"You may have noticed that most parish churches use beautiful and sometimes ornate gold or silver chalices for the celebration of Holy Mass. How would you feel if you happened to see your parish priest drinking his morning coffee from one of those beautiful chalices? I presume that you would be scandalized, and rightly so! It is not a bad thing to drink coffee in the morning. And yet we know instinctively that it would be wrong to use a chalice in this way. The chalice is meant for the celebration of Mass and that alone. In biblical language, the chalice is consecrated, set aside, for the service of God. It is dedicated to receiving and containing the wine destined to become the Blood of Christ. In fact, chalices used to be anointed with sacred Chrism as part of the blessing of a new chalice.
"On the day of your baptism, you too were anointed with sacred Chrism - anointed a member of Christ Jesus, 'Priest, Prophet, and King.' . . ."
In a recent commentary, Bishop Richard G. Henning, the new bishop of the Diocese of Providence
(RI), reflected on what it means for us to be annointed as sacred vessels..
To access Bishop Henning's complete essay, please visit:
The State of Hope: Be the Chalice (8 JUN 23)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment