What makes someone want to become an altar server / acolyte?

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For me (age 59 at the time of my Confirmation), it was because I had missed out on being an altar boy because I was raised Protestant. At the time I was attending the 0630 Masses as part of my going-to-work routine, and I mentioned it to our priest, who was crippled in his feet. He laughed and said that he might just stick his head out from behind the curtain and beckon me into the sacristy some morning when the deacon wasn’t there. That actually did happen, but not until after I had received some training and had some experience serving in the deacon’s absence.

D
 
I do it because I’ve been asked. I serve at an EF parish, I might add, and my experience and that of others around me show that young boys nowadays don’t really have the attention for much more than a Low Mass and can’t do much more than serve as a boat-boy or a second acolyte, with a senior partner instructing them, during a Missa Cantata. We won’t even get into Solemn Masses, Holy Week, and visits from the bishop. Thus, we reserve first acolyte and thurifer for young men of at least 12. To serve as MC, one needs to be able to read at least some Latin, to own a copy of Fortescue and several FSSP training videos, and generally to have served for at least five years and to understand every position at the altar, including the celebrant’s. Thus, it’s a role that only grown men can really take on.

I can’t really answer from the OF perspective, but considering that the EF rubrics are more complex and in Latin, you’re generally going to see many grown men serving at the altar there.
 
bardegaulois said:
I can’t really answer from the OF perspective, but considering that the EF rubrics are more complex and in Latin, you’re generally going to see many grown men serving at the altar there.
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Of course, back in the day junior high and high school boys served Latin mass all of the time.

The difference is the kids were students at the parish school and were there to be trained every day. Further , there were a lot more masses scheduled, a couple every week day, for the kids to get it down pat for prime time Sunday morning.

Nowadays, how many of your Latin mass faithful walk to mass?
 
becoming an “altar server” was a good way to make tips from funerals and especially weddings

also it was a good way to get out of class when funerals were being held mid-week

also we felt like we were an elite corps that got to know the priests & were comrades

wearing “altar-server” vestments sort of felt like wearing a uniform…
 
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I think it could be a call from God. I was at mass one Saturday evening and the sacristan came up to me and asked me if I knew how to serve mass. Then she asked me to serve mass for the priest as there were no altar servers.
 
When I was little (10), after some Masses this old guy would come up to me and give a dollar bill for serving.

Also, when you serve a wedding or a funeral, you usually get a stipend.
 
goodcatholic said:
tips? you got paid for altar serving?
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It was quite an investment in time for a teenage boy to serve at the altar, and it really precluded him from getting out there and delivering newspapers before school.

Back in the day, when I was a teenager, all the children worked and earned money
 
In some parishes, it is a matter of necessity. I live in an area of small rural parishes, and there are simply not enough younger people to serve at all Masses–think of parishes with 50 to 100 families, many of them elderly. In these areas, many of the children who did serve moved away after they finished their schooling to areas with more job opportunities. So there are fewer younger families with children. And naturally, fewer younger servers.
 
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