tiny altar servers

At one Mass that I attended, I noticed this this tiny altar server. Throughout the mass, he was extremely restless, and my heart somewhat bled for him as he fidgeted and looked extremely vexed. During the offertory, he could barely handle the tray of bowls (someone tell me if I'm using the right word!) and it really looked like he would fall anytime and spill the wafers all over the floor. At another occasion, clearly there were a few new entrants. There were not enough bells to ring at the consecration, and the older boy gave up his bell to a much younger boy, which was a most heart-warming sight to me.

It is of course a Catholic tradition to have boys serving at the altar, so that some of them would consider the priesthood as their vocation. Yet, one day InfernoXV mused loudly to me, that in light of the child-abuse scandal in the USA, it may not be a wise thing anymore. I can only hope and pray that no such scandal affects our priests. "Et ne nos inducas in tentationem".

I also witnessed a mother enquiring about her son joining the altar servers society. I was reminded of the time when someone told me about how he brought some altar servers to the seminary for a visit, only to receive phone calls of ,"How dare you bring my son to the seminary?!". Perhaps these people would be pleased to see altar girls introduced (God help us!) - then they will be pleased with an additional possibility for their sons to find their future life partners quickly.