The Sacristies

8 - Behind the scenes - the sacristies

You can never have enough storage space, and church is no different. It is a constant effort to keep our storage space organized and free from unwanted and unused items.

This room is called a sacristy. Actually, we have three sacristies in our church. The Vesting Sacristy is in the Gathering Space. Vestments for Sunday Masses and funerals are stored there. Since the Sunday Masses begin with a procession from the Gathering Space to the Altar, the Vesting Sacristy is most convenient for weekends, weddings and funerals.

All the weekday vestments and extra vestments are stored here, in this sacristy. In addition, all the items we need and use at Mass are kept here: hosts, wine, incense, carafes, goblets, baptismal garments, towels and candles, purificators (the little white cloths used to wipe the chalice and goblets) finger towels, dishes, oil bowls, bowls for ashes, implements for the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday, brass candle lighters, altar cloths, and many more liturgical items have a home here. The liturgical books are on the vesting case: Lectionaries, which contain the readings for Mass, and the Sacramentary, which contains the Mass prayers. Fr. Jim prepares his own Mass book, containing copies of the prayers from the sacramentary, introductions to the readings, music for the weekend, and any other special blessings and announcements. The safe contains the sacred vessels - chalices and ciboria. The clock on the wall controls the timing of our church bell.

I invite you to walk through the passageway behind the altar area. There you will notice the sound system, candle supplies, bricks, flower stands, music stands, music storage and files, and lots of other odds and ends. Be sure to take a good look at the organ. It was installed when Fr. O'Callaghan was pastor here in the 70's. It is a real pipe organ, not electronic, so be sure to look at the organ pipes. It needs to be tuned about once a year. Opposite the organ pipes, notice the large hanging drape. Jane Landosky changes it to match the color of each liturgical season.

Since we keep flower and decoration supplies back here, there is one more liturgical ministry that is very important: it is called Art and Environment. We always want to keep our church beautiful and inviting through the use of flowers, candles and other decorations. If you are interested in helping with this ministry, talk to Kim Brissette.

The sacristy on the other side is called the Server's Sacristy, because we keep the altar servers' robes there. In addition, there are all kinds of cleaning supplies, flower maintenance supplies, and storage for Holy Week materials. Occasional cleaning of the church is another "time and talent" service where we can always use more help. If you have talents for cleaning, organizing, or "behind the scenes" work, contact Mitzi Brown, and she will point you in the right direction.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into the celebration of each liturgy - more than meets the eye. It requires many ministries, and of course, the full, active and conscious participation of each person present. Every liturgy is an awesome event - the Body of Christ at prayer!