Altar Serving gives me a sense of community. It makes me feel closer to my religion whilst making me feel like I am helping others in my Church Community. I have been an Altar Server for almost 3 years now at St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church and I still get this feeling whenever I serve in a Mass. Out of all the Masses I have served in this time, The Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday Evening is by far my favorite Mass to serve. The reasoning behind this is because of the importance of this Mass. It is the most important Mass in the Church Year apart from Christmas. This is the Super Bowl Equivalent for any Altar Server. This is partly why it is my favorite.

For most Masses, Altar Servers, Readers, and Priests don’t usually have to practice unless they are new. The Easter and Christmas Masses are completely different. Since it is such a huge Mass, we need to come in earlier for a Practice Session. The day is April 16, 2022. It is Holy Saturday and I am on my way to Church for the 10AM Practice Session. As I enter the wooden door that leads into the left side of the Church. Upon entering I greet Jon. He is the Head Altar Server and has been Serving for 10 years. He takes his job very seriously and can be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. I can’t blame him since I probably would be the same way if I was in his position. When I greet him he says: “Hey James, do you mind handing out these candles to the other servers?” I oblige and begin handing a candle to the other servers. I take one and hand one to Daryus who is one of the younger servers at 13 years old. I take 2 more and hand them over to Divya and Aryan. They are siblings and are servers I actually got to help train. We have affectionately nicknamed them the “Adams Family” because of their last name being Adams. I hand another candle to Vishisht. He’s another new server that I helped train. He can be a real funny guy at times. After the last of the candles are handed out, Jon greets us all and lets us know the Agenda for the Morning. “Good Morning, Everyone.” “I will begin assigning roles for tonight’s Mass.” As he assigns roles, he gets to me and says that my role will be the Thurible. This is a metal vessel that when swung emits smoke. I’ll be using this at certain points in the Mass. As the last of the Roles are sent out, we begin to practice. We head to the back of the Church to begin. We are in the Center Isle and we begin to get in formation. Since this is a special Mass in which all the lights are out and for a few moments at the beginning of Mass, candles will be the sole source of Light. On the Floor are pieces of tape. They will be the sole source of reference we will have. Our Deacon will chant: “Light of Christ!” to which the congregation will respond with: “Thanks be to God.” This will happen each time we stop at the tape for a total of three times. After running through the entrance, we begin practicing the Mass itself. Right before the Gospel, there will be a time where two Servers ring two bells as the choir sings: “Glory to God.” As this happens, the lights of the Church, including the candles on the High Altar, are lit or turned on. This all happens in about four minutes. As we continue practicing, we get into a massive hurdle which is the Gospel Procession. The problem is that there are many inexperienced Servers who require training in this area. Jon explains to us how this will work: “Alright. So it’s gonna be Candle, Candle, Candle, Boat (the boat shaped vessel that holds the fragrance for the Thurible) Incense, Candle, Candle, Candle. You all got that?” We all respond by saying “yes.” As we run through it we encounter an issue. “Stop,” Jon says. “The Candle is supposed to go to the first step up against the second step.” It may seem like such a frivolous thing to stop for but this is the Head Altar Server we are talking about and naturally he’s going to make sure we are all on our A game. After explaining what we had to do we then tried again and it was better than before. “Ok, Good on to the next one.” Jon says. We finish practice entirely at around 12:30pm. We all head our separate ways for now until we reconvene in the Church Sacristy at around 7pm. I head home to play video games and get myself ready for that night’s Mass. This is only my second ever Easter Mass. I was installed in 2019 and didn’t get to serve this Mass in 2020 due to the Pandemic. This is the most important Mass in all of the Catholic Church. The Easter Mass is like the Indianapolis 500 to us and we need to be giving it our best. It is on this night that Jesus Christ saved us from Sin and we honor that sacrifice on this night. Every server that went home from practice that day knew how important this Mass is to all of us and every server was going to make sure that tonight would be special.

