Altar Server Association

St. John Berchmans, Patron for the Altar Servers

John Berchmans was born 13 March 1599, as the son of a shoe maker. His parents were John Charles and Elizabeth Berchmans. He was the eldest of the five children. When he was hardly seven years old, he was accustomed to rise early and serve two or three Holy Masses with the greatest fervour. He entered the Jesuit College at Mechlin and he enrolled in the Society of the Blessed Virgin, and he made a resolution to recite her office daily. On Fridays, at nightfall, he would go out barefooted and make the Stations of the Cross in the town.

Towards the end of his course, he acknowledged the grace of a   religious vocation. Even though his family was decidedly opposed to this, and on 24 September, 1616, he was received into the novitiate at Mechlin. After two years passed, he made his simple vows, and send to Rome for Philosophical studies. During his life John offered the type of a saint who performs ordinary actions with extraordinary perfection. In his purity, obedience and admirable charity he resembled many religious, but he surpassed them all by his intense love for the rules of his order. The constitutions of the Society of Jesus lead those who observe them exactly to the highest degree of sanctity, as has been declared by Pope Julius III and his successors. The attainment of that ideal was what John proposed to himself, “If I do not become a saint when I am young” he used to say “I shall never become one.”

He would have preferred death to the violation of the least of the rules of his order. In august 1621, he was seized with a violent fever. His lungs became inflamed and his strength diminished rapidly. On 13 august 1621, at the age of twenty-two years and five months he gave his soul in the hands of his Lord. A large crowd gathered for several days to view his remains before burial. John Berchmans was declared Blessed in 1865, and was canonized in 1888.

An Altar Server is the one who assists a priest or minister in liturgical service. Altar servers perform most of the functions of the former “minor order” of ordinal clerics known as acolytes. The term server should be used for those who carry out the functions of the instituted acolyte. Altar servers today are not ordained, but are ‘commissioned’ by the parish priest. Altar boys and girls in the Catholic Church were first regarded as belonging to the clergy, thus they had to learn prayers, hymns, and had to behave in a well manner and follow all the rules that were set on them. It is very great honor and privilege to be an altar server at the Altar of our Blessed Lord serving Holy Eucharist.

Being a server means serving God and people at the Holy Eucharistic Celebration and other Liturgical services in the Parish. Altar servers can be said to be a very fortunate that he/ she has been chosen by God to give service during the celebration of the liturgy. The liturgy is a public act of worship that the church gives to God, so the service of the Altar server is exceptionally important. Altar servers are the closest persons to the Altar and to the priest who represents Jesus Christ during the Eucharistic celebration and the administration of the Sacraments.

“Dear altar servers, you are, in fact already apostles of Jesus! When you take part in the liturgy, you offer a witness to all. Your absorption, the devotion that wells up from your heart and is expressed in gesture, in song, and in the response; if you do it correctly and not absent- mindedly, then is a certain way your witness is one that moves people. The Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the bond of friendship with Jesus. You are very close to Jesus in the Eucharist, and this is the most important sign of his friendship for each one of us. Do not forget it.” [Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI, Address to Altar Servers, August 2, 2006]