I was contacted early last month by a Boy Scout Troop down in southern Maine. A number of boys are working toward their Catholic scouting award, known as the Ad Altare Dei award. In order to receive the award, they need to study the 7 Sacraments in depth. Originally this award was given to altar boys who were also scouts, and now it is used as a way to help boys live out their faith more deeply. As part of their study of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, they asked me ten questions about what it means to study for the priesthood.
Growing up in Camden, I was both an altar boy at Our Lady of Good Hope and a scout for Troop 200, so their request had a particular resonance with me. I remember with such fondness all the camping trips and outings that we did as a troop. With equal fondness I recall all the Masses I served. Particularly I remember the kindness I was shown by the priests, older servers and sacristans. I served many summer masses and would wear shorts and sandals under my robes! They called me St. Francis; however this name wouldn’t stick, as I switched to shoes very shortly after.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, the words Ad Altare Dei, are the words that the priest spoke just before Mass began at the foot of the altar. The altar boys were certainly within earshot, because they had to respond. Both the call of the priest and the response of the servers are significant for every vocation:
P. Introibo ad altare Dei. R: Ad deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.
P. I will go in to the altar of God. R: To God, Who gives joy to my youth.
Growing up in Camden, I was both an altar boy at Our Lady of Good Hope and a scout for Troop 200, so their request had a particular resonance with me. I remember with such fondness all the camping trips and outings that we did as a troop. With equal fondness I recall all the Masses I served. Particularly I remember the kindness I was shown by the priests, older servers and sacristans. I served many summer masses and would wear shorts and sandals under my robes! They called me St. Francis; however this name wouldn’t stick, as I switched to shoes very shortly after.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, the words Ad Altare Dei, are the words that the priest spoke just before Mass began at the foot of the altar. The altar boys were certainly within earshot, because they had to respond. Both the call of the priest and the response of the servers are significant for every vocation:
P. Introibo ad altare Dei. R: Ad deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.
P. I will go in to the altar of God. R: To God, Who gives joy to my youth.
How beautiful! God, and not simply the world or anything temporal thing, gives joy to my youth! And he did! This is significant especially for those of us who grew up serving the Mass. This call and response is implicit, I think, even today for those children who serve the Mass. There is such profound, incommunicable joy given to those who serve the Mass. Think about it, not stained with years of sin and selfishness, young people are open to receiving infinite graces from God.
Now if these graces are nurtured with good education, both intellectual and moral, children can grow up to hear God’s voice, to hear His call. Let us continue to nurture our children and give them our attention. Let us help them understand how God can call them, which means we first need to understand how God is calling us. Our Lord is calling, even now! Right now in our Parish, our Lord is calling young people to live their lives, not for themselves but for Him and others. So let us go to the altar of God, who can generate in us that joy we had in our youth!
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