is
fine
good evening our technician man was just
telling me that
there's just a one conference more a few
more conferences something like that
before we have the christmas break
as if we've been working so hard already
but to tell you the truth um this is a
pleasure to give you the class on friday
evenings
because it's uh formative for you i hope
and it's also
formative for me to go over all this
information so
vacations are great but when you get to
be an adult
sometimes you want to keep going on with
the material rather than going on
breaks so as we've been doing for
since the beginning of these sessions
i'll give you a little more history
a little more more of the story on saint
philomena
this evening i'm going to be going to
review with you pope leo the 13th
and pope senpai's 10. so as you know
pope leo the 13th was at the end of the
19th century and for about three years
of the 20th century
an anti-liberal hero
for writing against freemasonry and also
um
liberalism which was threatening to
attack attack the church
well he pope leo the 13th also had
his contact with saint philomena and
remember
they talk about the saint as if she has
she had just been
one of their friends or perhaps a friend
of their parents but
actually she had lived 1500 years before
then
and more almost 1600 years
so so before becoming pope when leo the
13th was still an archbishop
archbishop he made two pilgrimages to
muniano
that's the place of the remains of saint
philomena
in the year 1883 he was pope by that
time
he approved the use of the cord the
court of saint philomena which is red
and white
and mainly brings us the virtue of
purity
but it can also bring us the
of course the intercession intercession
of the saint
but to obtain any favor it doesn't have
to be just purity
usually it's worn around the waist but
i've been reading a few stories of men
that have worn it around their
arm or something like that or someone in
the hospital is wearing it around their
arm
as long as it's on the body and so in
the year 1883 he
approved the use of the court pope leo
the 13th did
and he gave a plenary indulgence for the
person
when he used it the first time uh now
uh all things being equal when we use
the court for the first time
we're probably not going to die on that
date so it's a good idea if you get that
plenary indulgence to
apply it to some other soul that can use
it in purgatory maybe it's not even
anyone that you know six years later in
the year 1889
he made the arch uh arch conf fraternity
of saint philomena
until that time there had been a group
of people called the con fraternity of
saint philomena
they send in their
information their application to become
members of the
conf fraternity and then they get the
grace
of all the different people praying to
saints st philomena
that's given to their soul also so
he elevated it pope leo the 13th did to
the level of archon for eternity
meaning that you get all those graces
and more
and he gave that indulgences
as you remember there are three
principal feasts of saint philomena
august the 11th is when we celebrate her
birthday in heaven
although it's actually the day after
because august 10th is another saint
and then also um may the 25th
that's the day of the finding of a relic
her relics
and also the sunday closest to may the
25th
that's the solemnization of her um
of the finding of her relics those are
three different free
feasts of saint philomena and
uh pope leo the 13th was giving a
plenary indulgence
for observing those feasts for going to
mass on that day
participating in the processions or any
kind of devotions and of course
getting to confession and communion
within one week
he also gave the plenary indulgence for
the people who used who used the cord
on the very day of their death and i
know i've told you that
i've told you about that before but it's
good to repeat these things
once in a while now that one is good you
get that planet and get that plenary
indulgence
that would be for you you don't have to
apply it to anyone else
in the year 1902 pope leo the 13th
celebrated the centenary of the finding
of the relics of saint philomena
so that's may 25th 1802 100 years later
he um celebrated that
centenary
he gave a pectoral cross to the
sanctuary in the year 1888
and a wonderful missile in the year
1902. please remember
from last week we were studying pope
blessed pope pius
ix the pope before leo the 13th
and he gave his own pectoral cross to
the saint philomena
very close to the day of his death so
you know the pectoral cross of a bishop
and especially of a pope
uh stands for the whole person so when
he gave that
pope pius ix when he gave that to saint
philimina
that's a way of saying that i dedicate
i thank you i honor you
for all the grace that has come to this
papacy
by giving you this pectoral cross
uh moving on to another pose that's
popplio the 13th and now we move on to
pope
saint pius the tenth the pope that
followed leo the 13th
from 1903 to 1914.
