Consider How You Can Serve St Hugo

Have you ever considered becoming a Sacristan? Becoming a what? A sacristan. They are the individuals you see assisting the priest in preparing the Altar for Communion and who clean up after Communion.

If you are looking for a rewarding ministry, one that will help you have a deeper appreciation of the Mass, being a sacristan will provide you that and more. You will begin to realize how the disciples must have felt during their time serving Jesus.

Hopefully, we have caused you to stop and think that maybe becoming a sacristan is something you might want to consider. To help you with your deliberations we have created the following questions to assist you:

Q – What is required to be a sacristan?
A – You should be a confirmed member of St Hugo of the Hills and have a desire to serve your Lord. If you think that being worthy is a requirement, no one who is part of the Mass is worthy. Not even the priest.

Q – What will be my time commitment?
A – If you are the lead sacristan for a particular Mass, you should be there one half hour before the start of Mass and it takes about 15 minutes to clean up after Mass. If you are not the lead sacristan, you need to arrive at least 15 minutes before Mass.

Q – What type of training is offered to assist me in becoming a sacristan?
A – For new sacristans, we conduct a Saturday morning orientation session and during the year we conduct quarterly updates for all sacristans. For the first quarter of the year, we jointly schedule new sacristans with experienced sacristans.

Q – Should I be a Eucharistic minister before I become a sacristan?
A – It is helpful but not a requirement.

Q – How often will I be required to serve and can I pick the Mass?
A – We will inform you what Mass has the greatest need for sacristans and if one of them fits your needs that’s great. If not, we will schedule you for the Mass of your choice. How often you serve will depend on which Mass you request and how many trained sacristans we already have for that Mass. At the 12:00pm Mass on Sunday we have three couples. One couple has the lead once every three weeks.

We are planning a training session for the middle of October. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Jim Hutton at (248) 335-0317 or email at dent@oakland-info.com.

We look forward to making you a part of this ministry.