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In this edition:
Altar Servers
Welcome to this fortnight's edition of LITed: Liturgical Education News. In this edition we explore articles and resources that may be of use to those training altar servers. You might like to forward the link to this page to others in your community. And, don't forget our forthcoming Musicians' Workshop in September!
James Robinson Education Officer, Liturgy Brisbane |
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Eight tips for recruiting new altar servers
There is a interesting paradox with young people's participation: doing less sometimes can make the activity less important in their list of priorities and events.
Here are eight ideas that may help your community to encourage more young people to turn-up, and keep turning up!
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Core formation: what do servers need to know?
When we consider the mission and ministry of the altar server, we rightly recall the
noble simplicity of the rites we celebrate as an expression of the essence of the Roman liturgy. Altar
servers are not the focus of the rite but, in their ministry, they enable the rite to proclaim the mystery
of Christ through Word and Sacrament.
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Sacristans and Servers
Because servers are such visible members of the assembly it is essential that they participate fully in the liturgy by joining in the singing, praying and listening. When servers, young or old, are seen to be profoundly engaged in the celebration they serve us as role models: their example will be something that members of the assembly are encouraged to follow.
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Teaching the parts of the Mass"Together at One Altar" is a resource that was created by the National Catholic Education Commission to introduce changes to the mass that came with the new missal in 2011. Today, this resource is an excellent tool for altar server training. It assists with knowledge around vestments, parts of the mass, gestures and actions of the priest, and preparing the church for mass. An interactive and fun tool that can be adjusted for different servers' ages.
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Resources for Training Altar Servers
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Handbook for Altar Servers
This resource is beautifully illustrated, reasonably priced and available immediately from St Paul's Book Store for $12.95 per copy. Perhaps a little long and complex for your average 10 year old, this resource would be used well in a group setting. The author uses a clever 'server-explorer' concept to develop understanding around parts of the mass.
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Powerful Points: Altar Servers
Available from Liturgy Brisbane, these power point slides may provide a good scaffold for training. Adjustments would need to be made for younger students and 'death by power point' should always be avoided! However, the question of 'where do I start?' in determining content for training can be answered by this $3.50 resource.
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Serve God with Gladness: A manual for Servers
A quick Google search reveals that there are plenty of free altar servers training manuals available on the web, but very few of them are age appropriate. Can you really see a 10 year old reading pages and pages of instructional text? "Serve God with Gladness: A manual for servers" stands out as a training resource written particularly for kids by an older alter-server. While it is a US publication, it is produced by "Liturgy Training Publications", a reasonably reliable publisher. The cost of $15US + postage may be prohibitive for parishes to purchase for every server, but a few copies for the parish library could be achievable.
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Liturgy Lines by Elizabeth Harrington
Liu Xiaobo’s death and scattering ashes
Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned dissident Liu Xiaobo died on 13th July from multiple organ failure after he was refused permission to leave the country for treatment. Mr Liu, a prominent participant in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989, was jailed for eleven years in 2009 for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after helping to write a petition known as Charter 08 which called for sweeping political reforms.
The ashes of Liu Xiaobo were scattered at sea a few days later in a move described by a family member as ‘an effort to erase any memory of him’. One close friend of Liu Xiaobo claimed that the sea burial as an attempt to make sure that there was ‘nothing to remember him by on Chinese soil’.
Many others voiced rage and disgust after the announcement that Liu Xiaobo’s ashes had been cast into the ocean off north-eastern China in a hastily arranged sea burial because they believe it was ‘designed to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage’.
‘An effort to erase any memory of him’; ‘nothing to remember him by’; ‘designed to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage’. Yet, when in November 2016 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo (To rise with Christ) said that it was not permissible for the ashes of the deceased to be scattered at sea, citing precisely these same reasons, the reaction from many was to say that Rome was out of touch and insensitive. The document reminded the faithful that cremated remains should be treated with the same respect given to the corporeal remains of a human body, meaning that, when the family is given the ashes later, they are reverently interred in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium.
Continue reading
Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned dissident Liu Xiaobo died on 13th July from multiple organ failure after he was refused permission to leave the country for treatment. Mr Liu, a prominent participant in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989, was jailed for eleven years in 2009 for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after helping to write a petition known as Charter 08 which called for sweeping political reforms.
The ashes of Liu Xiaobo were scattered at sea a few days later in a move described by a family member as ‘an effort to erase any memory of him’. One close friend of Liu Xiaobo claimed that the sea burial as an attempt to make sure that there was ‘nothing to remember him by on Chinese soil’.
Many others voiced rage and disgust after the announcement that Liu Xiaobo’s ashes had been cast into the ocean off north-eastern China in a hastily arranged sea burial because they believe it was ‘designed to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage’.
‘An effort to erase any memory of him’; ‘nothing to remember him by’; ‘designed to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage’. Yet, when in November 2016 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo (To rise with Christ) said that it was not permissible for the ashes of the deceased to be scattered at sea, citing precisely these same reasons, the reaction from many was to say that Rome was out of touch and insensitive. The document reminded the faithful that cremated remains should be treated with the same respect given to the corporeal remains of a human body, meaning that, when the family is given the ashes later, they are reverently interred in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium.
Continue reading
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Images used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.
Other images from Unsplash. 2017. Used under license. Full terms and conditions.
Other images from Unsplash. 2017. Used under license. Full terms and conditions.