St. John Berchman Altar Servers Ministry

The ministry is like another family to me. They are constantly caring and looking out for me. My encounter with God was during my confirmation, when I was blessed by God to join him. Helped me in my faith: It has helped me strengthen my faith as it has shown me the benefits of helping others through service. I hope that there will be many other opportunities for others in the future.

Thomas Chong
16yrs joined in 2016

My name is Lionel Yap, I am 28 this year, and I joined Saint John Berchmans back in 2019. I come from a family of four, and I was introduced to Catholicism by my mother, and subsequently, baptized when I was 10 years old. Being an Altar Server was not entirely foreign to me due to my mother’s encouragement for me to join the ministry shortly after I was baptized. As I was new to the faith, I struggled to understand the significance of what it meant to be an Altar Server, hence, thinking that it was ‘boring’, I dismissed the possibility of joining as an Altar Server.
However, my perspective changed when I had a personal encounter with the Lord back in 2018, through the School of Christian Leadership (SOCL), held by the Office for Young People (OYP). Having entered the SOCL amid experiencing one of the lowest periods of my life where I was battling with the voices in my head that tells me that I am a failure and nothing good will ever come out of what I do, I struggled to reconcile with the fact that the Lord is ever faithful, and His desires are to lavish His love on me. Yet, it was in these struggles that I was blessed with the lenses of faith to recognize that the Lord has never left my side, in fact, He is closer to me than I had expected. It was the frequent visits to the adoration room to be still before the Lord that had strengthened my relationship with Him such that I was able to grow in my trust for Him and at the same time, surrendering these feelings of inadequacy and of self-condemnation. Eventually, these words came to fulfilment “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” At this, the call to serve Him on the altar and I join St Joseph’s Church Altar Server Ministry.

Through my time in Saint John Berchmans, I was blessed with brothers who are caring, patient, thoughtful, and most importantly, God-fearing. With little to no experience serving as an Altar Server, I feared making mistakes which I would most probably be reprimanded for. Yet, it was in these mistakes that have been committed that revealed to me, the extent of what it means to be forgiving and loving to one another. Furthermore, the acts of humility that I have witnessed within my time in Saint John Berchmans has been inspiring to me as well as in my manhood, as I have always thought that Altar Servers, being a male-dominated ministry, would struggle in these areas of authenticity, encouragement, and vulnerability. Of course, the aforementioned is invalid as I have witnessed such authenticity, encouragement, and vulnerability among this brotherhood in my time of service here in Saint John Berchmans.

Blessed with the opportunity to serve the Lord in the sanctuary, I am constantly reminded of the words that the psalmist has echoed “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere”. I hold this verse close to my heart as it reminds me that, at the end of the day, I belong to Him, and it is only in union with Him, can my deepest longings be satisfied.

Lionel Yap
28 yrs joined in 2019

At a very young age I had a deep love for our lady and through her love for him in the blessed sacrament, or shall say I tried to love them but they had deep love for me to give me the joy of loving them. Till today I really don’t know what made me Join the servers, I just felt it in my heart and happens a priest asked me to join and I just did, till today my most favorited part of being a server Is to be close enough to see the priest say the words of concentration (this is my body which will be given up for you) It always feels like time has stopped and once again God comes down to humanity. My God moment in the servers There was a time I was struggling with my faith and during concentration, when the priest held up the host I felt in my heart and saw the crazy humility of Christ that till today I hold close to my heart I was placed in charge of the Servers in 2018 As a person and a leader the one who keeps me going, is our lady and Christ crucified, and my love for my brothers in the ministry Totus tuus ego summ mater dei !!!

Samuel Joshua
Head Altar Server