he gave her his episcopal ring
i think pope pius the tenth had a lot of
these sort of things
bishop's rings and pectoral crosses and
all that sort of thing but
he at least gave her one of his
episcopal rings
you probably all know the story on
at least one of the episcopal rings of
um popeye's
tenth when he was monsignor sarto
it wasn't venice it was forgetting his
cities
or tombolo or something like that when
he was made
bishop there was a great elevation he
was very humiliated about the whole
thing
uh but interestingly enough lest he
should become proud of these
elevations of the church the same day he
saw his mother
her name was margaret and
she said to him son congratulations for
your
elevation to the episcopacy that's a
reward of prayer and much sacrifice and
much faith dedication to our lord and
our blessed mother
i said yes mother you know we'll see why
god wants this and what i can do for his
church
and she uh showed him her ring
the mother of saint pies the tenth and
she said just remember
if it hadn't been for this ring you
wouldn't have one either
the point being we've made a lot of
sacrifices
in having fidelity to the faith
fidelity with each other fidelity to our
children that's what's made you into a
catholic and a good catholic hopefully
and that's why you are where you are
so um as we've lived faithfully to our
vows may you live faithfully also to
your
uh elevation that's pope pius x
he manifested devotion to saint
philomena in many ways
so his prayers and his uh
piety and so forth saint philomena was
constantly
in his vocabulary talking about
talking about getting closer to god
saint paul's tenth uh beatified
saint john viene the cure of ours and we
know that saint john vienne was the
biggest promoter
of saint philomena in the 19th century
and then uh saint paul's tenth
named saint john viene the patron of the
arch khan fraternity
so it's already at level of arch
confraternity
and to give this apostolate to saint
john dna made it even more fruitful
because you might remember from one of
the other one of the other classes
there came a point where saint john
vianney the cure of ours was having up
to
14 miracles per week at his church
on an average that's not necessarily a
high number
but on an average he was having 14
miracles per week at his church
that was i'm sure due to his own
holiness and also to his
great dedication to our blessed mother
and also to saint philomena
now this sounds a little bit negative
but also you and i
as traditional catholics might be
encouraged by this
uh saint pius xii was dismayed
at the questioning of the authenticity
of her
if those really were her relics if such
a person
really did exist uh if the christians
and the catholics
were following some myth and just
calling it saint philomena now for a
century at that time
he was very dismayed about that he said
in the year 19 and 12 in 1912
this spirit of not giving reverence to
saint philomena
proceeds from an element that is null
and void
and without merit and authority the year
19 and 12.
1912 where does that come from
as i've told you before
pope gregory the 16th in the year 1837
uh canonized saint philomena
solely on the basis of her miracles
without having any historical record
and she was that convincing a pope
canonized her
now in the beginning of the 20th century
a certain professor
marucci in the year 1903
started to do some study on the tomb
of saint philomena but the curious thing
is he never even went to rome
he didn't go to the catacomb of saint
priscilla uh he never had anything to do
with an eyewitness contact with
his claimings so he went back to the
same
argument i told you before they're the
three tiles
on the tomb of saint philomena
that seem to be not not in order
please remember as i've told you before
they put the
heart of the greeting right in the
center center pakstay
missing the kum pakhstakum but pakistan
means peace be with thee
and at the beginning they put lumina
which is actually the
name of saint philomena before she was
baptized just means light
of christ and they put comfil
with the daughter at the end
the daughter of christ phil lumina
that's the name she would take at her
baptism
the daughter of light
and the pak state is right in the middle
so the tiles are not
out of order but they went ahead and
claimed this
tiles are out of order which means that
uh this tomb probably belonged to
somebody else
it was opened up the bone was
yeah the bones were removed of the
original philomena
put someplace else put somebody else's
bones or relics inside of that tomb
and then sealed it up with the same
tiles and because of the haste
they put the tiles not in the correct
order
but there's no evidence to prove that
claim and that error because the tiles
are only clay
the bricks and none of the mortar is
chipped on them
when you take brick and move from one
place to another
the mortar is going to break
and the bricks themselves might break
and also it's only clay it's only brick
if you're going to move them from one
place to another you'll replace them
you won't just use the same bricks again
in the same order
so despite that
claim or that um doubt that professor
marucci put upon
saint philomena he was never there to
examine the situation
and uh saints pius a tenth
that was the very years of his papacy
1903-1914
he had no patience for these accusations
and it's interesting to talk about that
because you might have heard this story
of saint
pius x also he did a magnificent job
of clearing the vatican and clearing
rome of all modernists
and that was due to his encyclical
pashandi
dominici gregis any error that a
modernist can
possibly think of was um identified
in pope pius attendance encyclical and
condemned
to the point that modernists themselves
will say to each other
you know our theories are so
vague and just in the clouds and we
really can't tell each other what a
modernist is and what we believe
if you want to find out what our
modernist is and what we believe says
one modernist to another
