes I attend are traditional so I’m pretty sure I would never be an altar woman.

It is a service/ ministry that I appreciate.

And everyone, thanks so much for your thoughtful responses. Please keep them coming!

 

[Kit15]

How does one become a server?

My parish had an affiliated elementary and high school. At the beginning of fifth grade we were given information and signup sheets for us to use if we were interested. But I’m sure anyone could have approached the pastor and ask about it.

How long have you been serving?

I’m done now but it was about 8 years…until I hit college.

Do you serve in the OF or EF?

I served the OF.

**What do you most like about serving? **

Service itself. I liked being a help.

Do you have a set time to practice? How often?

I had basic training when I started. The only time I had to have extra “practice” was when I was called up to do certain Masses and services…like Good Friday.

Do you get nervous?

Only during weddings and funerals.

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving?.

The Mass The Mass The Mass…Oh! I need to get something!

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?

I think it gave me a little more reverence and appreciation for the Mass.

**Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest? **

Being a female there was no desire fostering in me.

Although the year I signed up happened to be the first year my parish allowed girls to serve I didn’t assume the role thinking I’d be some sort of model and “pave the way” for other girls. We had just moved in the area and I grew up watching my female cousins serve in their parish. I didn’t think I was doing anything unusual. I took it as a really nice way to get involved and volunteer and I’d just “retire” once I outgrew it. Which is what happened. I never imagined or made more of my position than it was.

I really can’t think of anyone who claimed to have heard the call through serving. I can think of a few boys who felt compelled to serve beyond the normal age because of a calling though. Some did go to seminary but none actually ended up becoming priests.

 

[TrueLight]

Thanks for the female perspective! How common is it for women to serve?

 

[Kit15]

Thanks for the female perspective! How common is it for women to serve?

I don’t remember servers at all at many of the parishes from my childhood (either that or I couldn’t see ). But I had cousins that served. I remember going to mass with them when we visited and watching them serve.

I actually didn’t attend many “laid-back” parishes. My parents were very choosy when they moved to a new area. I’m also 27 so my serving years were in the mid-to-late 90’s (the parish I served in started allowing females in the fall of 1994). It was becoming a more common sight by then even in the more liturgically correct OF parishes.

I can’t say I’ve seen the girls “push out” the boys. As far as how “common” it is I usually see mixed teams of 4. Almost never is it all girls or all boys. Active siblings often got scheduled together so the mix often depended on the guy/girl ratio of the particular families. If my family was called, that was usually the one time you might see a 4-girl team…I have many sisters but one brother.

I didn’t realize it was such a hot topic until arriving at a large, diverse, Catholic community like this one. My parish pitched it to us more as doing service for the Church than a stepping stone to the priesthood. There really was no confusion on my part regarding what I was doing and why I was there.

 

[Salvatore123]

I remember Holy Mass still said under the 1962 Roman Missal, and was present for the change to the Novus Ordo.

My first service at Holy Mass as an altar boy was for a funeral of the mother of a schoolmate. My junior high was next door to the church, so I had permission from the principal to serve the Requiem without being counted absent.

It was very sad to see my friend and his family cry, and as I was the only altar boy serving, to say that my first Mass as an altar boy was overwhelming is an understatement.

When I finally stopped, I was the oldest - almost 17. 17 was quite old back in the 1970’s for one to still be serving as an altar boy.

I never had the desire to be a priest, and serving as an altar boy did not move me one way or the other.

During my service years, I remember having “sleep overs” at the rectory that were COMPLETELY innocent. We would watch movies and Father would make popcorn for us. I never experienced ANYTHING untoward in my entire time, nor did I hear of any such advances made against any other fellow servers. Because of the sexual abuse scandal, “sleepovers” are absolutely prohibited. Even if they were not, a priest would be crazy to put himself in a position of being able to have such an allegation made against him, given the climate within which we live.

