Young women serve as Handmaids of the Eucharist at St. Paul

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary’s “yes” to God’s will for her life, recorded in Luke 1:38, takes on a special meaning for a group of young women serving as sacristans at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church.

The girls, known as the “Handmaids of the Eucharist,” seek to emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary while working with the head sacristans at the parish to prepare the sacred vessels and the hosts and wine that will become the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass.

The program is open to girls in grades eight to 12 at the parish. Nine girls currently are participating.

Two or three girls serve as sacristans at St. Paul’s 10 a.m. Mass on Sundays. They all serve together one Sunday a month. Handmaids of the Eucharist who are students at St. Paul School serve as sacristans for the all-school Mass on Fridays.

The group is led by five members of the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus, the religious order that came to the diocese in 2022 and serves at St. Paul parish.

“The Handmaids of the Eucharist began in September 2023 with the desire to help girls draw closer to Jesus present in the Eucharist – taking Mary as their model – by serving as sacristans,” said Mother Macarena de Maria, who helps lead the program.

“It was the Blessed Virgin Mary who referred to herself as the ‘handmaid of the Lord,’ expressing her humility, love for God and desire to place herself at His service.”

The Handmaids of the Eucharist ask Mary to help them serve Christ, who is present in the Eucharist, as the Blessed Virgin did in Nazareth, Mother Macarena de Maria said. The girls have an opportunity, as Our Lady did, to care for Jesus in the Eucharist by setting up the Mass.

“At St. Paul the Apostle parish, boys have the wonderful opportunity to become ‘Knights of the Holy Temple,’ and there was a desire for girls to have a parallel program to help them in their faith through serving our Eucharistic Lord and building one another up in sisterhood,” Mother Macarena de Maria said.

Sophia Lee, a sophomore at Westerville North High School and parishioner at St. Paul, said her brothers serve as altar servers in the Knights of the Holy Temple program, and she was interested in a similar opportunity for girls. The Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus invited her to be a Handmaid of the Eucharist.

“It’s like a new door into the Church,” Lee said of the program. “I get to serve the priests, and I get to be up on the altar (to prepare the Mass) with the sisters, which is amazing.”

Mother Macarena de Maria said it is a privilege and grace for the girls to work so closely to God, Who is fully present in the Eucharist. She prays that, as a result, they grow in love for Christ and offer their own “fiat.” 

“It is our prayer that their constant contact with this astonishing reality will impel them to return such love with their own love, a love like that of Mary, a love that asks, ‘What do you want of me, Lord? Here is my heart; here is my life. Behold your handmaid! “Fiat mihi,” (meaning) “let it be done in me” according to Your Word,’” she said.

They learn to prepare for Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and set up for the Mass.

“We fill the bowls (patens) with the hosts in a very special way,” Lee said. “Whenever Jesus is there, He sees it, and it’s a sign of respect. We give a kiss on the host that the priest holds up in the consecration because that’s the first thing that the Lord receives when He comes down.”

The Handmaids of the Eucharist begin each Sunday by praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. Then they clean the sanctuary area, using a dust mop to collect any dust near the altar.

The girls prepare the purificators, which are linen cloths used to wipe the chalice and to purify the sacred vessels. The purificator is spread over the chalice at the beginning and conclusion of Mass.

They also arrange the lavabo and finger towel, which the priest uses to wash and dry his hands after the offertory and before the consecration.

“I know that the Lord is watching, and He’s proud,” said Evelyn Renzetti, a Handmaid of the Eucharist and eighth-grade student at St. Paul. “He’s happy that we help set up Mass.”

The girls learn about sacred vessels used during the Mass and liturgy, including the names and proper use of the vessels and the “reverence, respect and awe” with which they are to be handled, said Sister Maria Ecclesiae, who helps lead the program.

“We also keep in mind St. Therese (of Lisieux)’s advice that a sacristan ought to try to be as holy as the sacred vessels she touches out of love for the Lord,” she said.

The Handmaids of the Eucharist familiarize themselves with liturgical books used during the Mass, such as the Roman Missal and lectionary, as well as liturgical vocabulary.

