{"id":48466,"date":"2019-07-30T16:31:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T21:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=48466"},"modified":"2019-08-14T00:03:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T05:03:39","slug":"altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/30\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Altar Trays: The New Liturgical Abuse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of my pet hates is to see extra things placed on the altar.&nbsp;&nbsp;I strongly believe that the altar should not be cluttered. While the altar is one of the principal symbols in a church, before being a symbol or a sacred object, it is a functional piece of furniture. It is meant to hold some things during the liturgy, but also there is a limit to what should be placed on it. As I do not have a regular parish assignment, I find myself celebrating in many different churches. My practice is to arrive before the start of the celebration and go down to the altar and clean as much stuff off it as I can before the celebration begins (missalettes, bulletins, sermon notes, glasses cases, huge unnecessary missal stands and my personal favorite, the pyx or canister containing the \u201cpriest\u2019s hosts\u201d that some sacristans leave on the altar so that they can easily put out a new priest\u2019s host between Masses. As this is a container of bread usually lives on the altar during Mass, I imagine that the thin metal lid must be made of kryptonite to prevent the Consecration penetrating the pyx, and that although the bread inside has been on the altar for up to 20 Masses, it has remained unconsecrated until it has been put on the priest\u2019s paten. Being the iconoclast that I am, I also take away the private priest\u2019s paten for his special host, because God forbid that we follow number 321 of the GIRM which mandates that \u201cthe Eucharistic Bread \u2026&nbsp;&nbsp;be fashioned in such a way that the priest \u2026 truly able to break it into parts and distribute these to at least some of the faithful\u201d and add the host to the individual pre-cut ones in a ciborium if one is being consecrated. Needless to say, if I was permanently in one parish I would lobby to buy bigger breads.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pedro Farn\u00e9s, my mentor in things liturgical once wrote how on a theological level we can distinguish between three categories of objects placed on the altar: sacramental elements (bread and wine); festive elements (altar cloth and candles) and finally the functional elements microphone, corporals and missal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:11px\" class=\"has-text-color has-vivid-red-color wp-block-paragraph\">Pedro Farn\u00e9s Scherer,\u00a0<em>Construir y Adaptar las Iglesias: Orientaciones Doctrinales y Sugerencias Pr\u00e1cticas Sobre el Espacio Celebrativo, Seg\u00fan el Esp\u00edritu del Concilio VaticanoII<\/em> (Barcelona: Editorial Regina, 1989), 54\u201360.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lately, two photographs of solemn eucharistic celebrations caught my eye.&nbsp;&nbsp;Both had trays being used on the altar to hold chalices. One was here on PrayTell in an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/21\/reflections-on-the-dedication-of-christ-cathedral\/\">account&nbsp;<\/a>of the dedication of Christ Cathedral in Orange, CA. The other was an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/news\/11897\/cardinal-nichols-highlights-far-reaching-persecution-of-christians-at-lourdes-mass-\">account&nbsp;<\/a>of a eucharistic liturgy celebrated by Cardinal Nichols during a pilgrimage to Lourdes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Orange-tray-600x363.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Orange-tray-600x363.jpg 600w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Orange-tray-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Orange-tray-768x465.jpg 768w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Orange-tray.jpg 810w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption>Bishop Kevin W. Vann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange says a prayer during the Christ Cathedral Solemn Mass of Dedication on Wednesday July 17, 2019, in Garden Grove. Over 2000 people attended the dedication. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Nichols-tray-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Nichols-tray-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Nichols-tray-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Nichols-tray-420x280.jpg 420w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Nichols-tray.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption>Cardinal Nichols pictured at the International Mass celebrated at the Basilica of St Pius X Lourdes, 2019&nbsp;<br>Photo: \u00a9Marc Hanson, Diocese of Westminster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know the practice is fairly widespread and have seen it on a number of occasions, although I don\u2019t remember ever presiding over a celebration with trays on the altar. Obviously, the chalices have to be brought to the altar somehow or other.&nbsp;&nbsp;And in no way am I in favor of not allowing people to receive from the chalice because it is awkward or requires some extra logistical work. There are precious few details on how the Eucharist should be celebrated in the Bible, but it is fairly clear that Jesus said that all should take and drink. I agree with the theological definition of the real presence and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/06\/more-on-communion-under-both-forms-and-concomitance-in-manchester-new-hampshire\/\">concomitance&nbsp;<\/a>whereby Jesus is fully present (Body, Blood, Soul &amp; Divinity) in either the eucharistic bread or cup, yet I believe that Communion under both Species is the way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, I am not sure whether I particularly like the practice of placing trays on the altar. Why are they there? Would it not be possible to bring them from the credence table on the tray and then place them on the surface of the altar cloth or corporal? Is this a case of falling into the old trap of minimizing work and destroying symbols?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can find no mention of liturgical trays in the different liturgical documents. The word \u201ctray\u201d does not appear in the current English translation of the Roman Missal, in the&nbsp;<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/prayer-and-worship\/the-mass\/norms-for-holy-communion-under-both-kinds\/index.cfm\">Norms<\/a>for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America<\/em>or in either volume 1 or 2 of LTP\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Liturgy Documents&nbsp;<\/em>collection. A Google Search for \u201cliturgical tray\u201d gives results either for patens, trays for the wine and water cruets or collection plates.&nbsp;Meyer\u2022Vogelpohl Church Supply Store in Cincinnati, OH, my go-to destination for exotic liturgical supplies, does stock a few of these&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mvchurchgoods.com\/detail.lasso?id=MVPP&amp;label=glass,%20metal\">trays<\/a>. But I cannot see them as being widely accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My question for discussion is whether I am exaggerating (a tendency that many tell me I have), or is this a new liturgical abuse that is creeping in to our liturgies?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my pet hates is to see extra things placed on the altar.&nbsp;&nbsp;I strongly believe that the altar should not be cluttered. While the altar is one of the principal symbols in a church, before being a symbol or a sacred object, it is a functional piece of furniture. It is meant to hold [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3118,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-mass"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Altar Trays: The New Liturgical Abuse? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/30\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Altar Trays: The New Liturgical Abuse? - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my pet hates is to see extra things placed on the altar.&nbsp;&nbsp;I strongly believe that the altar should not be cluttered. While the altar is one of the principal symbols in a church, before being a symbol or a sacred object, it is a functional piece of furniture. It is meant to hold [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/30\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-30T21:31:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-14T05:03:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/tray.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"797\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Neil Xavier O&#039;Donoghue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Neil Xavier O&#039;Donoghue\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/30\\\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/30\\\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fr. 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Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/nxodonoghue\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Altar Trays: The New Liturgical Abuse? - Home","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/30\/altar-trays-the-new-liturgical-abuse\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Altar Trays: The New Liturgical Abuse? - Home","og_description":"One of my pet hates is to see extra things placed on the altar.&nbsp;&nbsp;I strongly believe that the altar should not be cluttered. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/tray.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48473,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48466\/revisions\/48473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}