Altar

“ Easily imagined is the hallowed aspect of the lofty fane when the last rays of the sun shot redly within, suffused the altar in a crimson haze, and glowed upon the burnished ornaments and the carvings of veined marble and whitest stone ”

“ The high altar, if one wished to examine it minutely, would require as much time as the interior of a church: it is itself a church—a miracle of little columns, statuettes, traceries, and ornaments of endless variety, creeping along the iron frames, rising above the architraves, winding about the niches, supporting one another, climbing and disappearing, presenting on every side a thousand outlines, groups, combinations, effects in gilding and color, every sort of grace that art can devise—giving to the whole an effect of magnificence, dignity, and beauty. ”

“ Passing into the sacred tabernacle, a gorgeous vision strikes upon the senses—golden lamps, suspended from the ceiling, shed a mellow but subdued light upon an altar, where jewelled chalices, crucifixes, and candelabras are arrayed in glittering profusion, surmounted by an image, whence literally a blaze of diamonds is radiating. ”

“ The Altar Alone, remote, nor witting where I went, I found an altar builded in a dream — A fiery place, whereof there was a gleam So swift, so searching, and so eloquent Of upward promise, that love's murmur, blent With sorrow's warning, gave but a supreme Unending impulse to that human stream Whose flood was all for the flame's fury bent. ”

“ I adore Thee beneath the eucharistic veil which Thou hast mercifully chosen in order to approach us. Permit me, O dearest Jesus, to render Thee my homage together with the angels who surround Thy altar-throne. I believe that Thou dwellest on our altars, not only to receive our humble adoration, but also to be the food of our souls, our sacrifice, our light in darkness, our counsel in doubt, our consolation in affliction, our strength in temptation, our friend in every need, our teacher in the school of perfection, our model in the way of sanctity and salvation. ”

“ Thy only-begotten Son, here truly present upon the altar, has deigned to become a sacrifice and propitiation for our sins, I offer thee his most holy Body and Blood, his Humanity and his Divinity, his virtues and his perfections, his Passion and Death, in union with that love with which he once offered himself to thee upon the cross, and now offers himself to thee on the altar. ”

“ On the grandest of all altars, nature herself; our favorite altar is the summit of a mountain. There we are nearest to our own god, Mithras, the mighty sun, and to Auramazda, the pure creative light; for there the light lingers latest and returns earliest. ”

“ On the altar of green turf, on the swaying columns of interwoven boughs, on the storm-tossed belfries of vine-surrounded trees, in southern swamp or northern forest, in tropical wilderness or rosy-tinted orchard, everywhere is stamped the semblance of the church, with chalices upreared, with bells anxiously bent human-ward. O brothers of the altar and the tower, let us sing together the same hymn.”
And the child Benignus said softly to himself:
“O God! make my heart a chalice, and my lips a Christian bell.” ”

“ One needs no detail, no assurance; the whole beats in upon the consciousness, steals in like an atmosphere, as we stand in the shadow looking at the little flower-decked altar, musty and tawdry with its artificial flowers and flounced draperies. ”

“ That glows on holier altars; what we sought
With thought, heart, mind, seems dust, and we aspire
To win some sure good, some guerdon holier, higher.
Thou art an altar, where the human soul
Pays God the tribute of its prayer and praise ”

“ Over the altar within are statues and a fresco of the Madonna, before which are flowers and lamps burning in the bright sunlight—all open to the air, as if to catch a passing invocation from the lips of those who might otherwise spare no thought, amid their toils, for heaven. ”

“ It is the beautiful emblem of faith, springing from and surviving the ruins of its earthly temple. Passing through the gateway, over columns of porphyry and massive fragments of sculptured marble, we came to a broad pedestal near the upper end, which must have been the site of the grand altar. How it moves the heart to its inmost depths to reflect, that before that high altar have stood the Beloved Disciple and the Apostle of the Gentiles! In fancy, one hears the tremulous tones of the first, as he repeats over and over his favourite exclamation, “My children, love one another.” ”

