Thousands of Aggie Catholics worship at St. Mary's each week. As Fr.David likes to say, it's kind of like hosting a big party for a bunch of friends (and some aquaintences).
Worship Team are the many students who work with our priests and each other to make it all happen, supporting the worship & prayer life of the students of Texas A&M and Blinn College.
People come here from all kinds of backgrounds and in different stages of doubt and faith. Visitors and curious friends might be here to see what this Catholic thing is all about. All of them are waiting to be served, inspired, and challenged in their relationship with Christ, fellowship with others, and their inevitable wrestling match with life's biggest questions
So the Worship Team meets a huge opportunity to inspire faith, deepen prayer, elevate spirits, plant seeds, welcome strangers, and help everyone discover the compassion and beauty of life with Christ and his Church.
- Lectors proclaim the Word of God at Mass.
- EM's (Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion) distribute Holy Communion.
- Altar Ministers and Mass Coordinators run the show, and make sure everyone in place to fulfill their roles.
- Sacristans keep the church beautiful, and others help by making flower arrangements or decorations.
- If you have a musical gift, sing or play an instrument in one of the music groups.
- You could help the community pray by composing the "Prayers of the Faithful".
All of these roles are very important ! Click around and learn a little more about the ministries, and then take a few moments to think about how you might be able to help as a part of the Worship Team. Mark Joseph Zamora '10 is the Worship Team Director, email the leadership for more info about getting involved.
What is "Liturgy"
Across twenty centuries, Catholic Christian prayer and worship has taken many shapes and forms, including things like devotionals, music, art, and especially liturgy.
Generically speaking, Liturgy is the name for styles of worship and prayer that take on a particular structure or follow basic patterns each time. Often this involves the use of familiar words and music, and a unity of movements and symbols.
These actions allow the people to achieve a unified expression and deeper understanding of their faith. The external rhythms and movements of liturgical worship bring the many people of varying spiritual maturity to the same point of community, while paradoxically providing a pathway for each individual to travel to different interior depths of stillness and sacred experience.
Liturgy is common to all the cultures and peoples of the world – it is ordinarily intended to be conducted with other people, not alone (the word “liturgy” comes from the Greek word leitourgia which loosely translates to mean “a public duty, a service for the public good, a work of the people.")
- the Mass
- the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as "daily prayer" or "the Office"... long before the tv show of the same name).