GOOD FRIDAY SERVICES

ALTAR SERVER INSTRUCTIONS

SETUP

  • Requires five (5) altar servers. Use black cassocks and white surplices.
  • Check to ensure that tabernacle altar is completely stripped bare except for the tabernacle.
  • Place folded altar cloth, corporal, thesmall red Roman Missal book,and the redBook of Gospelson the credence table. Also place twotowels on the credence table for wiping the cross during its veneration by the congregation.
  • Place moderate-sized wooden cross, two altar candles, and book of matches or butane lighter in the vestibule/narthex, next to the main door to the nave/main room of the church. Use the altar candles from the tabernacle altar.
  • Place the stand for the wooden cross in front of the altar at the top of the black cross in the tile floor.
  • Place the large Roman Missal on bench next to the book server chair.
  • Position the other two altar candles from the tabernacle altar on the sink table in the sacristy with a book of matches.

Liturgy of the Word

  • Form up in vestibule/narthex for procession to the altar. There is no cross, no candles, no books or any other articles carried by the servers in the procession to the sanctuary.
  • Servers walk slowly up the main aisle in front of the priest to the entrance to the sanctuary. Servers do a head bow and go to their assigned seats and stand.
  • Priest will go behind the altar and prostrate himself before the tabernacle. Altar servers will kneel while priest is prostrate.
  • When the priest returns to his chair, the BOOK SERVER gets big Roman Missaland stands before priest for the opening prayer.
  • There will be the regular two readings and the responsorial psalm.
  • At the completion of the readings, the CROSS SERVERwill get the redBook of Gospels from the credence table and place it in the middle of the altar.
  • Normally after the gospel, the priest will give a short homily.
  • Immediately after the Passion Narrative or the homily is completed, the CROSS SERVERwill get the smallred Roman Missalfrom the credence table and place it on the marble ambo where the priest will do the solemn intercessions.The EXTRA SERVER will get the Red Bookof Gospels from the altar and place itback on the credence table.

Veneration of the Cross

  • The CROSS SERVER, EXTRA SERVER and the GF SERVER leads the priest to the vestibule/narthex, with the GF SERVERcarrying the small Roman Missal book. The CROSS SERVER and EXTRA SERVERimmediately lights the two candles and position themselves to lead the procession back to the altar. The GF SERVERwith the small Roman Missal book should be between the candle servers and the priest. The priest will get the cross and carry it.
  • The servers should move just far enough up the aisle and stop to permit the priest to be fully inside the nave/main room of the church.
  • The two candle serversremain facing forward. The serverwith the Roman Missal turns toward the priest so the priest can read from the book. Once the priest completes the chant and the congregation responds, the servers should wait 5 to 10 seconds before processing up the aisle to the middle of the main room. There the process is repeated. And then to the foot of the altar where the process is repeated again.
  • Upon completion of the chant, the BOOK SERVER and the BELL SERVER who remained on the altar immediately come down and take hold of the crossbeam of the wooden cross and stand still while the priest venerates the cross.
  • Both candle serversturn and face one another. Then theBOOK and BELLservers take the cross to the front pews on each side of the church to allow the incapacitated and elderly to venerate the cross. Once that task is completed the servers with the cross return to the center of the church, below the altar for the congregation to venerate the cross.
  • The GF SERVER places the small Roman Missal on the credence table and takes the towel from the credence table and stands by the cross with a towel to wipe the cross as the congregation venerates the cross.
  • Once the veneration of the cross is completed, the servers holding the cross turn toward the altar and put the cross in the wooden stand. The servers holding the candles turn toward the altar while the cross is being placed in the wooden stand. The server with the cloth returns it to the credence table and then takes the donation baskets to the sacristy and the stands to the north sacristy.
  • Once the wooden cross is in the stand, two servers who held the cross bow toward the altar andgo to the sacristy and light the two altar candles that are on the sink stand.

Communion Service

  • The two servers place their candles on the front corners of the altar. They will then go to the credence table and bring the altar cloth and corporal to the main altar. First they arrange the altar cloth on the altar and then place the corporal on the altar cloth with the red cross at the bottom near the edge of the altar. Once the main altar is arranged, one of the servers gets the big Roman Missal and places it on the left side of the altar. They then go and stand where they normally do to receive communion.
  • The two servers with the candles in the sacristyescort the priest, who carries the ciboria, from the sacristy to the altar. The escort servers then place the candles on each back corner of the altar.
  • All the altar servers then position themselves for communion as they do at Mass.
  • After they receive communion and the priest arrives at the entrance of the sanctuary to give communion to the congregation, the servers bow behind the altar and return to their seats. The BOOK SERVERremoves the Roman Missal from the altar and places it on the bench where it normally goes.
  • Once the ciboria are removed to the sacristy after communion, the two servers who set up the altar for communion will remove the corporal, altar cloth, and candles from the altar. The altar cloth and corporal are placed on the credence table. The two servers who put the candles on the back corners of the altar now remove all the candles on the main altar to the sacristy.
  • The BOOK SERVER will get the large Roman Missal for the priest’s final prayers and blessing.
  • After the final blessing, the altar servers will immediately line up and bow toward the altar and then go from the altar and line up near the front pew. At the first pew all servers will turn toward the altar and do a head bow with the priest. Then they turn and lead the priest to the vestibule/narthex of the church.

Takedown

  • Leave the wooden cross and stand in place in front of the altar.
  • Remove everything from the altar, the credence table and take the big Roman Missalinto the sacristy.

Server List

(1) Cross Server:______

(2) Book Server:______

(3) Bell Server:______

(4) Extra Server:______

(5) Good Friday (GF) Server______