Knights of the Altar: Feb 18, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010

SLOW ME DOWN, LORD

Slow me down, Lord
Ease the pounding of my heart by
quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vison of
the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the cofusion of the day
the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and
muscles with the soothing music of the
singing streams that live in my memory.
Help me to know the magical, restoring
power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute
vacations - of slowing down to look at a
flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog,
to read a few lines from a good book.
Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to
send my roots deep into the soil of life's
enduring values that I may grow toward the
stars of ny greater destiny.

Interview with God

I dreamed I had an interview with God.
So you would like to interview me? God asked.
if you have time, i said .
God smiled.
my time is eternity .... what questions do you have in mind for me?
what surprises you must about human kind?
God answered...
that they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.
that they lose their health to make money ... and then lose their money to restore their health.
that by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present not the future .
that they live as if they will never die , and die as though they had never lived.
God's hand took mine and we were silent for awhile.
and then i asked: as a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children learn?
to learn they can not make anyone love them, all they can do is let themselves to others.
to learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.
to learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them.
to learn that a rich person is not one who needs the least.
to learn that there are people who love them dearly , but simply do not yet know how to express or show their feeling.
to learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.
to learn that is not enough that they forgive one another , but they most also forgive themselves.
thank you for your time , i said humbly.
is there anything else you'd like your children to know?
God smiled and said : just know that i am here ... always.

She met God at a dance

She is glorious
transcending the tide of earthbound rhythm.
And her face- the canvass of laughter and tears
And time turns resplendent like a waltz
and she always moves with grace
reminding us of the power of God to change lives eternally.
Because that is what life is-
an amazing dance
even though the dance leads into dark valleys and lonely places
it remains a dance
and God has beckoned her
He placed her hand in His.
the glorious dance that began one fair and gallant dawn
when a stone was rolled away and Mary,
a grieving mother turned sorrow into dancing
her heart danced with unspeakable joy
and the music began
and the dance of eternal life began
and so the dance continues
a dance that reminds us of a soon coming feast when a father welcomes his children
a home with many rooms and new wine

St. Julian of Cuenca, Spain

Saint Julian of Cuenca was the second bishop of Cuenca, Spain, and was also a professor, hermit, priest, and preacher.
Born in Burgos, he studied at the cathedral school there and then studied at the university at Palencia, earning his doctorate there. He was appointed professor of philosophy and theology there in 1153.
During his time in Palencia, Julian worked as a basket-maker and maker of other trade goods in order to earn extra money for the poor of the city, as well to support himself.
In 1163, at the age of 35, he left Palencia to live a life of solitude in a modest house outside of Burgos, located on the banks of the Arlanzón. He was ordained (in 1166) and received minor orders, and together with a young companion, Lesmes, lived a life of mortification and contemplation.
Subsequently, he and Lesmes took to the road as itinerant preachers, reaching Córdoba and Toledo (in 1191). The archbishop of Toledo, Martín II López de Pisuerga, appointed Julian as archdeacon at Toledo. Along with his administrative duties, Julian continued preaching as well as making baskets in order to raise money for the poor. Julian served for 5 years as archdeacon at Toledo.
Juan Yáñez, the first bishop of Cuenca, died on December 14, 1195; Julian was chosen by Alfonso VIII of Castile to succeed Yáñez in June 1196. The diocese of Cuenca had been established in 1183 after the city of Cuenca had been conquered from the Moors by Alfonso VIII on September 21, 1177.
As bishop, Julian continued his preaching, reformed the practices of the local clergy, and did charity work for the Christians, Jews, and Muslims of his city. On a yearly basis, he would retire to the country to live a life of solitude and contemplation, and continued his habit of making baskets.
A legend associated with Julian is that Jesus Christ appeared to him in the guise of a beggar in order to thank him.
Julian died on January 28, 1208.

