Sharing their gifts for Christ and the parish

An alternative niche has been molded for girls at a Mandan parish.

Daughters of Virtue launched in August of 2021 at the Church of St. Joseph to train girls and young women to become sacristans. The ministry is geared towards young ladies from grades three through 12 and any moms/women who would like to help facilitate it, said Shawna Helbling, secretary, and director of youth ministry at the parish.

“Fr. Josh Waltz, our pastor, had been thinking about having only our young men as altar servers for a long time,” she said. Father Waltz, a former vocational director for the diocese, found many young men who decided to discern a vocation to the priesthood would say that their time as an altar server was instrumental fostering their discernment.

As the parishes opened back up after pandemic closures, Fr. Waltz found it an ideal time to make the switch, Helbling explained.

“As the world continues to blur what it means to be masculine and feminine, we as Catholics believe there is inherent dignity to all human persons, but there are real differences between the sexes and these differences are what make each unique and special," she said. “Scripture tells us that men are called to serve the Church and women are called to care for the living Christ and minister to His needs. We want to empower our young men and young women to be able to discern what God wants of them in their lives and do it in a positive way."

Helbling thought it was important to find a different role for the girls willing to take part in parish ministry. Her daughter had been one of the first female altar servers at the parish. So, Helbling approached Waltz with another way the young girls could serve.

"He understood that this would leave a void for our young ladies who had been active in altar serving. After some prayer and discernment, the decision was made to start teaching the girls about how to be a sacristan and serving in many other roles in the Church."

Organizers created a sacristan manual, started meeting and teaching the girls about the different vessels, setting up for Masses, and giving them time to pray and feel the true
presence of Christ when they are serving as the sacristan.

"They are getting very similar training to what our altar servers are getting," she said.
About a dozen girls attend the training program on a regular basis, she said. "We grow in every meeting and hope to continue to grow in the future.”

Helbling said the Daughters of Virtue started small, but organizers eventually want 
high school girls to mentor elementary school girls and the ministry's middle school girls to be trained by adults.

"We want to give young women a sense of purpose in the Church as well, not just as sacristans. They can use their gifts and talents to participate in other ministries such as lectors, music ministry, ushering, caring for the altar linens, caring for the altar and many other facets of what it looks like to serve the Lord and His Church other than just attending Mass."

She’s found the group’s early enthusiasm strong.

“The excitement of the girls was something I thought I would have to kind of coax out of them, but boy I was wrong. I started working with the young ladies who are in our school, partially because we can work out kinks and see how many young ladies that we need to fulfill the tasks at hand with them setting up their school Masses.”

Now, the girls assist with the weekend Masses as well.

"One of the things we have implemented is that the girls have a ‘uniform’ of sorts. The young ladies are encouraged to wear a white chapel veil and their ‘Sunday best’ or school uniform when they are serving as sacristans. This is no different than the young men who are asked to wear a cassock and surplice as they serve at the altar,” she said.

The veil is meant to be an external sign of a woman’s interior desire to humble herself before God, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

“If they choose to wear it other times, they are more than welcome to, but we want them to present themselves in such a way that they are serving Christ and are in the presence of Him while they are serving,” she said.

The veils are provided by the parish and the young ladies are given a special bag and hair clip to use with the veil.
 
The program is targeted toward young ladies in the Church who want to be more involved in their faith,” said Helbling. Participants must have received their First Communion. “Other than that, it is pretty open.”

Helbling expects as membership and experience grows, the group will find more opportunities and activities to share their gifts for Christ and the parish.

“As we have become more aware of the needs of the parish, we are not only training our young ladies to be sacristans, but we have made prayer blankets for our prayer blanket ministry, sent birthday and holiday cards (handmade and signed) to our elderly, homebound and nursing home parishioners, and wrapped and gathered gifts for our wish tree during Advent. We hope, in the future, to continue to fulfill more needs around the parish.”

The group meets once a month in the evening unless scheduled otherwise. Adult mentors are also needed and welcome to attend. For more information about the Daughters of Virtue, contact Shawna Helbling at 701-663-9562.