Spiritual Churh Tour

01-08

I was inspired by two separate events. The first was our parish servers’ picnic. Each year we host an event to thank all the boys and girls who minister at our parish as altar servers. Before we get to the fun part of the day though we begin with a little refresher on some of the finer points of serving and in order to facilitate this part of the day I created a server’s manual and in order to create our server’s manual I created some pictures using PowerPoint and clip art.

The second event that inspired me was my trip to the Grand Canyon with my mother and sister. Instead of going directly to the Grand Canyon we went to Williams, Arizona and got on the Grand Canyon Railroad. I have always loved trains and this was the perfect opportunity to catch up with my mom and sister as we rode to the train to the Grand Canyon. Each car of the train had an attendant who also acted as a tour guide. I was really impressed with the knowledge that the attendant had about the region. She was able to point out some very interesting things about the vegetation and the local history that I would have missed.

And as I began to think about what it was that I wanted to write about this month, the idea came to me to combine both experiences in an effort to give everyone a better understanding of our faith especially the Mass. So attached is my first map which is a view of the top of the altar at Mass.

I will talk more about the altar so right now I want to begin our tour today by focusing on the large white clothe at the back (our side closes to the priest) and centered with a large red cross on it. This white cloth is called the corporal and acts sort of like a place mat at Mass. The word corporal comes from the Latin word “corpus” which means body. The corporal has two primary purposes. The first is that it is used to define the space. What do I mean by that? By laying out the cloth the altar now has a special place on it for the Mass. The second purpose is to catch any crumbs from the bread or the Blessed Sacrament. As Catholics we believe that even the smallest crumb contains the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and that the Eucharist is a priceless treasure/gift from God and therefore demands respect and reverence. When handling the corporal servers (and others) should be respectful and deliberate and not carelessly lift it up or swing it around for fear of losing any of the Blessed Sacrament. In fact the smaller thin black lines represent folds (creases) which allow the corporal to be folded in a way that traps any particles into the center of the corporal. Many parishes use a second corporal on the altar (pictured here in the top right hand corner) to place the extra chalices (communion cups) on it.

In the center of the corporal is the paten and chalice. The paten is the small plate or bowl in which the hosts (the bread which becomes the Body of Christ) is held in during the liturgy. If the plate or bowl has a lid for it then it is called a ciborium. Why I do not know? It is also important to note that some ciborium’s look like chalices except that they have lids that can be place on top and are used for the Consecrated hosts and not the Precious Blood. The chalice is a special cup made of metal used to consecrate the wine into the Precious Blood. While Jesus probably did not have a gold cup at the Last Supper (which is something I actually learned by watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) we use gold and silver to remind us of what is truly inside the paten and chalice. We human beings are visual and so the use of these special vessels helps remind us consciously and subconsciously is precious. Because of the size of the crowds at Mass we normally have more than one chalice on the altar. These extra chalices are often referred to as communion cups and are not as ornate as the main chalice the priest’s uses. The reason for this is because the Church wants us to focus on the fact that there is one Lord and one cup of blessing but because of so many people the Church wishing to be practical uses communion cups. There is no qualitative difference between the Precious Blood in the priest’s chalice and the communion cups.

I do not want to fail to point out a little bit about the symbolism of the bread and wine used at Mass. Think about how all the individual grains of wheat must die to themselves and become one bread (the use of one large host and many small hosts is a practical choice by the Church for the Church hopes that we see all the bread as one loaf) and think about the grapes are crushed in order to become wine. These are excellent symbols for our faith lives as we die to ourselves in order to become the Body of Christ. The bread and wine also symbolize for us whatever it is that we are offering to God at this Mass.

The other clothes that can be found on the altar other than the corporal are small white clothes called purificators. The purificators are like special linen napkins. We use purificators and not normal napkins to once again show us how special the Body and Blood of Christ are.

The big red book on the altar is called the Sacramentary and contains the prayers that the priest says at Mass. I believe this is important because our liturgy has a history to it and the priest is not simply up there making up the words as he goes along.
The last thing on our map is our candles. I like to think of candles like sirens or flashing lights in that they are meant to draw our attention to whatever they are on top of or in front of. Candles are a great simple way for the Church to draw our attention to the altar.