knights of the altar

Holiness, or the fullness of Christian life, is given to us by God through grace, but requires a mature personality, a firm will and good habits. Our Christian life is not simply a life of do's and don't's, but rather a life of imitating Christ, our model, who is Perfect God and Perfect Man. Through grace and human effort we can acquire the virtues or good habits that make us better persons, by striving for that human perfection presented to us by Christ, not only when we reach heaven, but even here on earth.
Virtues are not something abstract, separated from one's everyday existence. It affects precisely his life, his outlook, his actions and his relationship with others, so much so that one not only "lives and acts in a virtuous way", but rather one "is a virtuous person."
Like most other things in life, the virtues have to be learned. God may give them to us as gifts, but we should also cooperate with His grace and do our part. When we know more about the virtues, we begin to love them more, and we realize the good that they bring about. Little by little, we discover that it becomes easier for us to fulfil our duty of being good examples to others - good examples of ordinary persons in the middle of the world, just like everybody else, who live their Christian vocation fully, in the most natural way, so that others could see that the Christian life is a life full of joy, inspite of all the difficulties that man encounters in this world.
For an Altar Server all these may seem a difficult task, but for those who trust in God's grace, nothing is impossible. When the Holy Spirit reminded us in the Second Vatican Council of our duty to seek holiness - a duty of all Christians - He was not presenting to us an unreachable ideal. Instead, He wants us to realize that we can live the fullness of our Christian vocation without looking for the impossible, and without even searching for extraordinary moments to live it.
Lastly, by living these virtues very well, the Altar Server prepares himself to receive many graces from God - and among these graces, for a great number of the Servers, is the gift of vocation to the priesthood. This is one of the greatest graces that he can ever receive, and aside from thanking God, he should also do his best to nurture it until the time comes for him to formally undergo the necessary formation to become a priest.

Knights’ Pledge

We, The Knights of the Altar, pledge allegiance to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, to His representatives on earth, and to Mary, our Queen Immaculate, whom we will serve faithfully until we attain eternal triumph in heaven. We pledge ourselves to form a worthy guard of honor to our Divine Eucharistic King in whose service we willingly assume the dignity and honor of becoming Knights of the Altar; to render faithful, reverent and edifying service to God by assisting His visible representatives, the Bishops and Priests, in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in all other liturgical and devotional functions; to enkindle in the hearts of the faithful, whom we represent at the altar, greater piety and devotion by reverently performing the duties of our holy office and by giving good example in our daily lives.

Knights of the Altar Changing boys for the better.

Knights of the Altar manifestly hit that balance in three ways: understanding the boys’ need for acceptance by a group, healthily promoting their desire to be heroes, and catering to their love of competition and challenges.

Peers. Respect. Acceptance. 12-14 year olds have an almost universal proclivity to find strength in numbers, to look to their companions for support and approval, and to show little or no capacity for independent thinking. If something will bring them acceptance by their group of friends, they do it. If not, they reject it. They define themselves by their group of friends and by the acceptance they feel within that group.

All groups, though, form around one or two charismatic individuals who define what behavior is “cool”, and therefore what behavior will find acceptance within a group.

For lack of a better word, “cool” refers to whatever brings adolescents the peer-acceptance they seek. It can mean the qualities in a person which earn him the respect of his peers, or the qualities in an activity or a possession which will earn that respect. For example, a kid is cool when he is popular (funny, daring, athletic, rebellious, etc) and other kids imitate him; a thing (like wearing certain types of clothes, owning something special, belonging to a certain group, listening to certain music) is cool when doing (or wearing, etc) that thing earns a kid the respect of his peers.

The leaders who decide what is “cool” are generally of two kinds. One kind seems to attract a group of boys to him because of his perceived “experience.” Another kind does the same because of his self-assuredness.

First, “coolness-by-experience.” Since an adolescent’s world is so closed, so hemmed in by adult restrictions, those viewed as cool kids are often the ones who have more independence from adult authority and therefore more access to the experiences that to other boys are still forbidden fruit. Since these same boys also tend to be less respectful to adult authority, and tend to denigrate those still under that authority, they create a climate of rebelliousness and disrespect toward adults.

These kids and their followers, however, are inherently insecure. Three things result. The first is that they find security and acceptance by bragging about “experiences.”

Second, the leader in this group feels the need to constantly reinforce his position of predominance. He does this either by openly voicing rebellion against and disdain for adult authority (which leads their followers to increase their good standing with the cool kid by aping those attitudes), or by continuously pushing the boundary of things he dares to do further and further into forbidden territory. This also leads his followers to imitation.

Third, all the boys’ constant fear of not being accepted by the others leads them to outdo each other in staying away from (and therefore openly rejecting) kids not considered cool by their group, which nine times out of ten will lead to bullying.

Any school teacher will recognize the above description. Since “experiences” tend to become more and more morally dubious as the boys grow older, the negative influence of a group like this can be devastating.

Next, however, are those boys who are “cool” because of their self-assuredness. There are few common ingredients for their self-confidence other than the crucial one that they always feel supported by their parents. Often times these boys will be good athletes. Other times they will be smarter than average, or will simply have an innate ability to make friends through kindness. They differ from the “experience” leaders in several important ways.

