Sacristies have a habit of turning into places of great hubbub, rather than places of quietude and recollection: clergy and servers vesting, sacristans coming and going, incense lighting… (or perhaps even last minute “touch base” visits from the choir director…)

The pastor where I serve as music minister has spent the last few years cultivating a culture of silentium (silence) and prayer in the vesting sacristy, relegating the most disruptive preparatory tasks to a sister sacristy on the opposite side of the sanctuary. Commensurate with fostering this sense of peace and quiet, he has also reinstituted traditional vesting and server prayers which were once commonplace before & after Mass.

At the outset of this project, I was asked to design cards with these prayers that could be hung in the vesting sacristy. While this project initially took place about two years ago, I was recently asked by our former Parochial Vicar (associate priest) to slightly redesign them for his new parish. It is a great delight to me that these prayers are being said, and with that in mind, I share these cards with you today, in the hopes that they will find their way into yet more sacristies. Today’s post contains only the pre- and post-Mass prayers for the servers. English & Latin vesting prayers for the priest will follow in due course.

Please share these with any priest you know!

US-Letter Sized, shown 2-up for preview purposes only.
(Click on each image to download a PDF version of the file.)