Alan Hanich clearly remembers the day he became an altar boy. In fact, right away he had a suggestion for Father Stan Swiderski, then-pastor at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home.
“I asked Father Stan why the candles on the back altar weren’t being lit and the only thing he said was, ‘Go for it,’” Hanich said. “The reason the candles weren’t getting lit was that they (the other altar servers) can’t reach the altar of repose. I’m tall enough I can do it.”
Standing 6 feet tall, Hanich lights the candles with ease every other Saturday. He doesn’t wear a cassock and he’s not exactly a fresh-faced kid. Instead, at 75 years old, he wears a suit and tie and stands at the altar with his hands pressed together in reverence. And he’s very well aware that becoming an altar server in his mid-60s is a rare and unique gift.
“I love being an altar server because I get more out of the Mass as a participant than from observing,” Hanich said. “It’s a deeper relationship with Jesus by serving at the Mass. It’s very moving for me. I don’t know how to explain it. Something comes over me that’s just more profound, being right there at the altar.”
Hanich and Larry Voss, 77, alternate altar serving at the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass at St. Peter. In addition to Hanich and Voss, five other adults serve daily Masses, funerals and weddings.
“They are very dependable and they are always there. It’s heartwarming for the young people to see older people serving at the altar; hopefully it will encourage some of the younger guys too,” pastor Father Norbert Rappold said of Hanich and Voss. “I know they’re very devoted … It’s heartwarming to see them willing to serve so many years.”
As a child, Hanich first served at the altar as an acolyte in a Lutheran church in Deerfield, Ill.
After moving to Arkansas, Hanich, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife of 40 years, Anita, joined St. Peter in 1995. He completed the RCIA program in 1999.
“Right away they got me into the Knights of Columbus and driving the church bus,” Hanich said.
It wasn’t until about nine years ago that Voss approached him about trading off altar serving on Saturdays.
“Somewhere down the line, he couldn’t get the young people to take the responsibility for the Saturday Mass,” Hanich said, citing extra-curricular activities. “He had to do it all himself. I agreed to do it at that time.”
Hanich said he rotates his altar serving schedule around his time driving the church bus and working as a funeral director at Roller Funeral Home.
And when he can’t serve, that’s when Voss steps in.
When he was 8 years old in the 1940s, Voss began altar serving at St. Patrick Church in San Diego.
“Things were a lot tighter then. In those days, you went back in the sacristy,” to find out when you were scheduled to altar serve, which included daily Masses, funerals and weddings, Voss said. “No ifs, ands or buts, you had to show up.”
Not only did the altar boys had to learn all the motions, they had to brush up on their Latin.
“We had to learn all the Latin responses. It was kind of tedious for a kid only 9 or 10 years old,” Voss said. “I had a nun tell me once, ‘If you can’t learn it, mumble.’”
At 17, Voss joined the U.S. Marines and served for 15 years in force recon, “jumping out of airplanes,” in Vietnam, he said.
Little did he know years later, his military training would come in handy when corralling altar servers.
For 22 years, he worked as a letter carrier before moving to Mountain Home with his wife in 1995.
“I went to 7:15 Mass in the morning and they needed adult servers,” Voss said. “They asked me if I would serve, and I thought I’m there anyway, might as well.”
In the early 2000s, when Father Mark Wood, now pastor of St. Theresa Church in Little Rock, became pastor at St. Peter, he reached out to Voss.
“At the time, the altar servers weren’t trained very well. He called me into the church office and he said, ‘You were a Marine, right?’ I said yes. He said ‘You know how to train people, right?’ … He said, ‘I want you to train the altar servers.’”
For about nine years, Voss whipped the altar servers into shape and if he was short a server, he’d find one in the congregation.
“If I needed somebody and I knew you were there, it was ‘go suit up’ you were working,” Voss said. “It was fun, I loved working with kids.”
When one of the adult Saturday altar servers had to bow out, Voss was asked to step in until they could find a replacement.
“I’ve been doing it ever since,” Voss said.
Though Voss and Hanich both said they enjoy serving, they agreed they would step aside if any children or young adults in the parish wanted to serve. According to the church office, there are 32 youth signed up as altar servers.
“I’d love to see kids doing it because being raised in the Catholic Church, you’re used to seeing young Mass servers,” Voss said. “That’s part of the learning process.”
Father Rappold said he’d welcome the youth to be a part of the Saturday Mass.
“I’m all for it,” Father Rappold said. “If there’s a family coming on Saturday and the child wants to … they just simply need to let me know they would like to serve.”
Until then, Voss and Hanich will be front and center on their designated Saturdays — cross in hand, walking up with the priest.
“I’ll do it until we can get some young people to step up and take the Saturdays,” Hanich said. “Hopefully my knees will allow me to continue. The older you get, the harder it is to genuflect.”