It is a sad state of affairs where the abuse scandal has led our Church. Yet I have nothing but fond memories of my service, and am actually “proud” that I served as long as I did.

 

[MarkThompson]

Is that the proper term? Eucharistic minister? Thanks!

It usually only takes a minute or two before five people are tripping over themselves to point this out, but the terminology used by the Church is as follows:

1. A “Eucharistic minister” is a person who can confect the Eucharist. This can only be a priest (including, of course, a bishop).
2. A “minister of Holy Communion” is a person tasked with distributing Holy Communion. There are two types:
   
   a. An “ordinary minister of Holy Communion” is a deacon, priest, or bishop. It is their ordinary function to do this.
   ​

b. An “extraordinary minister of Holy Communion” is a layperson who helps with distributing Holy Communion at Mass, or carrying it to nursing homes, etc.​

Thus, strictly speaking, the only thing a layperson can be is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, or EMHC. It is nevertheless extremely common for all such people to be called “Eucharistic Ministers,” since the term “Eucharistic Minister,” defined to mean only people who confect the Eucharist, is pointlessly redundant with the perfectly good word “priest.” In my experience, at the parish level the “Eucharistic Minister” terminology for lay distributors is more common than “EMHC” by at least five-to-one.

 

[TrueLight]

It usually only takes a minute or two before five people are tripping over themselves to point this out, but the terminology used by the Church is as follows:

1. A “Eucharistic minister” is a person who can confect the Eucharist. This can only be a priest (including, of course, a bishop).
2. A “minister of Holy Communion” is a person tasked with distributing Holy Communion. There are two types:
   
   a. An “ordinary minister of Holy Communion” is a deacon, priest, or bishop. It is their ordinary function to do this.
   ​

b. An “extraordinary minister of Holy Communion” is a layperson who helps with distributing Holy Communion at Mass, or carrying it to nursing homes, etc.​

Thus, strictly speaking, the only thing a layperson can be is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, or EMHC. It is nevertheless extremely common for all such people to be called “Eucharistic Ministers,” since the term “Eucharistic Minister,” defined to mean only people who confect the Eucharist, is pointlessly redundant with the perfectly good word “priest.” In my experience, at the parish level the “Eucharistic Minister” terminology for lay distributors is more common than “EMHC” by at least five-to-one.

I see! So what do you call those people who help with the incense, ring the bells etc?

 

[Angel_Bradford]

I see! So what do you call those people who help with the incense, ring the bells etc?

Those are altar servers.

 

[The_Curt_Jester]

For those who serve or have served in the past:

How does one become a server?

With me it was just volunteering (er…being volunteered). Besides my brother, nobody else was available for the Mass, so I served.

How long have you been serving?

I did it for perhaps a year or so. That was a long time ago. Servers were becoming little more than glorified bookracks shortly before I quit. I didn’t have any desire at all to serve after that.

Do you serve in the OF or EF?

OF

What do you most like about serving?

I can’t say I did it long enough to really have a favorite part of it.

Do you have a set time to practice? How often?

I don’t ever remember going through practice. I just watched what the others did and followed some pointers given to me by others.

Do you get nervous?

Perhaps the first time just a bit.

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving

Hm. Back then being so young, it was most likely trying not to do something stupid!

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life?

Again, too short of a time and I was really too young for it to have a major effect on me.

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest?

Nope! While the thought did cross my mind here and there, it’s something that happened before, during, and after serving, so it wasn’t a result of being an altar boy.

Thanks for being patient with my curiosity.

Not a problem, though I doubt my tiny bit of experience was much help.

 

[ProVobis]

I did it for perhaps a year or so. That was a long time ago. Servers were becoming little more than glorified bookracks shortly before I quit. I didn’t have any desire at all to serve after that.

Funny but true. By eliminating the needs for responding in Latin, moving the book from one side to the other, bringing of the cruets, raising the chasuble during the consecration, ringing of the bells, holding patens under communicant’s tongues, there really wasn’t much left for the server to do. The decline of serving started in the 60’s, IMO. I don’t want to belittle their performance, most of them are respectable, but today serving seems more of a symbol of the past than actual need.

