No Hands or Feet but Yours

The Diocese recently offered a series of workshops for people who are new to the ministry of cantoring, which we hosted here at St. Ambrose.  In the Catholic Church, a cantor is the person who sings at Mass.  Often, the cantor also serves as the Psalmist (the person who sings or proclaims the responsorial psalm).  I attended these workshops as a representative of the parish, and I found the sessions very interesting even though I have been serving as a cantor for St. Ambrose for over ten years now.

The sessions culminated with most of the participants getting up to present a psalm to the group.  Nerves ran high, as was to be expected.  It brought to mind how I felt when I first started.  Experience is a wonderful thing, in that I have been singing in front of people for most of my life, and I have had this opportunity quite often.  I simply don’t get nervous very often anymore.  That isn’t necessarily a good thing.  A certain amount of nervousness keeps you on your toes and helps you not to become complacent.

Ministering in the Church, whether as a cantor, a lector, an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, or even as a greeter requires that a person makes themselves vulnerable.  It means that they are opening themselves up to potential criticism, potential failure, and they are willing to take that risk.  It is worth it, to serve in the Church.  This was the attitude that I saw in each one of the participants at the cantor workshops.

People in any new job or volunteer position may encounter times of feeling like they don’t really know what they are doing or doubting that they are really the best person for the job.  This phenomenon is known as Imposter Syndrome.  I have faced it multiple times in my life, especially as a new teacher and when I first started as a cantor.  To be honest, there are still times when I feel like this in my current job.

What helps people to get over Imposter Syndrome is to realize that most people don’t know what was supposed to happen, so if a mistake is made it isn’t as disastrous as it may seem to be.  People don’t know that you hit a wrong note or that you left out a part of the lesson plan.  People don’t know what you rehearsed.  Whatever happens, happens.  It isn’t the end of the world.  In Church ministry, it is important to take things seriously and to act with reverence, but it is important not to take things TOO seriously.  Very few people will remember if you stumble over a sentence in a reading.  Hardly anyone will realize that the psalm wasn’t supposed to go “like that”.  Confidence is key.

If you have been considering ministering at Mass, but haven’t stepped forward due to embarrassment, nervousness, or a feeling that there must be someone in the parish better than you who could do the job, please know that you are not alone.  Anyone who ministers feels these things in the beginning.  Remember what St. Teresa of Avila said:

“Christ has no body on earth now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world; yours are the feet with which he walks to do good; yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.”

Who will fill these crucial needs in the Church today if not you?