New Servers for the Lord...praise the Lord!

As a Catholic Christian I believe the greatest gift God has given me is the gift of His Son who died on the cross to take away my sins so that I can live with Him forever...

...The second greatest gift He gave me is the Eucharist---the real Body and Blood of my Savior that I am able to receive at every single Mass to give me strength for this life and the hope of eternal life to come.

So what a tremendous gift it is to this mother's heart to have another son who became trained to serve at Holy Mass, to serve the priests who give us the precious gift of the Eucharist!  Dominic served his first Mass this weekend after spending nearly two weeks in training.  My oldest son Joseph is a "senior server," so he had the opportunity to help train his younger brother, which was very sweet for me to watch.

I am so pleased with the way our church trains their altar servers, teaching them to serve the priests with humility and to have the utmost reverence for the Eucharist.  The reverence of the altar servers is such a reminder to all those in the pews that a miracle is truly taking place at every Mass.  Sadly, I feel like that reverence is missing in many Catholic churches today, to the point that many Catholics don't truly understand the miracle that they are witnessing and receiving--many don't even realize Who they are receiving:  not a symbol, but Jesus Himself!  Which is why I'm so grateful for the reverence and the traditional reminders at our church, like the bells that are rung at the consecration as the priest holds Jesus up high for all to adore, the candles that the servers hold around the ambo during the Gospel reading, and the incense that is used to symbolize our prayers going up to heaven like smoke.  What a gift it is to be Catholic and to have all these tangible reminders of holy mysteries to lead us closer to our Lord!

In this picture Joseph is pretending to be the priest who is going to walk in the candlelit procession to the ambo where he will read the Gospel.  Seeing my boys in their altar server garments sometimes makes me wonder if any of them will have a calling to the priesthood??? :)

Whatever their vocation is, I pray that each of my sons will open their ears to listen to God's calling and then courageously obey.

Holding these candles straight, at the same height, and without making them rattle too loudly proved to be much harder than it looks!  

Here the servers are practicing the proper Mass responses and the cues for when to do their next duty.

But it wasn't solemn and serious all the time;

there were plenty of smiles---especially at the end of each practice when they received a treat!

Thank You, Jesus, for these new servers who love you and want to serve You and the Church!

Bless each one of them and guide them closer to Your Eucharistic Heart!!!

And thank You, Jesus, for giving Yourself to us in the Eucharist

and staying near to us in every tabernacle!

Thank You for loving us so much,

and please give us the grace to love, thank, and adore You more and more!