First, their self-assuredness precludes any desire to form a group of admirers. They are content with being themselves. They can form a group around them at will, however, and when a group does form, often it is simply because they are fun people to be around, and enjoy accepting others the way they are.

Second, since they are not afraid of losing their position of leadership, they do not as often attempt to mark their territory at the expense of adult authority.

Finally, their group, if and when it forms, is generally open to any type of kid, without the fear-driven apartheid practiced by the other type of leader.

Obviously, forming a group of kids around a leader like this is crucial for the success of any youth program. Knights of the Altar was able to recruit the positive leaders in the school, and so it thrived.

Knights of the Altar promotes the boys’ desires to be heroes. This is a universal phenomenon: boys want to be heroes, or better said, they have heroes they want to be like. Cue in the lack of discrepant judgment mentioned above, and it is easy to see why so many young people can make heroes of rotten role models like some rock stars and professional athletes. By instructing young people about what true heroism consists in – living the virtues – and presenting them with examples or archetypes of people who do that – Jesus Christ, saints, knights – a youth program can turn the child’s desire for heroism into a positive, healthy force. Knights of the Altar presents the archetype of knighthood as a model of virtuous living. Since this appealed to the boys’ sense of adventure and hero-worship, the program prospered.

Knights of the Altar caters to the boys’ love of competition and challenge. Boys, and indeed males of all ages, define their sense of self-worth by their ability to overcome challenges. The program presented the boys with difficult tasks like moving to the next stage of Squire or Knight, while at the same time proffering encouragement and reward (an exciting investiture ceremony, serving more complicated Masses). It was thus able to keep the boys’ interest and commitment.

Knights of the Altar is changing boys for the better, but what about the girls? And how deep is the change? Deep enough to open their hearts to a possible priestly vocation?

It would be helpful to review the conditions Pope John Paul II prescribed when, on March 15, 1994, he allowed the practice of girls serving Mass. They are as follows:

1) Female altar servers are not mandated, but permitted, and neither individual priests nor entire dioceses can be obliged to allow girls to serve at the altar.

2) Groups of altar boys are to be preferred, and support is to be given to such groups.

3) The reasons for allowing girls to serve should be explained to the faithful.

4) There is no right, on the part of anyone, not even ordained ministers, to serve the liturgy (or read, distribute communion, etc). The Church decides who may exercise that privilege.

So, girls can serve, but it’s preferable that boys do, and priests and bishops should promote altar boy groups. The best way to allow all of the above to happen would be to have separate programs for boys and girls.

There seem to be two reasons for this: first, the importance to 12-14 year old boys of “the group”; and second, their fear of teasing.

As has been mentioned, boys at this age only find security in their group. They are beginning to find girls attractive, but they relate to girls “as a group”; they do not pair off and start engaging the girls individually until later. Being forcibly separated from that group and having to deal with girls one-on-one is not an appealing experience for boys this age, and yet that is exactly what they are being asked to do if they have to serve Mass with a girl.

Add to that the fear of the teasing that he at least imagines he will receive from “the guys” if they see him up there on the altar with a girl, and it is rare to find a normal boy brave enough to endure the pressure. Isn’t the only other time you see a boy and a girl on the altar during a wedding? Rag. Rag. Rag. Tease. Tease. Tease. Immature? Yes, but that is exactly what 12-14 year olds are – not yet fully developed.

The only solution, if we want boys to be altar servers, is to develop separate programs for boys and girls. Not only will the boys breathe a sigh of relief, but you will get better participation out of both sexes. Boys and girls, gasp, are different. For one, the main attractions to altar serving for boys - the mystery and ritual, the competition, the challenges, the heroism – holds little truck with girls. A fascinating and authoritative look at the subject is Why Gender Matters by Dr. Leonard Sax, MD, PhD. (Random House, 2006.) Separate programs for each would benefit both sides.

Obviously, having an all-boy program would make promoting the vocation to the priesthood a lot easier. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make everyone happy. Some people, often parents or relatives, seem to think that joining an altar boy group is “dooming” a boy to become a priest. That is not true.

First of all, those who would most likely be responsible for promoting the priesthood among the altar boys (priests and seminarians), are the first to recognize that the vocation is a very individual gift from God, and cannot be chosen as if it were a career option. Second, the fact remains that God does call – everyone! All people have a vocation, literally a calling, to something. For nine out of ten of the boys in an altar boy program, that calling will be to fulfillment as a Christian husband and father. For a few, it will be a call to the priesthood. The advantage of an altar boy program that is focused on the service of Christ and that teaches boys to place importance on God’s plan for their lives is that it will help them all follow their vocation, whatever that may be. And that is the goal of Christianity: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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