St Stephen

Stephen was a brave and fearless man. He had to be, to do the work God wanted him to do.

He lived in those early days of the Church just after Jesus had returned to his Father and the Holy Spirit had come upon the Apostles at the first Pentecost.

Perhaps Stephen had actually met Jesus, heard him teaching, seen some of his miracles, even spoken to him. It is possible, but we do not know.

What we do know is that Stephen was a friend of the Apostles.

One day, an argument started up between some of the Christians in Jerusalem. Widows, who had no one to earn money for food for them, were looked after by the Church.

But one group of Christians complained that the food was not being shared out fairly. So the argument started.

The apostles were annoyed by this. ‘We must get on with spreading the Good News of Jesus, not serving food’, they said. ‘The best way of doing God’s work is by dividing up the work. So choose seven good men and they will help us in the serving’.

Everybody thought this was a good idea. They chose seven men, as the Apostles had asked, and they were officially appointed when the Apostles prayed over them and laid hands on their heads.

Top of the list of seven was Stephen. Right away he was a success. While he was doing his work of service he worked great signs and miracles. This made the enemies of the Christians very angry.

They argued with Stephen but always came off worst. They bribed some men to tell lies about Stephen and then they arrested him.

He was taken off to the Jewish council. Again, lies were told against him, and his own words were twisted out of their proper meaning.

Stephen was accused of wanting to bring an end to all the ancient customs of the Jews. He denied this. In fact, in his defence he made it obvious that the leaders of the Jews were the ones who ought to have been on trial.

Right there and then before the Council, Stephen recounted the entire history of the Jews. He said that in the past, whenever messengers had been sent by God to bring the people back from sin, those messengers had been ill-treated and sometimes they had been killed.

Worst of all, now they had killed Jesus Christ, the one all the messengers had foretold was to come and save his people.

The Jewish rulers were infuriated to hear Stephen speak like this. And when he said that he could see Jesus with God in heaven, they lost all reason and became mad with anger. They rushed at Stephen, thrust him outside the city gates, and stoned him to death.

Now Stephen showed what a great and good man he was. He had complete faith in Jesus. As the stones came crashing down on him he shouted out, ’Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’. He knew Jesus would welcome him into the Kingdom.

And as he died, Stephen did not think just of himself. He fell on his knees and prayed for those who were killing him. ‘Lord, do not blame them for doing this’, he prayed. Then he died.

It’s a strange fact that the man who looked after the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death was a man called Saul. He thought killing Stephen was the right thing to do. But a few years later he changed his mind – or, God changed it for him. He became a Christian – one of the most famous in all history. But by then he had changed his name. He became Paul, the Apostle.

The courage and love of Stephen must have worked on Saul who became Paul.

Stephen is our patron. His courage and love can work on us too. He showed what real serving is all about. It is about working for other people, living for them. Even dying for them, in Stephen’s case.

As altar servers, we serve the whole Church. Together with everybody else we use the gifts God has given us to spread the Good News. And to pray to God as one family. That is what serving is about.

A big job, but we have Stephen as our patron and our guide. We therefore pray to him to help us be good servers.

Help us, we pray you Lord,

to imitate St Stephen, your deacon,

whom we venerate as the patron of our Guild.

May we serve the Church with the same dedication

and learn to love our enemies

just as he prayed for those who persecuted him.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

St Stephen is the principle patron of the Guild. There are others, secondary patrons. They are St Thomas More, Pope St Pius X and Our Lady.

Saint Thomas More

Thomas More was born in London in 1478. His father was a judge and Thomas followed in his footsteps. He married, had children, and was good at his profession in the Law that he was appointed Lord Chancellor by King Henry VIII.

However, Thomas More fell out with the king and resigned. The trouble started when Henry wanted to divorce his wife. The pope refused to allow it and Thomas was loyal to the pope. Eventually he was arrested by the king, tried and beheaded at the Tower of London in 1535.

Thomas had been a very important person in the kingdom. He was always a very religious person. He served Mass every day, usually at Chelsea Old Church, on the banks of the River Thames. You can still see the church there today. Because Thomas More was such a loyal and regular Mass server, he is one of our patrons.

Pope Saint Pius X

This saintly pope also a secondary patron of the Guild of St Stephen. He gave the Guild the Church’s highest approval in 1906, so we have much to be grateful to him for.

However, that is not the main reason why he is a patron. Pius X did a great deal for the liturgy. He encouraged greater participation in the celebration of the liturgy, especially by singing. And, most of all, he made Catholics realise how the important the Mass is, and how important it is to receive Holy Communion regularly at Mass. When he became pope, regular communion was not common, and children did not make their first communion until they were quite old. Pius X lowered the age at which children could make their first communion.

During the Guild’s Golden Jubilee visit to Rome in 1955, Pope Pius XII recommended that Saint Pius X should be a patron of the Guild. For Pope St Pius X the Mass – and full participation in it – was the centre of everything. That is why he is one of our patrons.

Our Lady

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is also known as the Mother of the Church. Therefore she must also be the mother of all altar servers.

All her life Mary served others. That was why she was chosen to be the Mother of God. We should pray to her to help us be better servers.

When Mary knew she was to become the mother of Jesus, she said

My soul glorifies the Lord

my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

He looks on his servant in her lowliness.

Taken from St Stephens Handbook for Altar Servers, Copyright Archconfraternity of St Stephen.