MEMORIES OF SERVING AT MASS
By Jon Golding
I will always look back on the days when I served Mass in grade school as some of the most enjoyable times I had growing up and how they helped to define my being Catholic.
I always felt it was a privilege, and it gave me a special feeling to be close to the altar and priest during the mass. Like most servers, I have many funny stories which mostly occurred while serving the weekly and weekend Mass at St. Mary’s Hospital and Seton Manor where the elderly nuns lived.
Sister Josephine was the nun at St. Mary’s who was in charge of the servers and prepared the altar for Father. As with most nuns of the time, she was very tough and did not have a sense of humor when it came to her servers. Mass would begin at 6:00 a.m., and Sister would teach us her way of serving and delivering the Eucharist to the patients. One of the servers would walk with a special candle, and the other would ring a bell to let the staff know Father was on his way down the halls of the hospital with the Holy Eucharist.
Father was always in a hurry, and we would have to hustle to stay up with him since we really didn’t know where he was going. Inevitably wax would be spilled on the candle holder, and Sister would let the server know how long it took her to remove the wax from the candle holder. She would place her hands on us, and we knew it was the hand of God! During our weekly rounds we would also have the goal of dropping the bell and seeing how far down the hallway we could “accidentally” kick it. Three rooms down was our personal record. We had to make sure we only did it once or Father would become suspicious.
Another unforgettable server episode was when Danny Hubert and I served an Easter Vigil Mass at Seton Manor. During the long service Danny got his candle a little to close to his robe which started on fire. We never saw so many elderly nuns get excited and roll around in their wheelchairs! This was before stop, drop, and roll, and the only thing I could think to do was to point and laugh. Luckily no one was injured, and Mass went on with Danny getting a new robe to replace his burned one.
While we had many funny experiences, we mostly enjoyed the feeling of being of service to the Christ The King community and getting to know the bishop and priests who lived next door to the church. They were all men of the highest standards, and I always felt we were fortunate to have them as well as our current pastor at our Parish.
