New Believers Of God

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

That Sunday, I had my first impression of serving as an altar boy.

Holly and I first went backstage to the dressing room, where we were both given an alb to put over our clothes. Father Stanley was there as well, back to wearing his green vestment, as was the deacon. Holly was also given a candlelighter, while I was given a golden stick with a cross positioned on top.

"Are we ready?" he asked us.

We both nodded.

As we headed out into the sanctuary, we made our way around the pews and to the center aisle. Of course, I spotted my Mom taking pictures with her phone.

Once the music began, we started walking forward to the front. After getting there, Holly went to light the candles surrounding the altar, while I went to place the cross in its holder.

For a couple of seconds, I struggled to shove it down, and when I finally did a loud clang resulted.

I looked up to see if anyone was staring at me, but wasn't able to tell.

Already feeling both startled and nervous, I quickly rushed to the tabernacle and took my bow, then stood over at the side.

Holly and I remained there until the introduction ended, after which she walked up to Father Stanley with a bible, which he then opened to a specific verse.

"Let us pray." he said, looking down at it "Almighty ever living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure. That in the name of your beloved son, we may abound in good words. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in unity of the holy spirit. One God, forever and ever."

"Amen." everyone else said back before sitting down.

Holly then returned to join me.

This is what I had been worrying about all week. Having a girl, a very pretty girl at that, sitting next to me for an hour-long mass. I tried my best not to show my anxiousness about it, but needless to say, it wasn't that easy. At the same time though, who knows how she felt about it? I'm sure it was new for her too, being responsible for teaching me. So I guess we both had something to learn.

Every couple of minutes, I glanced over at her just to see if she was doing the same, but she wasn't. It seemed like she was staying focused on listening to the readings, and rightfully so. I did find this pretty interesting, watching mass from a different, and much closer angle. I could see now what she meant by it's a part of church that only we get to witness.

When communion came, we walked back over to the front, where a pair of ushers brought us a bowl of the bread and a bottle of the wine. Each taking hold of one, we then approached the altar and assisted Father Stanley in dividing them up.

Upon returning to our seats again, Holly handed me a set of silver altar bells.

"Remember," she whispered, "Don't ring these until after he speaks."

Keeping that advice in mind, I carefully held them close to my side.

"Take this all of you and eat of it." Father Stanley said, holding a piece of the bread "For this is my body, which will be given up for you."

As he held it up, I shook the bells three times, and not until they stopped ringing completely did he continue.

"Take this all of you and drink from it." he said, raising the chalice of wine "For this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me."

As he held it up, I again shook the bells three times.

A few minutes later, following another brief speech, he held both the bowl and the chalice together.

"Through him and with him and in him." he said, raising them up "All glory and honor is yours, forever and ever."

As he held them up, I again shook the bells three times, and while setting them down was given a look of approval from her.

"Good job." she whispered.

Finally, as the service concluded, we walked back up the center aisle in front of Father Stanley, me holding the cross in my hand like before.

I had sincerely served my God proud.

Later that week, Thursday to be exact, her and I met at the library after school to work on our report.

"Cole." she said, "Can I ask you something?"

Initially, I thought she was referring to the project.

"Sure." I said back "Go ahead."

"When did you start believing in God?"

I was instantly taken aback by that question. Being asked it at all was already one thing. But by someone my own age, that was something new.

"Honestly," I answered "Only a couple months ago. Before that, it was just something I lived with. Everything was one big mystery to me, and for the longest time I wanted to figure it out. I didn't know what to believe, or why I should believe it. But then I realized, just because something can't be proven doesn't mean it's not true. Do you get that?"

"Yeah, I do." she agreed "I used to think the same exact thing. That's part of why I started serving. I felt like I owed it to him, to make up for all the time I lost."

It was a breath of fresh air to hear that. How somebody learned to believe on their own without being forced. But somehow, she did, and was now paying it forward too, to him and to me.

Eventually, I looked at my phone and saw it was almost six. I had told my Dad to pick me up before Hangin' In started.

As we got ready to go, I pulled my hoodie out of my backpack and threw it on.

"What's Hangin' In." she asked me.

"It's a youth group." I answered, "Over at St. Philip's."

"Why do you go to St. Philip's? That's not your church."

"Lots of people go who aren't from there."

With all the other kids that went to Hangin' In, I was genuinely surprised she hadn't heard of it.

"You should come to GLOW." she said.

"What's GLOW?" I asked, confused.

"It's the youth group at St. Margaret Mary's." she answered, "It stands for God Loves Our World."

Now I was even more surprised to have never heard of that.

"Are you in it?"

"Yeah. It's on Wednesdays. Why don't you come? I'm sure you'll like it."

I didn't know how my parents would react to me joining another youth group. How they hadn't heard of it either was far beyond me. But I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least check out and therefore decided to agree.

"Okay." I said, "Why not?"

"Great!" she said back, cheerfully.