just read the encyclical of pope pius x
he had us
nailed as pope is the tenth
uh so he was congratulated at least on
one occasion for that encyclical and for
all his efforts to get the modernists
out of the seminaries throughout the
world
he said well thank you very much but
it's not necessary
because all the work we've done is going
to be undone
within 50 years the modernists will come
back
so for me uh him having the modernists
pegged and nailed with his um
assessment of what they are and also
their condemnation
and also saying they're coming back in
50 years that kind of runs parallel with
this
uh much more humble study of who is
saint philomena
and how uh
doubters um historical
people putting historical doubt were
opposing saint philomena and he says i
just can't tolerate this stuff
so for me it's kind of it's the same man
that insists
on the orthodoxy of doctrine
who also insists on the veracity the
truthfulness
the true existence of saint philomena
so she's a viable saint not just for the
1800s or the 19th century
she's viable from 19th 20th 21st 21st
century
and just for your information i didn't
give you this detail yet
in the year 1905 so two years after he
became pope
he beatified the kyrie of ours
and he chose the centenary of the
transference
of her remains from rome to muniano
for that occasion he's always connecting
the curie virus to saint philomena
and vice versa you might remember the
long the long story
i told you about how the relics of saint
philomena
were in rome the father don francesco
guccio lucio luccio
went there with the bishop
de cesare they acquired the relics
they went from rome to naples and then
from naple to muniano
and they arrived on august 10th
uh 1905.
so 100 years later exactly to the date
was a date that uh pope is tenth chose
to beatify
the cure of ours very well
we'll continue with our study of the
altar
and the holy sacrifice of the mass
of which saint philomena is such a hero
so last week when we closed up with
class i was telling you about
the linen on the altar
a few symbolisms besides first of all
the practical purpose
is that if the precious blood should
spill on the altar it will be absorbed
by linen
it won't go into it won't go into the
stone good
but then also the linen symbolizes
the shroud the holy shroud of our lord
jesus christ
how it wrapped around his body at least
two times and then overlapped
making a third fold so to speak and
that's why we have
three cloths on the altar also
the linen represents ourselves
in what way we surround our lord jesus
christ
he is the altar uh he is the sacrifice
on the altar
and we the faithful the mystical body
surround him in particular we surround
him by
the three branches of the mystical body
the church militant that's us here below
the church suffering those are the souls
in purgatory
and the church triumphant the victorious
saints
in heaven
these ultra cloths
as you can see are white
are very white and very clean and we do
our do our best to keep them that way
one of the biggest threats towards clean
ultra cloths
is one of two possibilities is candle
wax
that comes from anywhere it comes off
that device we use to light the candles
that's that's got a wax taper in it
it comes from extinguishing candles
somehow evaporated wax forms in that cup
that we extinguish the candles with and
that
can drop out in a very dark and black
form right on top of the altar cloth
and also a candle wax can come from just
um candles dripping and get a faulty
candles and
they drip all over the place and that
that
it it it doesn't really stain the altar
cloth but it makes it dirty
until you're going to change it again
that's one possibility of
kind of marring the altar cloth another
one is
the use of wine and water at mass which
is necessary
it's particularly when the server
at the ablutions after holy communion
comes right up to the center of the
altar to put the first evolution of the
chalice
and uh that's wine and he puts the wine
in the chalice
the priest gives him a little bit of a
signal with his chalice to
cut off the flow like that and if they
back off immediately
without paying attention to that the
the traitor drip as they call it in
spanish the betraying drip
if they back off without any paying
anything to that betrayal drip
betraying drip that drip will most
likely end up on the altar
and thanks be to god we only use wine
which is white
or white wine because we used red wine
which is recommended by some priests and
even bishops
i think bishop sheen used to recommend
red wine because it looks more like the
blood of our lord
that's good if you're very very careful
because otherwise that drip is going to
end up on the altar and that will stain
the altar cloth
and the corporal and everything else so
um just a little
home uh homie example for you about how
this stuff
this is realistic you know these things
happen
and then we change the altar class about
once a month for sure unless they're
especially dirty
then we'll claim change them in between
that time
you i'm sure know that just once a year
uh the altar is stripped in front of the
faithful
and that's on holy thursday night uh
holy thursday night where we
begin to meditate meditate the passion
of our lord
we see the altar stripped that
represents several truths
first of all our lord being taken away
from us
also it represents the grief of the
church
at the death of her spouse our lord
jesus christ
and it also represents stripping the
body
the most pure body of our lord jesus
christ
and of his cruel abandonment during the
passion
so you know when you get to the altar
you just know you're in the presence of
christ either by
representations these symbolisms i'm
just telling you with the
linen but also the sacrifice which is
offered
uh the the the relics which in the alt
are in the altar
everything is screaming the presence
of our lord jesus christ so let me um
read to you how the altar cloth
and the mentality on the ultra cloth has
evolved with the general instruction of
the novus ordo
from 1969.
