Question on the corporal cloth at Mass

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During the consecration, are all the chalices to be used for the Precious Blood meant to be on the corporal, or only the ciborium containing the hosts?
 
Brendan_64 said:
During the consecration, are all the chalices to be used for the Precious Blood meant to be on the corporal, or only the ciborium containing the hosts?
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The priest celebrant consecrates all the elements which he intends to consecrate. Often, he’ll use the corporal as a means to focus that “intent”. In other words, priest celebrants will often make sure that everything he intends to consecrate (on a paten, or in chalices, or in ciboria) are on (or are touching) the corporal.

However, if it were necessary to consecrate a large number of hosts or utilize a large number of chalices, it might not be possible to place all of them on the corporal. In this case, it’s clear: it’s the intent of the priest, not the location on a corporal, that identifies what is consecrated during the Mass.

So, a particular chalice might be on the corporal, or it might be elsewhere on the altar. That location doesn’t determine whether these elements are consecrated.

Does this help?
 
The Order of Mass, in the Roman Missal, has:

“23. … Then he places the paten with the bread on the corporal. …”

“25. … Then he places the chalice on the corporal. …”

This is done after the Priest says “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation …”.
 
Our Parish uses a separate Corporal for the Precious Blood vessels.
 
Remember that the corporal serves a practical purpose as well - to catch crumbs/spills and “protect” the altar cloth. Many times, multiple corporals are used, but as Gorgias said, that’s not always practical. The priest’s intent is the determining factor.
 
In our parish, we routinely use four chalices and two bowls, so I made double-length corporals to fit everything on comfortably.
 
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