Thursday, December 16, 2004

An open letter...
to the parents of our altar servers.

(n.b. - I’m venting the ol’ spleen here because I can’t at work. There I am paid to be nice and tactful and after all, I am working for God. But here’s what I’m thinking... And if you have a vague feeling that I may have written something similar at Easter, you may be right!)
I’m sorry I have ruined your Christmas plans. There can only be so many servers scheduled per Mass. By asking your son to serve at the 4:00pm Christmas Eve Mass in the gym (really, I don’t like Mass in the gym either.....but if I’m told to be there as a lector, I go) when you all would rather be at the Mass in the church, I am just doing my job. I am not trying to balkanize your family. I know Mass together as a family is your long-standing tradtion, but if your son is a server he isn’t sitting with you anyway. So why not let him serve twenty yards away - across the parking lot. Being an altar server is a service to the Church. Service can mean sacrifice. Is this such a tremendous sacrifice? We’re trying to see that the Mass is celebrated reverently and beautifully, not create a picture Christmas memory for you. If sending your son to serve at an unconvenient time or place is so upsetting, how will you feel if he joins the military, seminary, Doctors without Borders, etc.? I suppose this isn’t a good time to tell you that we need lots of servers at 7:30 Christmas morning. And at 5 other Masses on December 26. Please don’t bite my head off.....I need it to finish my job. And my Christmas shopping...

Oh...and while I'm at it...a surprising number of your fellow parishioners have had children (age pre-born to adult) die during the past year. They are the ones that are in need of sympathy. I may understand your dilemma, but I don't feel particularly sorry for you, OK?

No comments:


St. Isidore Foundation



I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.
-- Michelangelo, quoted in Vasari's Lives of the Artists


Meet the Family...
Collect the Action Figures





Yes, three jade ribbons. 15 Years!
(not all the same child)
If you need to ask, you may not wish to know.


 
Site Meter