Many hours of Playstation later, and I am returning for Mass. The weather was really good that day. The only thing I don’t like about Altar Serving is that we are required to wear dress shoes. Since my family would be arriving 30 minutes later, I had to walk multiple blocks in dress shoes which I found to be rather annoying. I enter the Sacristy and run into Cyrus who is Daryus’ brother and is also a fellow Server. He graduated with me in 2018 and also is the reason we use a blowtorch instead of a normal lighter for lighting the Thurible. He seems to really love that thing. He has a few tasks for me like making sure the pit, that they set up in the back of the Church, has the fuel needed for tonight’s Mass. After completing the Tasks, I get vested with the other Servers. I put on an Alb which is a white vestment worn by Servers as well as Priests. Next, I put on my Cincture which is basically a rope that acts like a belt. Then, I put on a Pectoral Cross which is a necklace with a metal cross. Lastly, I put on a scapular which is a smaller vestment that goes over the Alb. In the time that I got dressed, the sacristy has gotten a lot busier. I sit at a table in the middle of the Sacristy while Jon and Cyrus are going all over the place. One moment they’re checking to make sure if the camera’s for streaming are working, the next they are checking to make sure all the items such as the bells, the books, and the Chalices are on the Altar. They’re like 2 parents who are doing last minute details at a surprise birthday party and myself and the other servers are the attendees. As they are setting up, more servers are beginning showing up. With about 15 minutes to go, We leave the sacristy and head to the back of the Church. As I look into the crowd, I see a moderately large crowd. It’s one of the larger crowds we have seen since Covid. I typically don’t feel nervous about Altar Serving as I have done it for multiple years but there is a bit more pressure since there is such a large crowd.  This is the one of those nights where everything must go right. I felt really excited to start this Mass as it is one of my favorites. As we head to the back, we all congregate into a small room that is primarily used for storage. It is here we have our last conversations with each other before Mass begins. We talk about miscellaneous things like school, video games, and the Mass ahead of us. A few minutes later, we got into formation at the back of the Church. One by one, the lights are turned off in the Church. We all turned our attention to the pit. Suddenly I heard a flick and suddenly the Pit was ablaze. The Priest began reading a prayer from the Roman Missal. The only light was the flashlight being used by the Priest to read, the pit itself, and the small instances when a photographer would take a picture with a flash so bright it lit the whole Church for a split second. Eventually, we lit the small candles I handed out that morning and began to process down the center aisle. As we went along, we had to light the candles of the congregation as well. As we got to the front, we went to our seats. I turned and looked at the congregation and noticed the literal sea of candle lights. It’s quite the spectacle to see all those candles in a dark Church. A single Church light was activated. This revealed the Lector who began reading from the Book of Genesis about how God created the Earth. Since it was a Bilingual Mass, a Spanish Version was also done. It was during this time, I got into position to start ringing the bells with another server. My job was to ring a silver bell that looked like a big dome. It was really bulky and annoying to ring and the thought of ringing it for several minutes made me wish I didn’t have that job. When it was time to ring the bells, the Choir began to sing and Jon and Cyrus scrambled to get all the lights and candles lit and turned on. As the lights came on, I was amazed to see the amount of people actually in attendance. There had to be at least 600 people in attendance. It was by far the largest crowd I had seen in a very long time. I was equally amazed at the amount of decorations in the Church. There were flowers all over the Altar. I was really glad I didn’t trip over any when it was dark out. After we finished ringing, I got the Thurible and made my way to the Pulpit for the Deacon to read the Gospel. The Deacon incenses the Gospel by putting a special mixture into the Thurible. As he reads, all I can smell is the smell of burning floral blend. It’s a very pleasant smell that does get a bit annoying after a while. A little while later, I returned to the Sacristy to refill the Thurible. There are multiple servers discussing an almost midmass game plan of sorts. Eventually we return to our seats. This Mass also serves another purpose: to Baptize new Catholics and give them the Sacrament of Communion and Confirmation. During this, we realize that we forgot to get the towels to dry them off from the Holy Water. Jon makes us return to the Sacristy and makes a procession on the spot only for the towels. A part of me found it to be a little humorous to do a whole procession for towels. To an outsider, this may seem unnecessary but it looks better than us sprinting to get towels. After that mishap was avoided, we gave them their towels and proceeded to the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Priest uses oil to bless the candidates for Confirmation. Oddly enough, Bread and Lemons are used to dry the Priests hands from the oil. I’m not 100% why this is done. It seems kind of wasteful to me. When that is completed, It is time for another Procession to the front of the Altar. I am met again with the smell of burning floral blend. I synchronize the swinging of the thurible with the bells. The only thing I can hear is the sound of the Air Conditioner, the Priest and the bells. The Church is silent. It is at this time where the new Catholics are fully initiated as they receive Communion. The rest of Mass went along pretty normally as I received Communion and helped clean up the Altar. At the end, the priest thanked all in attendance and thanked everyone for making that night special. As the choir sang, we then processed down the Center Aisle and then made a U-turn back to the Sacristy where we celebrated the Resurrection of Christ. This was only my second ever Easter Mass and it was by far my most favorite Mass I ever served. I left Church that day feeling more connected to my religion than ever. This mass was akin to any momentous occasion in my life like a graduation or receiving a new Sacrament. It was that big of a moment to me.

You may be wondering why I have described this whole event and why it means so much to me. The reason I have is because it’s a very unique part of Catholicism. No other religion that I am aware of has a concept where the youth of a religion can take part in celebrating Mass. Although we are the youth of the Church, we also have a significantly large job that does at times get overlooked. Not many people know about Altar Servers or know what they do. While we aren’t 100% necessary, we provide a way to keep the youth engaged with their religion and that is why this is so important to me.

Video of Actual Mass: https://youtu.be/i093J67hYpE

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