It is a great honor to serve at the Altar of God and to assist at liturgical celebrations. Ministering in the sanctuary is a privilege, but it is also a calling, a special vocation, and therefore a duty for those who are so called; it is a high responsibility for those who are summoned to show and to exercise their love of Christ as guardians and stewards of the Blessed Sacrament.

To appreciate the privilege and to answer the calling, altar servers should understand that their function is not merely practical. They do not serve only because Father and Deacon can’t get along without them and need their help just to get through the ceremonies of Mass. They serve not only a practical function, but more precisely a liturgical function – they help enact the leitourgia, the Greek word for the public work or service of God. In serving at the altar, they represent or “picture” the very paradigm of service that the whole people of God offer to the Church and to the Sacred Liturgy itself as a “sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.” Servers at Mass help personify the Ecclesia orans ("The praying Church"). Hence the altar servers literally exemplify the universal mission of the faithful in the Body of Christ, and this fact affects all that they do.

In its representative function, liturgical service also has a symbolical function. The Holy Mass and all those who participate in its action symbolize the joyous celebration of worship around the Throne at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. When we serve at Mass we are present at the heavenly Jerusalem. We imitate on earth what we will do in Paradise among the heavenly hosts who gather in adoration at the mystical banquet of Christ in the Trinity. We symbolize, then, the saints and angels in heaven, and we ought to act and carry ourselves accordingly – with joy, with concentration, with focused, grateful wonder, with solemn composure.

In addition to these representative and symbolical purposes, serving the Liturgy has an exemplary function. We represent the work of the whole Church; we symbolize the angels and saints and heaven. And we offer a concrete example of reverent worship to the particular congregation present for a given liturgical celebration. In the traditional Mass of the Roman Rite, celebrated in Latin, the altar servers are specifically enjoined to make the Latin responses on behalf of the congregation. In the modern Roman Rite and its Anglican Usage, the People make their own responses and participate more directly. But even yet the altar servers perform a vital role in prompting and modeling the participation of the faithful not only in saying or singing the responses but also in cueing the proper sequence of gestures and postures that make up the physical action of the Mass. While following the celebrant and clergy in the sanctuary, the servers help lead the congregation in the nave. Guiding thus our fellow parishioners in stately worship, we help lead them and ourselves to heaven.

When we understand why we serve at the altar and when we grasp its theological significance, we will take pride in what we do and will try to cultivate the utmost dignity, precision, and gracefulness in performing every liturgical action. Realizing the spiritual purpose of such service, we should also try to live out that same ethos in the rest of our pursuits and activities.