I’m sorry, I must have hit the wrong key as I was asking the last question, if in fact it did go through.
It is my understanding that when the Holy Mass is offered on a temporary altar in one’s home or any enviornment away from the church such as on a dinner table; one should not eat on that table for 24 hours.
Has my understanding been wrong or is this something that has changed? Could you please point me to a supportive document which treats the respect we should have for the altar temporary or otherwise?
Thank you very much and may God bless each of you,
Michael Byers
From the 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum:
“[77.] The celebration of Holy Mass is not to be inserted in any way into the setting of a
common meal, nor joined with this kind of banquet. Mass is not to be celebrated without
grave necessity on a dinner table
[footnote 159: Cf. S. Congregation for Divine Worship, Instruction, Liturgicae instaurationes, n. 9: AAS 62 (1970) p. 702.]
nor in a dining room or banquet hall, nor in a room
where food is present, nor in a place where the participants during the celebration itself are
seated at tables. If out of grave necessity Mass must be celebrated in the same place where
eating will later take place, there is to be a clear interval of time between the conclusion of
Mass and the beginning of the meal, and ordinary food is not to be set before the faithful
during the celebration of Mass.”
The footnoted document is at
adoremus.org/LiturgicaeInstaurationes.html and has:
“9. The Eucharist is celebrated as a rule in a place of worship.[footnote 34: See 1970 GIRM no. 260] Apart from cases of real need, as adjudged by the Ordinary for his jurisdiction, celebration outside a church is not permitted. When the Ordinary does allow this, there must be care that a worthy place is chosen and that the Mass is celebrated on a suitable table. If at all possible, the celebration should not take place in a dining room or on a dining-room table.”
The 1969 Instruction Actio Pastoralis has:
“10. … c. The norms regarding the eucharistic fast are to be observed; there is therefore never to be any sort of meal or banquet preceding the Mass. If there is one afterward, the table for it, as far as possible, is not to be the one on which the eucharist has been celebrated.”
(From Documents on the Liturgy 1963-1979, Liturgical Press, Minnesota, 1982, ISBN 0-8146-1281-4, page 675).
I am not aware of anything requiring 24 hours before a meal can be served on a table, which has been used to celebrate the Eucharist. A “clear interval of time” is all that is mentioned in the 2004 Instruction quoted above.
