Monday, December 3, 2012

Altars at Christmas: A Quiz

'Tis the season...Advent. And that means everyone's preparing for Christmas. Doubtless, there will be liturgical directors and decorators who do not follow the guidelines for Advent - the moderation of floral decorations, for example, and the reduced use of the organ (Ha! if only more parishes here actually had one!) and other musical instruments. God only knows what they'll do at Christmas!

However, since Advent has just begun, that gives us several weeks to push for appropriate Christmas altar-vesting. To help you, here's a little quiz on Christmas altars (see the previous post on "Vesting the Altar" if you need extra hints). 

If you see something that resembles your parish's altar in the examples of  "wrong" I've provided below, maybe you'll make a few suggestions to your pastor...? I know it's a dangerous job, but somebody's gotta do it!

What’s wrong with this picture?

a)     The altar is being used as a mere backdrop for the nativity scene
b)     What altar?
c)      A priest would not be able to say the EF Mass at this altar.
d)     All of the above.
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What’s wrong with this picture?
a)     The altar is being used as a mere backdrop for the nativity scene
b)     What altar?
c)      A priest would not be able to say the EF Mass at this altar.
d)     All of the above.


**************


What’s wrong with this picture?

 Oh dear. Add choice e) EVERYTHING!
**************

What’s wrong with this picture?

See choices above, but the answer is:
Nothing! 

Same for this one:

6 comments:

  1. That second one looks like they hung their laundry behind the altar.

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  2. Precisely, and that is the one the most resembles my parish church unfortunately...it's even worse - this one has a crucifix behind it; ours doesn't even have that. Just some ugly leaf configuration that is supposed to have some deep spiritual meaning that no one seems to be aware of. Very gnostic.

    Lorraine

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL! Yes, it does look like laundry, doesn't it! One wonders what the decorators' homes look like at Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  4. When a parish in town "hosted" our monthly TLM they decorated every Christmas with dozens of poinsettias, not to mention a small forest of trees. They had them loaded directly in front of the altar, so we had to gingerly move them and put them back when we were done with Mass. They had 3 tiered pedestals with gold drapery to boot! Well, one of the gals in our "take down" and "set up" committee had the idea to take a photo before we moved anything so we could duplicate it when the TLM was over. It was a brilliant idea, which kept the peace (well, sort of)!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That whole thing of the TLM people having to cater to the NO group...ugh. If the reverse were true, you would hear the howling for miles around!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a picture to send in of our alter. I was shocked when I saw it last Sunday. What was put up was done by the grade school kids with the help of the Knights of Columbus.

    Bill

    ReplyDelete

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