DEDICATION
To my family, my first school of Christian formation.
And to all Altar Servers.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION GUIDEBOOK
The Altar Servers ministry is an exceptionally fertile ground to foster vocations to the priesthood. These young men should receive the basic teachings of the Church and guided into a life of piety and service. This Religious Instruction Guidebook attempts to serve precisely such purpose, while it supplements other catechism classes received elsewhere, and contextualizes the lessons into the Altar Server’s life. For those who are not called to the priesthood, these lessons will help them respond to the universal call to holiness received in Baptism, in which Christ invites us to sanctify our ordinary life and activities.
Our Altar Servers have great potentials in the service of the Church and society. Their dynamism, enthusiasm, and at times turbulent experiences in the crucial stages of their preparation for adulthood call for our loving friendship and guidance. They need, above all, our prayers, to become the vessels of clay strengthened by grace that the Lord wants to mold into his image, and effective instruments of his kingdom.
NORMS OF PIETY
The Norms of Piety are basic prayers and good habits recommended by the Church that set the pace of our relationship with God and others. They strengthen us, Apostles of Christ, as we pray, study, work, play, relate with our family and friends, assist as Altar Servers, and so on. In these daily activities, when done well and offered to God, we become saints, in little ways, without performing extraordinary feats or calling other people’s attention. Far from limiting us, these Norms intensify our desire to serve others and bring them closer to God.
When we pray, we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, our guardian angel, and all the angels and saints, to teach us the way to holiness on earth, so that we could be with God our Father forever in heaven. Through God’s grace and the Altar Server’s personal determination, he can adapt the Norms to his personal circumstances and live them all within a few months.
The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest (Mt 9:37-38). Many young men have discovered their vocation to the priesthood while working in God’s field as Altar Servers, usually with a priest guiding them. The Norms of Piety will prepare the Altar Server to respond joyfully if God calls him to the priesthood—whether now or later in life.
VIRTUES
Holiness, or the fullness of Christian life, is the imitation of Christ who became man like us. Virtues are “good habits”; they facilitate our search for holiness by making our life, outlook, actions and relationships with others similar to Christ’s, not only when we reach heaven, but even here on earth.
Living the virtues is not a matter of following a set of dos and don’ts; rather, it means getting used to doing heroically what we know is best for others and ourselves, according to God’s plan. This way we live as ordinary Christians in the middle of the world, fulfilling our baptismal commitments in the most natural way.
Living the virtues prepares the Altar Server to receive many graces from God, among which could be the calling to the priesthood. If he receives this gift of vocation, he should thank God for it and nurture it with the guidance of a priest who can lead him at the appropriate time to enter the seminary.