this i'll read a little bit about the
traditional and how it's been changed
it is easy to understand why the rubrics
prescribe linen
the altar symbolically represents christ
and all four gospels
recount that his body was wrapped in
linen
the general instruction however of the
novus ordo
required only one cloth made no mention
of the use of linen
and did not require that the cloth be
blessed
so just more and more you're seeing how
what was sacred and supernatural and
separated from the world
is no longer sacred and supernatural and
separated from the world
it's as common as can be because in the
novus ordo
they do not want to lift the soul to
heaven they want to make
souls or people just feel comfortable
with each other here on earth
and if that doesn't sound like free
masonry somehow
introducing the into the church i don't
know what does
freemasonry is all about the brotherhood
of man
and that's as far as it goes the true
catholic religion is all about lifting
souls to god
and in their union with our lord jesus
christ
they will find harmony with their
brethren
but that's not just a brotherhood of man
that's a
brotherhood with our lord jesus christ
which gives us the grace
to have the right friendship with our
brother
i think there's one comparison about the
altar itself which i missed with you
which
was is unfortunate because they were
saying that now
uh the altar is no longer even
consecrated
it's just blessed it's seven lines long
in the name of jesus christ is not even
mentioned
uh yeah seven lines long our lord's not
mentioned and there's no
there's no not even any signs of the
cross well they do it
well that's something i would have
missed last week sorry about that but i
have to move on
you perhaps know what an anti-pendium is
um this is a very beautiful altar we
have here of course
so we'll always be exposed it's it's
stone it has a beautiful baroque
that's called baroque that style baroque
form to it
a lot of curves a lot of angels and a
lot of flowers and
that's baroque uh but however there are
some altars which are not so
ornate and uh they have no decoration on
the
front they're a little more blocky
there's nothing wrong with that it's
just that they're not as decorated
those altars must be or should be
decorated with what's called an
anti-pendium meaning
uh curtain which hangs before them and
that antipendium can be
changed in color just like we're going
to change on sunday
to the color of purple for advent the
the front of the altar would be the
color purple for the time of advent
and then green for the time of pentecost
white for saints etc
it requires requires a lot of
maintenance actually to keep changing
that
frontal or that antipendium
there must be candlesticks on the altar
uh
6 candlesticks for the sun mass and 2
candlesticks for the
low mass let me read to you how that's
how that has evolved in the general
instruction
they say the number of ultra
candlesticks
was left unspecified you can have two
you can have four you can have six
whatever you want
back to the traditional uh rubrics
there must be a crucifix with an image
of the crucified
why because the mast is the living
picture
of the crucifix the priest makes
constant gestures towards it
genuflections bows and raising his eyes
those are all
prescribed he must do that
if he doesn't do it i guess he's still
offering the holy mass but he's making
mistakes
and those are at least venial sins
in the traditional mass crucifixes are
everywhere throughout christendom
and masons love to remove them
the altar sometimes does not have a
tabernacle
even in traditional parishes or i should
say churches
mass centers because we're not
permanently permanently set up there yet
we're not going to be there from one
week to the next so we don't leave the
blessed sacrament reserved
so there's no tabernacle but even in
that situation
we always have a crucifix the priest
must look to the crucifix during mass
let's see how that has evolved
the 1969 instruction initially
prescribed that a cross
be placed on the altar or near it so
crucifix no
the difference is cross is just two
pieces of wood
without the representation of our lord
jesus christ suffering
so just a cross be placed on the altar
or near it
there was no specific requirement that
the cross be of the standard latin
design
or that it have an image of the crucify
christ affixed to it
so what happened crosses in strange
shapes
for example black crosses jerusalem
crosses
dagger crosses multiplied everywhere
adorned with unusual corpuses like
the resurrection christ or the abstract