 

[laszlo]

I do not believe that the problem is in using the word Eucharistic minister for laymen. They distribute the Eucharist, so they are ministers of the Eucharist as the ordained acolytes are.

The word minister is used in wide sense, ministers in other religions, ministers of non liturgical services in out church. Also e.g. the canon law declares that the ordinary minister of the confirmation is the bishop, so the pastor who confirms is extraordinary minister, with full dignity.

The problem is the indiscriminate selection of these ministers. In my territorial parish there are about 4000 registered families, 800 of them attend church regularly, and there are 400 Eucharistic ministers, one form every other family who regularly attend church. This is what degrades that ministry and makes it meaningful, and work for the degrading of the perception of the Eucharist too, not the name.

1. A “Eucharistic minister” is a person who can confect the Eucharist. This can only be a priest (including, of course, a bishop).

 

[MarkThompson]

I do not believe that the problem is in using the word Eucharistic minister for laymen. They distribute the Eucharist, so they are ministers of the Eucharist as the ordained acolytes are.

Not according to Redemptionis Sacramentum no. 156:
This function [viz. laypeople distributing Holy Communion] is to be understood strictly according to the name by which it is known, that is to say, that of extraordinary minister of Holy Communion ministri extraordinarii sacrae Communionis], and not “special minister of Holy Communion” nor “extraordinary minister of the Eucharist” nor “special minister of the Eucharist”, by which names the meaning of this function is unnecessarily and improperly broadened.

 

[Acolythus_sum]

How does one become a server? My father was an altar boy when he was my age, so it was natural that I would become one.

How long have you been serving? 5 or 6 years…I can’t remember exactly.

Do you serve in the OF or EF? The OF, but I’d prefer to serve the EF.

What do you most like about serving? Being able to assist the priest with the ritual of Holy Mass.

Do you have a set time to practice? How often? No. I train the altar boys, and we have a “refresher” training about once a year. We hold a rehearsal, run by the MC (usually me), before such things as the Paschal Triduum and pontifical Masses.

Do you get nervous? Nope. Although there was the time last year when I found out less than 2 hours before Easter Vigil (as MC) that the Paschal Candle was broken…

What is the primary thought in your mind while serving? Contemplating the mystery of the Mass, and acting in a way which befits a role proper to a cleric, in which I am only a “placeholder”.

Has serving helped you in your spiritual life? Definitely.

Has serving helped foster in you, or a server you know, the desire to become a priest? Yes to both. I know many men and boys whose desire for priesthood/awareness of the call began or was intensified by being in such close proximity to the crowning act of the priesthood and the nearest thing to Heaven on Earth.

 

[Aramis]

I was a server in the late 70’s to late 80’s.

I was part of a class of about 15 servers, ranging from age 7 to age 15. We were walked through everything, and given a handbook done by the Order of Preachers, locally reproduced on a photocopier with a few penned adjustments for the Pauline missal.

The rest of the training was being assigned to serve with more senior servers, and for the first few masses, having a non-concelebrating friar directing us, if needed, from the Blessed Sacrament chapel (which opened onto the main sanctuary, but was a defined separate chapel).

I also learned to serve the Dominican Low Mass… by use of a server’s study card, and directions from Rev. Fr. John. I was in high school by then. He used it mostly for his private masses, and the cards were quite easily followed. The latin was not so easily followed, but all I had to do was pronounce it right at the right time. Fortunately, very few differences from what the friars had already taught us, so it was straightforward.

I’ve never served the EF itself; nor have I ever had a desire to do so.

I’ve not served the Byzantine DLs of St John nor St. Basil, either, but have served as lector and cantor… but again, it’s the same mode for those who do: ask the pastor, learn by walkthroughs and instructions from the subdeacon.