“Riley, you have chosen the cross”: Local Parishioner Becomes Order’s First American-Born Vocation
- Jenny Uebbing
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Amid an army of altar servers, Br. Riley Blanchard professed final vows in the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary's in Littleton typically draws a robust crowd. But pews were filling up even earlier than usual on the morning of Sunday, March 23rd. Nowhere was busier, though, than the altar server's vesting room, which was standing room only — the overflow having spilled downstairs into the basement where dozens of boys spanning ages 8 to 20-something were hurrying to vest.
The popular, family-friendly Mass rarely has trouble fronting a full roster of 8 altar servers, but there were a few more on hand for Br. Riley Blanchard's profession of perpetual vows as a Disciple of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary (DCJM): 54, to be exact.
An Army of Altar Servers
Br. Blanchard, who has led the server program at St. Mary's for the past year, extended an invitation to the entire roster of active altar servers in the parish, explaining that the formation and brotherhood he had experienced as an altar server had played a pivotal role in his own discernment.
“These young men have an important role in the parish; the fact that they're close to the altar — that's meaningful. It is their presence in his Presence: the server is on the altar and serving the Lord in a radical way; they are physically close to the Lord, physically close to the priests, and so we try to foster that awareness in the boys,” he explained.
Br. Blanchard first began serving the Mass at St. Mary in 2007, when the Disciples first arrived at the parish.
“The altar servers have always been my group at the parish, the group who has formed me… I've now been an altar server for more than half of my life,” he said.
In fact, many of the 54 servers present that day were trained and mentored by Br. Blanchard, making their participation in his big day all the more meaningful.
“Our role is to supervise, but our server program is really run by the servers; the boys take the active role. The older boys teach the younger boys, and the younger boys teach the youngest boys,” he said, explaining the St. Mary process for forming their servers. “Leaders have to pass a written exam. [The desire to serve] … It's something that is already there, that we're watering, giving sunshine, letting it grow. A lot of it is organic. Masses are organized by families — the leaders are really deputized to run their show; the responsibility to lead their team, coach the younger ones, make necessary corrections with charity, and without causing embarrassment.”
While planning for the event, the enthusiastic RSVP from the server corps meant that loaner vestments needed to be sourced. A neighboring parish lent more than 20 surplices, albs and cassocks, with a response of generous surprise, impressed by the sheer volume requested and by the number of willing young men at St. Mary.
“What's the secret over there?” asked the deacon helping to load up the borrowed vestments in a van headed to St. Mary's. “How are there so many boys willing to serve?”
The secret is the boys themselves, who keep showing up weekend after weekend, and the brotherhood that the serving program has helped to foster, where younger boys are eager to follow in their older brothers' and friends’ footsteps, ready to suit up in the smallest-sized black cassocks once they've made their First Holy Communion.
In gratitude for the generous loan of vestments, each boy who donned one of the loaners promised to pray specifically for the next young man who would wear their cassock, asking that the Lord would inspire boys to come forward to serve the Mass in their own parish.
(Photo by Jason Smith/The Things That I See Photography)
A Home-Grown Vocation
The seed of Br. Blanchard's vocation, planted in his faithful Catholic family, was tilled and watered through his experience serving the Mass with his brother and his friends, along with Tuesday night soccer matches with the DCJM priests, spiritual direction with Father Luis Granados and, eventually, leading the altar server program himself.
Reflecting on his discernment of his vocation to the priesthood, Br. Blanchard said his many years spent at the altar served as a natural environment for discernment, providing daily and weekly opportunities to hear God's still, small voice.
“For vocation, you need to leave your comfort zone. We're always trying to seek comfort, see to our needs and anxieties, build up our comfort zones,” he explained.
“God needs somebody to do this, and I need to consider if it could be me. And that's huge, that's essential, that they grapple with that question. It's a question every man must answer for himself.”
As he endeavored to answer that very question, Br. Blanchard petitioned Father Jose Granados, the superior general, for formal admission into the Madrid-based Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary — the order’s very first American-born vocation, a first fruit of the Disciples’ mission work in the United States.
“He was sitting at his desk and, when I made my request, he sat back in his chair, studying me in silence,” he recalled. “It got more uncomfortable as a minute passed, and then another. Finally, he slowly nodded, and he said to me: ‘Riley, you have chosen the Cross.’”
“The Cross is not as a sentimental thing. The Cross is essential because everything passes through it. Christ uses the tool of the Cross, and so can I,” Br. Blanchard added.
“Our measure is too small — Christ's measure is bigger, which is why we need to expand ourselves,” he continued. “Christ wanted to be with man, but man's heart was too small, so man's heart needed to be stretched by the cross. A vocation is us saying yes to the cross, yes to God, so we can show others that God is still working miracles here and now. He is still able to touch people's lives, and a religious vocation is proof of that.”