sorry this sounds irreverent but here it
is
or the abstract twisted lizard of paul
vi
i always thought that pope john paul ii
had the most unusual looking
um i guess that's a processional cross
which he used instead of a crosier
and now popes have continued to do it
since him they have
that grotesque looking body of jesus
hanging there which doesn't even look
like a crucifixion anymore
uh that's pope john paul ii but
apparently paul paul six had something
pretty
bizarre even before pope john paul ii
well that's how things were since 1969
in the novus ordo but apparently there
was a train a change
according to the new regulations the
cross could be
the processional cross carried in and
out before and after mass
so we just just use a little use a
little logic on that
we'll figure out that they're saying
that when mass is not happening
there is no crucifix in the church
you know the process the cross will be
the processional cross carried in and
out before
and after mass the cincinnati
archdiocese diocesan
regulations forbade or forbade
permanently installing a cross in a
church
and prescribed that only that the only
cross in the church must be the
processional cross
that is carried in and out so not only
did they make it possible
that there will never be a cross in the
church except for mass
they are they prohibited that there be a
cross
in the church outside of mass
well you know that's just not catholic
apparently by the year 2000 they started
to backpedal
so in 1969 until 2000 that's 30 years
it took until the year 2000 for the
vatican to get around to prescribing
a cross with the figure of christ
crucified
upon it the vatican
backpedaled on the the rules of 1969 and
made it obligatory that all
churches have crucifixes
uh there are three altar cards on the
altar
only the central one is necessary
that has the essential prayers of the
canon
the um which includes the consecration
and the offertory is also there those
are the essential prayers
the other two altered cards on both
sides have been added out of convenience
for the priest
because sometimes he can forget those
prayers
of of
putting the wine and water in the chat
putting the water in the chalice really
and sometimes he can't forget the prayer
of the lavabo
it's there for that reason and then the
last gospel on the gospel side of the
altar
the same way
sometimes we leave them up they're all
three just for symmetry you might know
that there's a few masses
like palm sunday holy thursday the
easter vigil
mass that no last gospel is recited
there might be other cases
i think also the uh what do you call it
requiem mass when you're going to have
absolution the body after mass
there's no last gospel there's no less
gospel for the other three examples i
gave either
and you might wonder well then why did
they leave that card up there on the
left-hand side if they're not going to
use it
i answer it looks nice it's symmetry
take it off thing looks like something's
missing uh
and the other two addition uh if you
note on that
i thought i had a note on how that's
evolved the altar cards on the altar
well i don't think they're any they're
there anymore because the priest is
facing the people he probably doesn't
want those ultra cards
blocking his vision to the people
there must be a dignified and worthy
altar missile
on the altar and here this is what i'm
pointing out
there can be relics on the altar so here
at our altar we have
not just all relics in the altar in the
sepulcher but also displayed on the
two different gradients and those are
exposed usually for our masses on sunday
especially for sun mass if we ever get
back to sun mass
despite the present government and
government regulations there can be
relics
let's see what how that has evolved
for major feasts the traditional rubrics
presumed
that relics of the saints will be
exposed for veneration on the high altar
and incensed at high mass and at vespers
that's what we do
however the general instruction of 1969
is silent on the matter
but in 1977 the traditional practice was
actually
forbidden they said you may not have
relics on the altar
so again just always taking away that
supernatural
always taking away the testimony of the
sacrifice of our lord jesus christ
and martyrs shedding their blood in
union with our lord jesus christ
it's true that relics on the altar are
not necessarily martyrs
of blood but their lives are martyrdoms
of constant constant renunciation of
self
so that our lord jesus christ can have
the victory in them and in the world
and well now they're taken off the altar
since 1977.
