Altar Rails

[LilHomemaker]

Don’t stop at altar rails, I wanna see rood screens back too. Something about that Holy of Holies connection gets to me

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/...photos/slides/screen-from-gallery-c-brani.jpg

I would like that too. I, also find something about the Holy of Holies pretty awesome.

 

[James924]

That’s in St. Mark’s in Venice. Here’s one painting of St. Mark’s interior to give you a clearer look at the whole templon structure. Here’s one during the consecratory moment in a time before pews.

A templon is kind of like an Eastern iconostasis but it’s not opaque and it doesn’t really have icons on it. It’s made of columns with a cross on top of it with Mary and St. John (and maybe other figures) beside the cross. In the picture of St. Mark’s, the templon is what’s being showed. It’s kind of a columnar division between the nave and the sanctuary. We didn’t have altar rails back then since altar rails replaced templons so my assumption is that we all received communion standing. Unless of course people had no problem kneeling on the floor/carpet without a rail.

The baldacchino is kind of being hidden in that same picture but you can see it in the back behind the templon. It’s the canopy, built on four columns, over the altar. There are indications that a long, long, long time ago, there used to be curtains that would be closed over the altar during certain points in the liturgy, like the consecration - just like in the Syriac rite. They don’t really do that anymore with Roman baldacchino and they’re mostly for show.

Technically the word “baldacchino” only refers to the one in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It’s true architectural term is “ciborium” - yes, exactly the same word used to refer to the golden container where we place consecrated hosts. If you Google image it, you’ll get the golden container but you’ll also get examples of baldacchini/ciboria.

Google Search For “Baldacchino”

Google Search For “Ciborium”

One of the most beautiful modern examples of baldacchini are from Duncan Stroik’s architecture portfolio… there are more here and here. You can either look here which is his Flickr account or you can Google is name and look at his portfolio.

May I ask which FSSP parish you go to that makes use of a baldacchino? I don’t think they’re monstrous at all. I think they’re stunning.

No, no, by monstrous I was referring to its size, its definitely quite beautiful. Its at Immaculate Conception Church in Omaha, Nebraska. A big white one. And you can barely see thin cords near the ceiling (which now that I’ve read your explanation, I presume were once for curtains). I’ll attach a couple pictures…

EDIT: The high altar you see there was installed last fall just weeks before the AF sent my family and I to California for a year. Prior to that we had been making due with a humble, ad hoc, wooden “mini-high altar” (the old high altar had been “eliminated” after Vatican 2, of course) which made the structure above it appear even bigger. Now that I look at this picture with the new High Altar in all is glory, the baldacchino doesn’t look nearly as big as it did…

 

[johnthebaptist1]

I miss the alter rails too, I remember when I receive Frist Communion,we knelt at the railing. The only place that has it still, is when I go too the Chapel at our parish, and go too Latin Mass,we kneel at the railing, like I did when I was younger,not too many place I know that do it, except if you fine a Church that has Latin Mass. Other wise you receive it standing before the priest.

 

[shagun]

My Parish has an Altar Rail and we always kneel for Holy Communion and we have a Latin Mass every sunday as well.

 

[Diana_Catherine]

I miss the alter rails too, I remember when I receive Frist Communion,we knelt at the railing. The only place that has it still, is when I go too the Chapel at our parish, and go too Latin Mass,we kneel at the railing, like I did when I was younger,not too many place I know that do it, except if you fine a Church that has Latin Mass. Other wise you receive it standing before the priest.

I know what you mean, John. There is a part in us that wants that sacred. Our hearts long for it. I would like to see the alter rails return, also, or even a kneeler so when at the OF you can kneel to receive communion, like the Pope uses. :heaven:

 

[The_Curt_Jester]

The church where I work at has a group that’s trying to get the pastor to re-install the altar rails. He seems favorable to it, so I think it’s more a matter of finding someone who can make them and getting the funds together.

 

[johnthebaptist1]

I know what you mean, John. There is a part in us that wants that sacred. Our hearts long for it. I would like to see the alter rails return, also, or even a kneeler so when at the OF you can kneel to receive communion, like the Pope uses. :heaven:

All I can say to what you said is your right, and glad to hear that someone else feels the same way I do. GOD BLESS you my friend.