“ There is a temple which the Divine Architect has reared, whose walls are immortal, in which his worship must be maintained by faculties ever conscious of his presence. There is an altar, the altar of the heart, on which a perpetual sacrifice must be presented. ”

“ But the altar therein is of sea-shaped stone,
Whereon, with the strength of his wide wings folded,
Sits death in the dark, alone.
He hears the word of his servant spoken,
The word that the wind his servant saith;
Storm writes on the front of the night his token,
That the skies may seem to bow down to death. ”

“ In its sort, the high altar, a gigantic triune, with massive twisted columns and swagger statues of saints and heroes in painted wood, is a prodigy of inventive piety, and compositely has a noble exaltation in its powerful lift to the roof. ”

“ The shrine at which the ceremony was going on had been decked with flowers, while on the long, counter-like altar in front of the figure of the goddess, between the jars of porcelain and bronze half filled with sandal-wood ashes in which sticks of incense were burning, and upon two square pedestals in front of the altar, were piled up pyramids of fruits and sweetmeats. ”

“ Within the altar rail are rows of lighted candles, tended and renewed by the attendant, placed there by penitents or by seekers after the favor of the saint. On the wooden benches, kneeling, are ladies, servants, colored women, in silent prayer. One approaches the lighted, picturesque shrine through the formal rows of tombs, and comes there into an atmosphere of peace and faith. It is believed that miracles are daily wrought here, and one notices in all the gardeners, keepers, and attendants of the place the accent and demeanor of simple faith. ”

“ WE HUMBLY beseech Thee, almighty God, to command that by the hands of Thy holy angel, this our Sacrifice be uplifted to Thine altar on high, into the very presence of Thy divine Majesty, that as many of us as shall, by partaking at this altar, receive the most sacred Body ✠ and Blood ✠ of Thy Son may be filled with all heavenly blessing and grace. ”

“ This altar-piece, for an altar of Our Lady, is a magnificent specimen of the master’s rich and luminous colouring. The crimson robe of the Christ, the blue and lilac harmony on the Madonna, and the faint yellow of the Father’s robe, are admirably contrasted. So are the darkness of the lower clouds and the luminosity of the upper region, recalling Titian’s famous Assumption at Venice. The little boy angels are sweet and characteristic. Here you may begin to appreciate the force, the dash, the lavish wealth of Rubens. ”

“ R. For thou art God, my strength, why hast Thou cast me off? and why do I go sorrowful whilst the enemy afflicteth me?
P. Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto Thy holy hill, and into Thy tabernacles.
R. And I will go unto the altar of God: to God, who giveth joy to my youth.
P. To Thee, O God my God, I will give praise upon the harp: why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost Thou disquiet me? ”

“ The perspective on first entering the church is very striking: the eye ranges without interruption, through a vista of lofty pillars and pointed arches, to the splendid altar in the Lady-Chapel, which forms at once an admirable termination to the building and the prospect. The high altar in the choir is plain and insulated. ”

“ At this altar, dedicated to the only true God, we who have been delivered from the depths increase the measure of our devotion to the daily life and purpose which are in the image and likeness of God. ”

“ He buildeth this altar who adorneth his heart with true humility and other virtues. Whence Gregory: He who gathereth together virtues without humility, is as he who scattereth dust to the wind. For by the altar he understandeth our heart, as it shall be said when we treat of the dedication of the altar: it is in the middle of the body, as the altar is in the middle of the church. ”

“ Yet while by the light which shines in his own soul the seeker after God regards the outer chamber—its altar, its shewbread, its walls, and canopy—his thought passes beyond the veil. The altar is fashioned according to a pattern and used according to a law which God has given. It points to prayer, thanksgiving, devotion, that have their place in human life because facts exist out of which they arise—the beneficence, the care, the claims of God. The table of shewbread represents the spiritual provision made for the soul which cannot live but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God. ”

