That selflessness, that willingness to sacrifice for others, is part of the whole meaning of Easter. Written By: Terry Woster | ×
Each year when Easter grows near, I think back to when I learned just enough Latin to be an altar boy at Mass.
I’m not saying I understood the Latin language. I really didn’t, not at all. I just learned the prayers and responses that were used in church during the Mass. Father McPhillips (Rev. Thomas James McPhillips, although it never occurred to me back then that priests had first names) taught me. He taught each new class of Mass servers, and he toiled like a steel worker to drill the proper pronunciations of the Latin words into our young brains. As 10- or 12-year-old servers, we hadn’t a clue what we were saying, but by golly we’d say it correctly if Father Mac had anything to do with it. I assure you, he had everything to do with it.