pope pius vi so that's going back to
the 18th century condemned
a certain heretical uh trend in the
church
of people that wanted to take the relics
off the altar popeye
vi condemned that he condemned it as
rash and injurious to a pious and
approved custom of the church
a phrase which could easily describe
what pope paul vi
eventually did
he made an abolition he abolished
the practice of having relics on the
altar
all these traditional requirements for
the catholic altar
every altar has a titular saint a saint
a title every altar has a title
i'm not sure what the name of the title
of our altar is here
that's called the titular saint i
imagine it's saint pius the tenth
because that's the name of our priory
as well but sometimes the titular saint
of the altar is not the same
as the titular saint of the church
however
if there is a picture of a saint above
the altar
it must be this saint and i have seen
that before and perhaps you all have too
you have a church our later guadalupe
you might wonder why there's a big image
of our lady of guadalupe over the altar
i see that more than i see the crucifix
yes you're right but she is the titular
saint of the altar
and same with uh saint paul's attempt
i've seen a church in his honor
large painting of saint pies attend
above the altar the place where father
um summers comes from in
redford mix michigan that was the church
of saint
ann but the altar was called senpai's
tenth
so there's a huge picture saying pies a
tenth above the altar
uh this is beautiful which is said about
something which is said about flowers
so uh thank you so much to mary
for all your work on flowers
i have never been at a church where so
much attention was given to flowers
and it's really beautiful and worthwhile
first of all flowers are for the glory
of god
and the on the altar and then
they are for the edification
of the faithful to lift the faithful's
mind up to god
uh this from a tradition this from a
classic author that i'm using
for the notes he says that
flowers are for the earth what stars are
for the heavens that's a great
comparison
we look at the sky we wonder the stars
rightfully so
and that's millions of miles away from
us on our
earth nevertheless we have those kind of
wonders
and those are flowers and i'm not just
speaking sentimentally it's it's obvious
this author says that flowers are a
leftover
a remnant from nature before the fall
that in the garden of paradise adam and
eve have flowers like that everywhere
now we still see flowers with all their
beauty
but not as numerous as adam and eve had
and not in such a concentrated place
we still have them and that's how we put
them on the altar
they symbolize the purity of creation
before the fall
they symbolize the beauty of god not
just in the heavens but also here on
this earth
and something very interesting about
flowers to display them on the altar
they are they're cut usually
there are exceptions like the points
said at christmas time in the easterly
easter time
depending on what country you're from uh
but
cut flowers usually within a week
they'll be dead
and despite watering them and taking
care of them and everything else
that's a symbolic thing that
um even the flowers give their life
for christ on the altar and that's why
so they are beautiful they're like stars
they're left over from the fall
and they give their life on the altar
the rose is a sign of spiritual joy
i'm not sure in what sunday what century
it started
but it's several centuries old where the
holy father himself
has to bless a golden rose only
sunday of advent matari sunday is the
third sunday of advent
where the priest uses rose-colored
vestments
litari means rejoice and
the pope uses the pope blesses a golden
rose in honor of all that on that sunday
flowers are the emblems of innocence the
innocence which we derive from our lord
jesus christ
and finally we catholic souls are meant
to accumulate the flowers of virtue
so that nothing gives christ more joy
than to be around
us i like how that point keems coming
keeps coming out in our consideration of
the altar
we surround christ the
altar cloths surround our lord jesus
christ like the shroud surrounded his
body
we surround him the church militant
suffering and triumphant
the consecration of the church was
usually united to the consecration of
the altar when it's possible
uh showing that the faithful are
consecrated to god
at the same time the altar which
represents christ is consecrated to god
meaning that the faithful are connected
intimately connected to our lord jesus
christ because his glory is to be
with the sons of men and here's here it
is again
we accumulate the flowers of virtue so
that nothing gives christ more joy
than to be around us now i'm not a big
humanist that just likes to preach man
and man and dignity of man
and how lucky for jesus christ that he
got to be one of us
not quite that way but there is a
very healthy understanding of the
dignity of a christian
pope um leo the great gave us that line
um the dignity of a christian because he
has saint of
sanctifying grace in him and he is the
temple that our lord jesus christ
presents to his father in heaven
you know um i have a hard time coming up
with an analogy or a comparison but
