The Serra Club of Downtown Columbus honored 96 eighth-graders at the 60th annual Altar Server Awards on Sunday, May 7 at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral.
Each of the honorees from parishes throughout the diocese received the Serra Altar Server Medal and a certificate from Bishop Earl Fernandes.
The bishop thanked the young people for their service at the altar and stressed the importance of their role in the Church and at Mass through assisting the priest. He also reflected on how their service could lead to religious vocations.
Inviting each of them to patiently listen for God’s call, Bishop Fernandes said, “You are doing small tasks now, but God might call you to greatness by being a priest or a religious or a monk.
“There is this idea of growing in faith, growing in the Lord’s service and discovering our vocation to holiness. If we grow each day in holiness, faithfully doing little things in the Lord’s service, then one day we will also reign with the Lord.
“For to serve is to reign, and what greater honor could there be than to be called a saint.”
The students and their families gathered for a reception in the cathedral undercroft after the ceremony, which was supported financially with a grant from The Catholic Foundation.
The Serrans, who are part of a worldwide organization that promotes and supports religious vocations, believe that altar serving can lead to a calling from God to become a priest, brother or sister.
“Altar servers, you are servants of Jesus Christ,” Pope St. John Paul II said. “Do not hold your candlestick only inside the church but take the light of the Gospel to all who live in darkness.”