“ Nothing can be more symbolical of religion in church structure than to observe the trend of architectural lines in perspective. If the eye follow the upward course of the central and side aisles, and the downward sweep of the caps of columns, arches and walls diminishing in true perspective lines, it will be seen that they converge to the holiest place of the sacred edifice—the altar, the point of sight for all. ”

“ Just here, for we were coming toward the high altar, 21Antanazio dropped upon his knees, on the marble floor. A little bell had been rung, and all the Catholics in the cathedral bent to the ground as the host was elevated for their adoration in the celebration of the mass. We stood before the high altar, resplendent above and about it with wrought silver and gold and rich carving and sculpture, in which the life and death of the blessed Saviour are inscribed in mute yet expressive symbols. ”

“ The nave is thickly set with wooden seats, brown and worn. What pictures there are, in the shrines and chapels, are dark and faded. On the whole, the edifice has a shabby aspect. On each side of the high altar, elevated on four pillars of beautiful marble, is what looks like a great sarcophagus of bronze. They are, in fact, pulpits, and are ornamented with mediaeval bas-reliefs, representing scenes in the life of our Saviour. ”

“ In the daytime a rich shadowy light is thrown into the church by the excellent disposition of its windows; at eventide the sheen of the setting sun, caught by the western window, falls like a bright flood down the nave, and makes the scene beautiful. The high altar is a fine piece of workmanship; is of Gothic design, is richly carved, is ornamented with marbles, has a canopy of most elaborate construction, and is in good harmony with the general architecture. ”

“ Each cloud-capped mountain is a holy altar;
An organ breathes in every grove;
And the full heart's a Psalter,
Rich in deep hymns of gratitude and love! ”

“ Near the statue is that altar which is esteemed one of the wonders of the world. It is not gold or marble which is admired in it; horns of animals, forcibly bent, and artfully interwoven, form a whole equally solid and regular. Some priests, whose employment it is to adorn it with flowers and boughs, made us observe the ingenious contexture of its parts. ”

“ It had then encountered the altar, overturning the iron cross and wooden candlesticks only 3 feet from the back of my head as I sat on the step, tearing the wreath of artificial flowers or worsted rosettes strung on copper wire which surrounded the figure of the Virgin, and scattering the fragments in all directions. ”

“ All the altars throughout the world, on which He is ever born and dies again in mystic repetition, are but an extension of the one great altar of Calvary, where first He gave His life for our salvation. ”

“ And an interior altar is the altar of the cross. This is the altar on which they offered the evening sacrifice. Whence in the Canon of the Mass it is said, Jube hoc in sublime Altare Tuum perferri. [Footnote 206] Moreover the external altar representeth the sacraments of the Church: of which it is said, 'Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.' [Footnote 207] Again, the altar is our mortification in our heart, in which carnal motions are consumed by the fervour of the Holy Spirit. ”

“ We offer on the earthly Altar the same Sacrifice that is being perpetually offered on the Heavenly Altar. There is only one Altar, only one Sacrifice, one Eucharist—"one offering, single and complete". All the combined earthly Altars are but one Altar—the earthly or visible part of the Heavenly Altar on which He, both Priest and Victim, offers Himself as the Lamb "as it had been slain". The Heavenly Altar is, as it were, the centre, and all the earthly Altars the circumference. We gaze at the Heavenly Altar through the Earthly Altars. ”

“ Altar.—The floor of the Altar (immediately under the communion-table) consists of a slab of marble, eight feet long by four feet wide, which is most beautifully carved with rose-wheel circles and hexagonal elongated departments, sustaining what would seem to have been an altar-stone, about six inches in height, the sides of which are deeply grooved or fluted, in one hollow, with roses interlaced with leaves carved thereon in bold and beautiful relief. The Altar is ascended from the nave by three steps ”

“ For your altar is adorned with many painted images which were fashioned by the hands of sinful men: which have mouths, and speak not; ears, and hear not; noses, and smell not; [Pg 378] hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not—which GOD doth not allow at his altar, for he hath utterly condemned them by his Word. ”