Prayers for Family

Catholicism  |  New Evangelization  |  Parenting  |  raising kids in the faith

Raising Young Evangelizers

By: Shannon Whitmore February 1st, 2025

A Special Invitation My son loves to altar serve. He started doing it as soon as he received his first Communion, and now that he’s been doing it for almost two years, he’s begun training some of his younger friends. He started off by serving just daily Masses, where a kindly teenage server taught him a new task each week until he had learned to do everything from holding the hand towel to ringing the bells. Now, he’s begun doing the same for his friends as they’ve all reached the age to begin altar server training. Back when he first started his training, he loved it when he could see his friends sitting in the pews. He was always excited when his friends attended the Masses that he was serving, and after one of his first Sunday Masses, one of his friends approached him afterward to tell him what a good job he had done. When asked how he had learned to serve, my son told his friend that he had someone teaching him during daily Masses, which are generally shorter and have less pomp and circumstance than Sunday liturgies. And then, without missing a beat, my son invited his friend to attend daily Mass with him.