by Oswald Aranha
NORTH ARABIAN VICARIATE, JANUARY 20, 2015: It was a crisp, cold winter day and 58 young boys in a Kuwait hamlet woke up feeling very excited and eager to enter into the lord’s vineyard as altar servers. Later the same day, they donned on their new red and white robes and sat in anticipation as they waited for the induction ceremony to begin. The induction ceremony was conducted on Thursday, January 15, at 7.30 p.m. during the Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Francis Kharjia, Spiritual Director. It was attended by 140 altar servers and their parents, including the 58 new aspirants.
In his homily, Fr. Francis thanked the parents for encouraging the children to join the altar server’s ministry. He assured them of God’s blessings as they strive to keep their children close to God. After the homily, the 58 new aspirants said their commitment prayers while 82 altar servers made their renewal promise. It was a solemn moment as they all came forward in their red and white robes. Fr. Francis then blessed them all and joyful smiles could be seen all around. “I am very happy to belong to the altar server’s group. I am feeling proud to be an altar server and will serve God more and more.” exclaimed Leon Marcus. Aaron D’souza, another altar server expressed his joy in these words, “I am very happy and I want to come closer to God by serving him at the altar as often as possible.
Offerings were presented by one of the new Altar servers, his father and grandfather. After a Vote of thanks, certificates were awarded to all the altar servers who took their pledge and renewal promise. Certificates were also awarded to the three best Altar servers for the year 2014. The parents were very appreciative of the effort put in by the coordinators who trained the altar servers for the last three months. The coordinating team consists of seven members. One parent shared her feelings in these words, “we want our children to be closer to God and we thank the entire team for doing an excellent Job of training these Kids and we invoke God’s blessings on the team.”
Holy Mass was followed by a cake cutting ceremony for the newly inducted boys and a photo session with priests and parents. It was a wonderful moment and a memorable event in the Ministry of Altar servers. “A special thanks goes out to the altar servers ministry and the parish priest for his guidance which enabled such a gracious and spiritual event” commented one of the parishioners.