Unexpected Responsibility

I realized I was in for more than I had originally anticipated when I saw my name on the bulletin for the Ash Wednesday service at our church. My pastor had mentioned that I would be involved with the service, but I didn't realize it would be printed.

For the service, I read the three different lessons and also gave the post offering prayer. I didn't actually find out what I was doing until about 30 minutes before the service. When you couple that with the fact that the choir was singing an anthem that I has yet to practice, it made for a frantic 30 minutes before the service.

Things went well...although, by habit I did call ask people to rise for "this morning's" Gospel lesson when it was 6:00 PM. Oops. I also got to wear an alb. It was my first time doing a service in a more official garment.