These altars can only be used for the Mass, no point to say the news from these!
Do you think it is good stewardship to be able to celebrate Mass and televise the news from the same location? Your thoughts.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
MODERN ALTARS OR TELEVSION STATIONS' NEWS DESKS? INTERCHANGABLE AND ADAPTABLE!
These can be used either as a news desk or an altar, they're so similar and interchangeable.
These altars can only be used for the Mass, no point to say the news from these!
Do you think it is good stewardship to be able to celebrate Mass and televise the news from the same location? Your thoughts.
These altars can only be used for the Mass, no point to say the news from these!
Do you think it is good stewardship to be able to celebrate Mass and televise the news from the same location? Your thoughts.
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12 comments:
Of course, I hate "portable" or "all-purpose altars. They are a reflection of the "portable" and "all-purpose" beliefs of many Catholics...easily moved from one social or political context to another, and fitting right in with the belief system of whomever you are with at the moment. "No muss, no fuss,and remarkably easy to polish...Hey! It looks almost like the real thing!"
Father, do you think that the deterioration, so to speak, of the grandeur of our altars is due to the deterioration of the grandeur of the liturgy? Is this a change in altar styles a result of different aspects of the Mass being highlighted instead of others -- namely, the "meal" aspect of the Mass highlighted instead of the Sacrifice aspect?
I view with disdain any Modern Altar built in the Cranmer fashion, specifically because it is represents on of the two greatest attacks against Latin Rite Liturgy ever perpetrated. It is a Protestant creation, and it's insertion into the Novus Ordo Mass a blatant act of sabotage designed to make the RCC more "appealing" to Protestants. Even a truly artistically appealing Altar such as the one at St. Joseph is Heresy in stone.
To Marc, there was and perhaps is an iconoclasm that exists in Catholic modern architecture and altars and a dumbing down of things. To Templar, I would not go as far as to say it is a heresy and that the new altar at St. Joseph with the old as a reredos is very much in keeping with our tradition and from the congregation looks like a whole unit.
Father; the altar at St Joseph is beautiful to the eye and ascetically pleasing against the High Altar behind it; however when I said heresy in stone I meant all Table Altars in general. Heresy as I understand it is a radical change from established dogma, and the move from High Altars to free standing tables I think meets the definition.
The use of Table Altars was done by Thomas Cranmer during the English Reformation I believe, and adopted by the RCC several centuries later, no? Or is my historical data and perceptions based on ignorance?
respectfully.
But Templar, if you look at St. Peter Basilica's altar, it is a rectangular box and free standing and when unadorned with frontals, candles sticks, etc, quite ugly. So free standing altars have a very long history in the Church, back to antiquity.
Father, is not the altar at St Peter's only from the rebuilding of the Basilica in the 16th Century? The original St. Peters was a more traditional design with the altar on the same spot as the current one, but in the original building, a classic Latin design, the back wall of the Church was essentially right behind the altar. The redesign moved the altar to the middle, or more correctly moved the walls away from the altar, to maintain it's position over the tomb of St Peter.
All the major basilicas in Rome have the altar in the altar in the St. Peter configuration. The presiding chair for the bishop would have been at the back wall--apse. These altars face east as it is and thus Mass has always been celebrated, pre-Vatican II and Post Vatican II toward the people in the nave. St. Mary Major in Rome as well as the Roman Cathedral-basilica are built this way. It wasn't until about the 1600's that altars were being pushed back against the wall where the bishop's chair was located. So St. Peter's kept the actual tradition, but since Vatican II the pope now presides at a temporary chair in front of the altar rather than from under the "throne of St. Peter in the apse.
Thank you for the correction Father regarding table altars.
While hardly the Heresy in Stone I claimed them to be, they are so much less worthy to their intended purpose than a High Altar. It's the horizontal versus vertical debate of Church architecture shrunk down to the size of the altar.
The question of free-standing altars is a red herring, and not only for the historical reasons that Father has pointed out.
It might be tedious to specify precisely the distinguishing attributes, but it is easy to see whether a given altar is oriented to the worship of God or of man.
The majestic free-standing altars in the Roman basilicas are, and the TV station altars (not to speak of Cranmer tables) are not oriented toward God.
Incidentally, coming late to this discussion, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the similarity between many modern Catholic altars and those in Masonic temples, a similarity that may not be altogether incidental or coincidental.
I am surprised it took so long for the "Masonic Conspiracy to Destroy the Church" fantasy to arrive.
I can't wait for the appearance of the "Six Protestant Ministers" conspiracy theory to surface.
I will stay tuned . . .
Hey, Hey! I weant to know about this "six protestant ministers" thing. I've never heard that one...
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