Friday Frivolity: The Altar Call’s Greatest Hits
Do you love the altar call, but can’t stand all the work it takes to get to one?
"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Do you love the altar call, but can’t stand all the work it takes to get to one?
I recently discovered that Fr. Anthony Saroki, pastor at Our Lady of Mt Carmel in San Diego, has started posting his homilies on YouTube. If you’d like to listen to them, then subscribe to his YouTube Channel.
Fr. Saroki is one of my favourite homilists here in San Diego and he’s recently launched a new website, Good Life USA, as part of his parish’s ministry:
In the parish where I grew up it was understood that, upon receiving their First Holy Communion, boys were then eligible for training to become altar servers. I followed in this tradition and became an altar boy at the age of eight. Even after we changed parishes, every week I served on the altar and did so for many years. I continued to serve regularly until after I completed university and, even then, when I was back home visiting my family I would typically don my cassock and carry a candle on Sundays.
I loved being an altar server and I think that all parents should consider encouraging their sons to become altar boys. In this post I’d like to share my top ten reasons why altar serving is great…
Today’s song for Music Monday is “Panis Angelicus”, sung by Andrea Bocelli. This was a song I immediately fell in love with…but it was at a time when I was becoming increasingly anti-Catholic in my beliefs, so I responded with horror when I realized what the lyrics meant when translated from Latin. Still, even back then I couldn’t help but love it…
Panis angelicus
(Bread of the Angels)
fit panis hominum;
(Is made bread for mankind)
Dat panis cœlicus
(Gifted bread of Heaven)
figuris terminum:
(Of all imaginings the end;)
O res mirabilis!
(Oh, thing miraculous!)
Manducat Dominum
(This body of God will nourish)
Pauper, servus et humilis
(the poor, the servile, and the humble)
A while back at an Eastern Orthodox event I had mentioned in passing at least one Church Father asserted that the “Cephas” mentioned in Galatians wasn’t the Apostle Peter. In the link below, Dr. Barber explains why he thinks that the “Cephas” of Galatians and the Apostle Peter are the same person:
…and his followup.