I hope that you have enjoyed your tour today of the top of the altar. Our next part of our trip will take us to an overview of the whole church layout.

Previously we focused our attention on how the top of the altar as it can be found right after the gifts are brought forward and before the Lamb of God. For this week’s tour I wish to take a step back and look at the larger church as a whole.

We begin by seeing that a church can be divided into two parts the sanctuary and the nave. The sanctuary carries with it two fold symbolism. The first is that it harkens back to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the Holy of Holies. The center room of the Temple was the place that only the high priest entered once a year and was believed to mirror heaven in its layout. The Holy of Holies was separated from the people by a veil but as you know by now there is no veil separating the sanctuary from the rest of the Church because during the Crucifixion accounts the evangelists mention the veil in the Holy of Holies being ripped in two and thus the path to God is now clear. It was in the Temple that the animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins took place. Now we at our altar offer with Christ, the priest and victim, the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. The second part of the symbolism is showed by the sense that most sanctuaries are elevated making it a small mountain. Mountains in Scripture are places where people encounter God for example Moses received the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai, Elijah discovered God in the silence on Mount Carmel, Jerusalem was a city built on a hill, and our Lord gave us the Beatitudes on a mountain and died on Golgotha. The sanctuary is a place that we encounter God in a special way as God comes down from heaven.

The center of the sanctuary is the altar. The altar liturgically is supposed to resemble an altar of sacrifice and a table for a meal because the Last Supper is forever connected with Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday. I personally do not know of any artist who has designed the altar that represents both a dinner table and a table of sacrifice together perfectly and therefore altars normally lean toward one side or the other. We should never forget the connection though. Surrounding the altar are candles that are meant to draw our attention to the altar.

As we know the Mass is actually two liturgies (the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist) and so sometimes the ambo/pulpit/lectern (the place where the Scriptures are proclaimed) is called the Altar of the Word. The ambo (the term I prefer) is normally located to the left (facing the altar) and a little forward so that people can see it better. At the ambo the Word of God is broken open before us (like Jesus did for the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus) and like His Body will before us later in the Mass.

Normally opposite of the ambo on the other side of the altar but now always is the presider’s chair. The presider’s chair is the chair where the priests lead the congregation in worship. Unlike today where teachers stand in their classroom and teach their students who are sitting down in the time of Jesus the teacher sat and the students all stood around Him. So sitting became a sign of being a teacher and the presider’s chair is to remind us that Christ teaches us through the Church and in a special way through the grace of Holy Orders through the priest as he does his best to imitate Christ the Good Shepherd and Christ the Teacher. Normally next to the presider’s chair there are more chairs for the deacon and altar servers.

Behind the altar maybe a structure called the high altar which is a really fancy altar from before Vatican II and if the priest celebrated Mass at it his back would be to the people or there may be a shelf or small table with the tabernacle on it. The tabernacle comes from a word meaning tent. This is the special place where we keep the extra Consecrated Eucharist. The idea of the tabernacle being a tent comes from the Israelites in the desert when Moses built a tent called the Meeting Tent in which God’s presence would come down and rest. The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Christ in our midst but here is not His permanent dwelling so in a real way it is like Jesus is living in a tent like you or I might do when we are camping. Next to the tabernacle is normally a red candle called the sanctuary candle and when it is lit it lets us know that Jesus is present in the Most Blessed Sacrament inside the tabernacle and we should genuflect when enter the Church.
During the Easter Season (50 days after Easter) the Pascal or Easter Candle can be found in the sanctuary. This candle in a special way reminds us that Christ is the Light of the World and without Him we would be in darkness. I invite you to attend an Easter Vigil and see the lighting of the Easter Candle ceremony at the beginning. It shows us liturgically that Jesus truly is the Light in the Darkness.

The last item that I want to focus on in the sanctuary is the crucifix or processional cross. Both of these items show us in a very visual way (most people in the history of the world have been illiterate) the love that God has for us. It is a reminder to us also of what we celebrate at Mass.