While serving, the girls wear a standard uniform, consisting of a white dress, navy blue cardigan and dark shoes.

They meet at St. Paul one evening a month outside of Sundays. The additional gatherings are a time for sisterhood. Each gathering begins with prayer before Christ in the tabernacle.

The evening includes a shared meal, catechesis, sacristan training and prayer. Sister Maria Ecclesiae said the girls learn about Marian and human virtues, Eucharistic devotion and the Holy Mass and liturgy.

“We end our gathering by kneeling at the foot of the tabernacle once more in prayer and conclude by praying the Angelus together – the prayer that recounts the Annunciation and Incarnation and reminds us of Mary’s ‘fiat’ – her ‘yes’ – to God, which made her the first Handmaid of the Eucharist,” Sister Maria Ecclesiae said.

The girls also learn “practical skills” during their gathering, she said, such as cleaning, embroidery, etiquette, music and creating floral arrangements.

She said Handmaids of the Eucharist ponder how Mary would have cared for Jesus in Nazareth through similar tasks: washing and caring for His clothes, cleaning the Holy Family’s house and preparing what her Son would need with great love.

“We see in her a model of femininity and gift of self,” Sister Maria Ecclesiae said.

Likewise, Handmaids of the Eucharist strive to prepare the altar linens, clean the sanctuary and set up for the Holy Mass as the Blessed Mother would if she were a sacristan.

“It’s made me closer with God since I am more personally helping out by setting up the Eucharist (hosts), which then will become the Body of God,” said Joslynn Vaske, a Handmaid of the Eucharist and eighth-grade student at St. Paul.

Serving as a Handmaid of the Eucharist prepares each girl for her vocation, too. Serving in the sacristy and working close to Christ in the Eucharist is an opportunity to ponder God’s call.

“We hope that as they learn to hear the Lord’s voice from the tabernacle they will discover His plan for their lives,” Mother Macarena de Maria said. 

“Everything that they are learning as Handmaids of the Eucharist is aimed at helping them to be women of God in whatever vocation God has for them, whether that be as a wife and mother or as a bride of Christ, consecrated to Him as a religious sister.”

Several Handmaids of the Eucharist attributed an increased prayer life and closer relationship with Christ to their involvement in the program.

“God was in the background; and doing more personal things for Him, it made it seem more like a relationship instead of like, ‘Oh, yeah, … I’m Catholic, whatever. I don’t really have a personal connection with Him,’ but it made it more real,” Isabella Cornell, an eighth-grade student at St. Paul, said of the Handmaids of the Eucharist program.

“We’re doing things because we love God, not because we have to – out of our love for God. We want to serve Him. We want to make Him happy, and we want to do good and small things for Him.”

Being a part of the Handmaids of the Eucharist also led Cornell to consider her vocation. As a result of the program, she began to envision a new call for her life.

“I always planned on being like, ‘Once I get through high school then I can do whatever I want,’ like, I felt like I was being forced into the faith before, but now, I want to have a religious marriage, and I want to bring my children into St. Paul and bring religion into my future life,” Cornell said.

Lily Brokamp, an eighth-grade student at St. Paul who serves as a Handmaid of the Eucharist, said regular prayer in front of the tabernacle impacted her relationship with Christ.

“I just felt like I can be closer to God … in prayer because we do prayer every meeting and before Mass, and I feel like I’m closer to God when I’m in the sacristy, putting the hosts out,” she said.

Renzetti, who came to St. Paul last school year, said attending a Catholic school and serving as a sacristan impacted her prayer life, too.

“I’ve been praying a lot more, and I know lots more prayers,” she said, such as the Memorare and prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. “I usually only knew ‘Our Father’ and the ‘Hail Mary,’ and then, when I came to St. Paul and did the Handmaids of the Eucharist, I realized I learned a lot more prayers and a lot more ways to pray and help God and serve Him.”

Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus, which was approved as a religious institute of pontifical right by Pope St. John Paul II in 1998, offer their lives in love, adoration and reparation to the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, Mother Macarena de Maria said.

The order’s charism is a total consecration to God in union with Mary. Their mission, she said, is to make His “Sacred Heart loved everywhere.”