if our lord jesus christ has gone
through so much suffering in order to
sanctify man in order to put his life
inside of that soul well then we become
kind of like
trophies for him something he would like
he likes to show off to his father
something of consolation for him so i
know we're full of sin
and we can't exaggerate uh how good we
are that's not correct
we're full of sin but our lord jesus
christ honestly
enjoys our company and honestly enjoys
what a um a glory he has made out of us
by a sacrifice
and that that thought keeps coming up in
this study
so that was the altar itself and the
linen
what's on the altar and now i'll
consider with you
some items used during the holy
sacrifice of the mass
starting first of all with the item par
excellence
which is the chalice
uh chalice comes from the latin word
kalix which means the exact same thing
a cup a precious cup on a stem
the cup must be gilded on the inside
with gold
uh the rest of the cup or the chalice
must be made of a precious metal
silver or pewter
but not just brass or copper
or lead certainly not lead
it has to be a noble and precious metal
but the cup must be gold
on the inside
it even seems that the chalice ranks
higher than the patent
which goes with it
uh however the two go the two go
together there's a chalice
that the priest uses and there's the
patent on top of the chalice
that he uses the patent will hold
the host which becomes the body of our
lord jesus christ
and the chalice folds the wine which
becomes his precious blood
the chalice is emblematic of the mass
because as soon as we see it
we think blood and blood that was shed
for our redemption and blood that is
continually made present on the altar in
the sacrifice of the mass
for the continuation of grace to come to
souls
the chalice is emblematic of that when
you watch a solemn high mass
where there's three ministers at the
altar the celebrant a deacon and a
subdeacon
they can all three be priests but
they'll fulfill the functions of those
three different
ranks of the holy orders
at the offering of the chalice the
deacon assists the celebrant to say the
words of offering the chalice
but he only does that for the chalice
and not for the patent
which is what leads me to believe that
even the chalice even has a certain
superiority
over the patent because it is the
shedding of christ's blood
a chalice cannot be made out of glass
my first reaction to that would be that
it's irreverent
you'll be showing the precious blood of
our lord jesus christ
as if there's no mystery involved
but the reason given here is that glass
is brittle and it's unsafe to have the
precious blood
inside of such such a uh you know
brittle
um delicate um
material wood is not allowed for a
chalice and i think we see plenty of
those in the novus ordo mass
why not wood is not as noble as a
precious metal
and wood is porous you put a liquid
inside of it that liquid is going to
stay inside of the wood
for a certain amount of time evaporating
or getting absorbed into the wood
and if it's the precious blood of our
lord jesus christ that is not a reverent
way to treat it
the patent which holds the host must be
guilt of gold
also at least have a gold covering
the word paten is properly applied just
to the disc
the plate which the priest uses with the
chalice
i know we say patent of the item that
the altar boy
holds under your chin when we go for
when you receive holy communion
that's where i was taught the word
patent but strictly that should be
called a communion plate
and what the priest uses at the altar is
the patent
however understand if we still confuse
it
uh the patent which the priests used on
the altar
cannot have an inner recessed cavity
so i'm talking to you about all the
nitty-gritty details
some of these uh patents are pretty uh
it's a disk
and there's a secondary disk on the
inside of it it's all connected
and that secondary disk is very close to
the exact size of a large host
that the priests used at mass so it
looks pretty on a chalice you have a
chalice
a patent on top of it host on top of
that right in that nice little
cave there the cavity however those are
not supposed to be somehow they got put
into use they should not be used
because it makes purification of the
patent
difficult um i told you last week but
i'll repeat it
the chalice when it's not being used was
first of all the chalice must always be
clean and bright
so it should be the preoccupation of a
priest to keep his chalice clean
i would say with at least once a week
buffing it out a little bit because we
have oils
and the fingers uh naturally and uh that
stays on the chalice as much as you try
to clean it up when you're finished
and the oil attracts elements from the
atmosphere which is which contains dust
and i don't know what
and that makes tarnish on the chalice so
that once a week so once a week that
should be buffed out
at least once a week uh the chalice
should always be covered when not in use
uh even in the sacristy it normally
should be in the cupboard
or if it's laid out it should be in a
covering because what happens there is a
huge
mystery we cannot leave a chalice out
like it's some sort of decoration
and just say yeah this is a cup like all
others wrong
