Accidentals are important. Even furniture in the church building has a part to play in our faith. God is present in many ways. A reminder of those presences can be understood by reflection on the furniture in our churches. The altar is the focal point of attention in any Catholic church. It is seen as both a table and as a place of sacrifice. We are fed from the altar with the body and blood of Christ, our spiritual food. The altar is our focal point for the re-presentation of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. The altar is kissed reverently by the priest before and after the liturgy. The altar may be incensed as a mark of honor as the place from which our prayer with Christ rises with pleasing fragrance to the Father. The altar is not only the place of the real presence but also of the real activity of Christ, taking us to the Father. The altar suggests a special dimension of the divine presence. As it says in one of the Canons, we are privileged to stand in God’s presence around the altar. This refers not just to the priests, but to all of us. We gather together, the mystical body of Christ. This gathering includes the angels— holy, holy, holy— and the saints, those named in the Canon, and the relics of saints in the altar stone. They remind us that all of us are the family of God with Christ as our head. As the bread and wine are changed into Christ’s living body and blood, so the worshippers, who gather, as individuals or as the Church, are to be transformed into the “People of God.” Each of us becomes individually a child of God. Every time we gather at the altar there should be some change or transformation, appropriating the dispositions of Christ. The tabernacle is now usually separated from the altar to its own place. It is here that the Eucharistic Christ is reserved for visits, benediction and communion for the sick. This is the original and primary purpose for the tabernacle— that is to reserve the Blessed Sacrament.
Filed under: Awalt Papers |
Blogger Priest 
Love seeing beautiful old churches with old wooden altars. They sure did make them sturdy and unique back in the day. And, now they are antiques that people would DIE for.
Dear Fr Joe,
Many thanks for that; it did bring a smile to my face which is worth a ton of litanies just at the moment. I was suitable impressed by the lyrics and the Paschal Kangaroo.
With Love,
Paul
Dear Fr Joe,
I have worked in many countries around this world and entered very many churches. In ‘the old days’ it was easy to be reassured that any particular church was True to Jesus’ instigation because there, right in front of me and at the highest place of magnificence was The Altar, the High Altar. Right in the centre of that altar, most prominent and deserving of the utmost respect was The Tabernacle, and above that was the highest place reserved either for the representation of Christ Crucified, a necessity for the Sacrifice of the Mass, or the place for the risen and magnificient Real Christ in the monstrance at Benediction. On either side were always 3 candle sticks making the new complete number a 6 from the earlier Jewish 7. To the right of the High Altar was always burning, apart from the 3 days of the end of Holy Week, the lamp of the Holy Presence, a real flame and not some electric neon discharge tube. The Priest and the public all faced the Altar and their Creator and directed their prayers and worship to God alone. There was no unnecessary distraction, and certainly no improper dress or persons in the Sanctuary. All was just as it was supposed to be.
What do we have today? A sort of decorator’s pasting table set amongst the public, a willy-nilly miss-match of ever more secular but determined laity, some competing on dressing up and loudness, some competing on dressing down and mumbling, and a sort of anything goes when it comes to ceremony and music.The presenting of the sacramentals of bread and wine, accompanied by pots of money and all sorts of creations of paper work, drawings and macrame, and reluctant juniors wanting nothing other than to have a pee-pee as they are dragged, voicably and reluctantly by their over enthuiastic single mothers, and a Celebrant having to face all this and its enormous distraction right at the zenith of the preparation of the single most demonstration of God’s Love for all of His creation.
The creeping change has deceived many by its insidious and patient nature, much of which is genuinely inspired but nevertheless a terrible movement away from the magnificent and mysteries of the paraphernalia of tradition and correctness into a sort of committee meeting half heartedly chaired by a kindly but irrelevant old man soon to be replaced by earnest women with hidden agendas and oft’ married laity of indeterminate sexual orientation.
The modern Catholic Church………………where is thy Altar, where is thy identity, and where is thy difference from the heretical schism that abounds all around? “Reserved” in a tabernacle of separation, displaced to the sidelines, soon to be shunted out to the sacristy and kicked into touch for good……….who needs all that ceremony and patristic dominance? Lets just have a good old sing-song and become much more ‘all inclusive’ and welcome everyone and his brother to the meal of the lamb, after all it’s only a ‘representation’ and nothing really special after all!…….the Fabians have got their way………..anything goes.
With a love that has been stretched very thin at present.
Paul Brann