Ushering

To become involved with ushering please contact:
The Parish Office (parish@ctkla.org or 323.465.7605)

One of the oldest liturgical lay ministries in the Catholic Church is Ushering.  The Usher’s Service is dedicated to the congregation, the Mystical Body of Christ.  The Usher if focused on the comfort and well-being of the people.  He/She helps with the seating, gathering and presenting the offering of the people at the altar, and assisting with Holy Communion, among other services.

History and Spirituality of Ushers

The ushers of today have descended from a long line of people of God who have gone before them. Their ministry is deeply rooted in Scripture and tradition. The author of the Book of Chronicles, a book coming to us from the third century before Christ, pays particular attention to the part played by the “religious orders” of his time, not only the priests and Levites but the lessor orders of cantor anddoorkeeper. These last, who may have numbered in the hundreds, loomed large in Jerusalem’s population at the time and are the progenitors of our ushers today. They comprised the guild of gatekeepers, who had as their assigned task “the guarding of the threshold of the tent, just as their fathers had guarded the entrance of the encampment of the Lord.” (Chr. 9:19)

Among the servants of God who comprise the membership of the Body of Christ,ushers are called to provide a very special service in their exercise of a true liturgical ministry. They are ministers of the Church and servants of the faith-community in the highest moment of its self-realization when it gathers to celebrate the Eucharist. Every Mass is an action of Christ and the people of God hierarchically assembled. This means that all participants, and particularly those exercising special ministries, must be keenly aware of the ecclesial nature of the celebration.

A prerequisite for those aspiring to quality service in the role of ushers is a commitment to Christ living in his Church, together with a deep sense of being instruments of the community appointed to assist it’s growth in the Spirit of Jesus. The Church is people gathered in Christ; every usher, therefore, ought to be a “people person.”

Our Sunday assemblies should have about them the warm conviviality of a family reunion. A simple gladness in being together should mark each congregation as a community gathered in joyous love to rediscover the bonds of hope and faith that bind the members into a holy fellowship. Each arrival needs to experience the feeling of belonging, a sense that “it’s good to be here.” The warm friendliness and open hospitality of ushers provide an essential ingredient that prepares the congregation for the recreative work of the Holy Spirit, who labors mightily in the celebration to make all who share in it “one body, one spirit in Christ.”