and she must be treated with great great
respect
um i'll make a um
not digression but illusion
here uh it might not even seem proper
but hopefully
you receive it in the right sense you've
probably noticed in our bookstore
a book called dressing with dignity
by a very nice lady named colleen hamlin
or
hamilton or something like that colleen
someone or other i think hamilton
and she's a very nice woman i had the
honor of meeting her a few times
and in her book there she talks about
how a woman should dress
and she goes on for quite a while about
how
the sacred vessels we use at the altar
because of them being so sacred
they're covered you usually don't see
the chalice until you see the priest
elevating it
outside of that his body is blocking the
vision of it
because there's a mystery going on there
uh
and she uses that to talk about how a
woman should dress that
the woman has within her the great
mystery of
the transmission of life and for that
reason her body should
receive a lot of respect especially in
dressing
so instead of dressing you know tight to
the skin and all that and showing the
whole form and everything no no no no
there's a great mystery in a woman which
needs to be preserved that's procreation
god is sending a soul
directly inside of that woman at the
moment of conception
and that deserves respect so i know the
two things are
quite a long stretch between them
but um colleen made the uh
connection and i didn't mind repeating
it
both the chalice and patent must be
consecrated by a bishop
and only by a bishop because their
purpose is so sublime
i know i told you that last week
this consecration of a chalice and
patent can be lost
if the chalice is broken or fractured
or if the inside of the cup is re-gilt
it loses its consecration
has to be consecrated again consecration
is done with
holy chrism as you know there are three
holy oils the oil of catechumens
holy chrism and the oil of the infirm
holy chrism which is also used to
come what we call it give the sacrament
of confirmation
and also give the sacrament of holy
orders and also bells
are consecrated holy chrism is used for
that to show the
coming of the holy ghost inside of these
items
because of their high purpose the
chalice
the patent and even the ceborium
normally
because of their high purpose the sacred
vessels
cannot be touched by laity
so i know we have a couple of young men
here who help us with the in the
sacristy
and they they will take the chalice out
to put the to dress it for the mass
you might see them put the chalice take
the chalice from the creedence table to
the altar
in the sun mass and you might think oh
that's a layman touching the
chalice but please also know they have
gloves on
they're using gloves so that their
actual body is not touching
the chalice the other option is to use
the veil of the chalice as a type of
glove
and not touch the chalice however that's
not recommendable because you'll just
make a mess out of the
chalice veil
the mystical meaning of the chalice is
the sanctified chalice of melchizedek
which the lord once filled with grace
you know that melchizedek in the old
testament who had an encounter with
abraham
the father of all christians and the
father of our lord jesus christ
he came back from
the battle of the kings
and
he met abraham abraham offered him
tithes
and melchizedek offered a sacrifice of
bread and wine
his wine was in a chalice and the
chalice we used
is prefigured by the chalice of
melchizedek in the old testament
the pattern represents the tree of the
cross
upon which christ suffered for us and
why is that
the pattern doesn't look like a cross
the answer is
because our lord was dead on the cross
on the paten our lord jesus christ is
offered up in sacrifice
it's not correct to say that our lord is
dead
in the patent or dead in the chalice
our lord is offered in sacrifice but
he's still our lord who is reigning
victoriously in heaven
with his father for all eternity who's
present with us
he's present with us because of his
sacrifice
but it's never quite correct to say that
he's dead i've told you before that we
can we can say that there is a mystical
death
made present on the altar by first
making the body present and then the
blood present there's a separation
of body and blood we have the death
but it's still not quite correct to look
at the pattern on the host
sorry the post on the patent even after
it's been consecrated and say
that's our lord jesus christ dead you
can say that's our lord jesus christ
sacrificed
but not dead
together the chalice and the patent
patent represent the sepulcher
and it is said so in their consecration
prayer
uh why do they represent the sepulcher
because
our lord jesus christ is kept there
but again do not focus too much on dead
the represent represents the sepulcher
and some even say the patent
patent represents the stone which cover
the sepulcher
so that we have in our mind the
sacrifice of our lord jesus christ
so next week i'll tell you about the
corporal in nepal the purificator the
burst in the chalice veil
uh some other items used on the altar
and my may god bless you we'll say our
prayer now
name the father the son of the ghost
coming
hail mary and full of praise to the lord
fine