Moving from the sanctuary to the nave the first thing I want to point out is that the word “nave” is a naval term referring to the center part of the boat. The Church is making a direct reference to Noah’s ark and we gather in the Church in order to avoid the flood of sin and to go forth after the Mass saved to begin the new creation in Christ. A few years ago it was popular from time to time to call certain groups of people to come out of the nave and gather around the altar for the Eucharistic prayer. The Church’s Magisterium though asked people to stop this for many reasons for me one of the most important reasons was to remind people that the sanctuary is not the only place to pray in Church. The role of the laity at Mass is just as important at Mass as the priest because it is our sacrifice. I know that when I begin the Preface part of Mass I say “Please pray with me my brothers and sisters that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God the Father…” I try to say it so it sounds more like “PPPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEEE!!!!!, pray with me….” Because this sacrifice is not just my gift to offer but it is ours.

In the nave you will find the Church pews. I think it is good to remind ourselves that pews are not particularly Catholic they are actually more Protestants. As the Protestants got away from the Eucharist and more into the sermon they realized that people will listen better if they have a place to sit. For Catholics the Mass contains a lot of movement, kneeling, sitting, standing, walking, etc because it involves our whole body and not just our ears.

In a lot of churches now days there is normally a baptismal font or holy water fonts near the entrances. This is to remind us of our Baptisms and that we are entering the Promise Land at Mass (we are crossing the Jordan in many ways).

When one comes into most Catholic Church buildings one can normally find the following images as either pictures, mosaics, or statues. I thought I would explain where some of these traditions come from.

I want to begin by stating that we Catholics love statues, paintings, etc because we are people who learn through our senses. We learn by seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing things and visual stuffs help us breathe in if you will our faith. Remember also that we find ourselves in a very literate society compared to most of the history of the world. So as Catholics we tell the stories and point out clues in paintings and stuffs as little cue cards that help us remember the story.

Let us begin with the Statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you stand outside Bush Stadium you see statues of some of the greatest baseball Cardinals ever. We use these statues to remind us of their contribution to the game and to inspire our children to be better ball players. In much the same way most church buildings have a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the ultimate role model for Catholics. She is often dressed in white for purity and blue because blue is a color that represent humanity. We are proclaiming that she is a human being like us and not a goddess.

Normally opposite of the Blessed Virgin Mary in our church buildings we have a statue of her husband St. Joseph. St. Joseph is normally depicted holding one of three things. First he is often holding the Christ-child to remind us of our need to be holy in the midst of our families. Second he is often pictured with his carpentry tools to remind us of our need to be holy in the midst of our work places. Lastly he is pictured with a lily-staff because according to legend St. Joseph was one of a group of suitors for the Blessed Virgin Mary and he won the right to marry her by tossing his walking staff into a pile with the other men’s staffs and his sprung to life and produced a lily at the end of it. It is a reminder to us our need to be chaste and that God has a vocation (a plan/a calling) for each one of us.

In many church buildings especially in the St. Louis area because of the influence of the Redemptoris priests, there is a copy of an icon of our Blessed Virgin Mary called Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The image is a depiction of Mary comforting Jesus after Jesus has had a nightmare in which two angels has shown him the instruments of His crucifixion.

The history behind this particular image carries with it many different mythical accounts of miracles. It is a reminder to us that Mary is a help in all our sufferings and like Jesus will never leave us.

Another interesting thing that can be found in a lot of church buildings is the statue of a small Christ-child wearing a very frilly dress. The statue called the Infant of Prague. Here is one short history of the statue: “Its earliest history can be traced back to the year 1628 when a small, 48 centimeters in height, exquisite statue of wax Infant Jesus was brought into Bohemia by Polyxena von Lobkowitz, who became greatly attached to the Carmelites. This princess had been given the statue as a wedding gift by her mother, Maria Manriquez de Lara of Spain, and the statue was given to the Discalced Carmelites in Prague. Upon presenting it, the pious princess uttered a prophetic statement to the religious: "Venerable Fathers, I bring you my dearest possession. Honor this image and you shall never want". The statue was set upon the oratory of the monastery of Our Lady of Victory, Prague, where special devotions to Jesus were offered before it twice a day. The Carmelite novices voluntarily became poor and professed their poverty fervently during devotions in the presence of the Divine Infant. Upon hearing of the Carmelites' devotions and needs, the Emperor Ferdinand II of the House of Habsburg sent along 2,000 Florins and a monthly stipend for their support.” If anything the statue and devotions surrounding us remind us of what the Old Testament tries to teach us and that is if we remain faithful to God good things will happen to us but if we wander away from God then we will have bad things happen not because God will attack us but because we are walking away from the source of goodness and blessings.

