Friday, November 18, 2011

Loss of the Sense of the Sacred


Photo taken in the vestibule of a prominent parish in Ottawa.

Odd, and even the main altar in the sanctuary is covered in a black funeral pall.

We live in a radically new world, the world of the supernatural, whose radiance, sublimity, and beauty we need to recognize.

Why is a consecrated portable altar treated in such a manner? The altar mensa is our most sacred space.

Ugly, yes, but still an altar - notice the black altar stone with relics in the top of the stone mensa, with consecration crosses?

3 comments:

  1. Such "altars /peoples' tables" are so mundane that one could easily use them for almost anything including a poker game. One wonders at what the saints whose relics are in this particular one think of the situation.

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  2. Can. 1239 §1. An altar, whether fixed or movable, must be reserved for divine worship alone, to the absolute exclusion of any profane use.

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