Altar cloth

An altar cloth is used by various religious groups to cover an altar. It may be used as a sign of respect towards the holiness of the altar, as in the Catholic Church. Because many altars are made of wood and are often ornate and unique, cloth may then be used to protect the altar surface. In other cases, the cloth serves to beautify a rather mundane construction underneath.

Christian altar cloths

Western Churches

Special cloths (not necessarily made of linen) cover the altar in many Christian churches during services and celebrations, and are often left on the altar when it is not in use. At the turn of the 20th century the Roman Catholic Church considered only linen or hemp to be acceptable as material for altar cloths, although in earlier centuries silk or cloth of gold or silver were used. The Anglican Communion had similar rules in that period.

At that time, the Roman Rite required the use of three altar cloths, to which a cere cloth, not classified as an altar cloth, was generally added. This was a piece of heavy linen treated with wax (cera, from which "cere" is derived, is the Latin word for "wax") to protect the altar linens from the dampness of a stone altar, and also to prevent the altar from being stained by any wine that may be spilled. It was exactly the same size as the mensa (the flat rectangular top of the altar).

Liturgy

Liturgy (Greek: λειτουργία) is the customary public worship performed by a specific religious group, according to its particular beliefs, customs and traditions.

The word, sometimes rendered by its English translation "service", may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία), Catholic Mass, the Eucharist or Mass (Anglican Communion) or a daily activity such as the Muslim salah and Jewish services. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy is a communal response to the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance. Ritualization may be associated with life events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death. It thus forms the basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Methods of dress, preparation of food, application of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgical activities.

Etymology

The word liturgy, derived from the technical term in ancient Greek, leitourgia, signifies the often expensive offers of service to the people, and thus to the polis and the state. Through the leitourgia, the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours. The leitourgia became both mandatory and honorific, supporting the patron's standing among the elite. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but was entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence. The chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M.I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a (quadrennial) Panathenaic year." Eventually, under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as munera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was avoided when possible.

Liturgy (disambiguation)

Liturgy is a Christian term with several meanings:

Liturgy may also refer to:

Eucharist in the Catholic Church

The Eucharist in the Catholic Church is the celebration of Mass, the eucharistic liturgy. The term Eucharist is also used for the bread and wine when transubstantiated (their substance having been changed), according to Catholic teaching, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ

Blessed Sacrament is a devotional term used in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the eucharistic species (the Body and Blood of Christ). Consecrated hosts are kept in a tabernacle after Mass, so that the Blessed Sacrament can be brought to the sick and dying outside the time of Mass. This makes possible also the practice of eucharistic adoration.

New Testament foundations

The First Eucharist in Scripture

The Catholic Church sees as the main basis for this belief the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper: the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20) and Saint Paul's 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 recount that in that context Jesus said of what to all appearances were bread and wine: "This is my body … this is my blood." The Catholic understanding of these words, from the Patristic authors onward, has emphasized their roots in the covenantal history of the Old Testament.

Pall

Pall may refer to:

People with the surname Pall:

See also

Pall (funeral)

A pall (also called mortcloth) is a cloth that covers a casket or coffin at funerals. The word comes from the Latin pallium (cloak), through Old English. It is also a stiffened square card covered with white linen, usually embroidered with a cross or some other appropriate symbol. The purpose of the pall is to keep dust and insects from falling into the Eucharistic elements in a chalice. The derivation is the same: the cloth is named after the presumed cloth that covered Jesus.

The use of a rich cloth pall to cover the casket or coffin during the funeral grew during the Middle Ages; initially these were brightly coloured and patterned, only later black, and later still white. They were usually then given to the Church to use for vestments or other decorations.

The rules for the pall's colour and use vary depending on religious and cultural traditions. Commonly today palls are pure white, to symbolize the white clothes worn during baptism and the joyful triumph over death brought about by the Resurrection. The colour is not fixed, though, and may vary with the liturgical season. Traditionally, it is common for the pall, as well as the vestments of the clergy to be black. The pall will often be decorated with a cross, often running the whole length of the cloth from end to end in all four directions, signifying the sovereignty of Christ's triumph over sin and death on the cross.

Pall (heraldry)

A pall (or pairle) is a Y-shaped heraldic charge, normally having its arms in the three corners of the shield. An example of a pall placed horizontally (fesswise) is the green portion of the Flag of South Africa.

A pall that stops short of the shield's edges and that has pointed ends to its three limbs is called a shakefork, although some heraldic sources do not make a distinction between a pall and a shakefork. A pall standing upside down is named pall reversed.

A pall on a shield may indicate a connection with the clergy, particularly archbishoprics, although in these cases the pall's lower limb usually stops short of the bottom of the shield and is fringed. Such a pall is often called an ecclesiastical pall or pallium. This is in reference to the ecclesiastical vestment from which this heraldic charge derives.

If there is symmetry within the arms, its blazon can be simplified in the English language by use of the heraldic term 'between' -- 'in the midst of, so as to make a symmetrical composition'. The coat of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon is an example where the French blasonnement is similar to the traditional English blazon, yet can be described with a simplified English blazon.