I thought I would point out a particular type of cross. This particular cross that may or may not be hanging in your church building is called San Daminano. This is the particular cross that spoke to St. Francis of Assisi when he was praying in a little chapel for guidance. The Cross told St. Francis to “rebuild his Church” and so St. Francis rebuilt the chapel but only afterwards did he realize that God was calling him to help revitalize the Catholic Church of his day.

As we continue our exploration of the church I thought it might be good to look at some of the vestments we use in liturgies. The first vestment is called the alb. The word “alb” was the Greek word meaning white. An alb is a reminder to us of our baptismal call. We have been made clean in Baptism and can hence enter into God’s service. If one returns to the Old Testament and sees the need for cleaning before the high priest could enter temple we can begin to understand that Baptism is also a call to worship God. Symbolically speaking we could all wear white albs at Mass (but then who would want to do all the laundry).

The second two items are called stoles. Most people in the Roman Empire were illiterate so they depended upon symbols to identify what profession a person had. The stole over both shoulders became the sign of a priest and if it was over one shoulder then the person was a deacon. I have always been taught that the stole represents the power the priest receives at ordination to forgive sins and celebrate the Mass and so he kisses it when putting it on and taking off because it reminds the priest that his priesthood is a gift from God.

The vestment next to the stoles is the chasuble and are the outer vestments that the priest wears at Mass. It is meant to be a symbol of love and so the priest exercises his powers (the stole) through love (the chasuble) as he imitates Christ the Good Shepherd.

The purple vestment pictured above is called a dalmatic. The dalmatic is the outer vestment s that a deacon wears at Mass. The dalmatic is different from the chasuble because the dalmatic has sleeves and the chasuble does not. The dalmatic reminds the deacon that he was ordained to serve.

The next vestment is called a cope. Think of a cape but with an “o” instead of an “a”. The cope is a vestment used by a priest or deacon at events other than the Mass. I do not know of any real symbolism behind the cope but who does not look better wearing a cape?

The last vestment is called the humeral veil or benediction veil. This veil is used during Eucharistic Adoration as the priest or deacon takes a hold of the Monstrance (a special vessel used for displaying the Blessed Sacrament). The veil is a visual sign of the humility that we should have before the awesome mystery of the Eucharist.
Liturgical Colors
White: Means light and purity Red: Martyrdom or Holy Spirit Purple: Preparation and Repentance
Green: Life Rose (Pink): Celebration/Preparation Black: Mourning

Let us continue our tour of church buildings and some of their symbolisms. We look first at stained glass windows. A stained glass window is a colored window that shows a story about our Catholic faith. One of the key interpretations to most stained glass windows is red because it was a hard color to make in the Medieval Ages. (Remember that not every artist follows these norms). Blue normally signifies humanity. There is also additional symbolism when one considers light must shine through the stains in order to create the image in much the way God’s love shines through our sinfulness.

A particular type of stained glass window is called a rose window. The rose window is round and normally in the center has an image of Jesus. The other smaller windows normally surround the big round window perfectly because it symbolizes to us the idea of the perfectly order soul focused on Christ. Christ touching every aspect of our lives.

Metal was not always the easiest things to get a hold of and so church bells were often taken down during the time of war and made into cannons and at the end of the war turned back into bells and therefore bells became a symbol of peace. Often church bells toll at 6AM, 12N, and 6PM to inspire us to pray the Angelus at those times.

Let us remember always as we conclude our tours that the Church is more than just a building it is you and I. We are being held together in God’s spiritual temple and being held together by the mortar of God’s Holy Spirit.