Advice on the Use of the Table

The visual appearance of the Table or altar is important in communicating its meaning. This article offers advice for how to present the Table so that it will serve as a symbol of Christ’s presence with the people at worship.

The Holy Table is the physical focal point of every eucharistic place. It must never be overpowered by decorative architecture or suspended crosses; never compromised by the proximity of other major objects such as a chair, tabernacle, or baptismal font; never trivialized by minor objects such as bookstands, microphones, cruets, flower vases, devotional aids, and the like being left on it. Roman tradition, despite lapses here and there, has always regarded the holy Table as the main architectural symbol of Christ’s abiding presence among his people, recalling to them constantly their fundamental nature as a Table fellowship in him.

The Table in this sense is a “blessed sacrament” in its own way and should be treated with the same degree of reverence accorded the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. That the integrity of both these sacred symbols of his abiding presence in the Church is maintained is the reason why the reformed liturgy reasserted the Roman tradition of reserving the eucharistic species in a place other than on the eucharistic place’s Holy Table. Altar ornaments such as candlesticks, reliquaries, flower vases, crosses, and the like must be scaled to the Table and are best removed when the Table is not in use. The Table itself should be free-standing, accessible from all sides, more square than long in shape, and itself scaled to the space it occupies. It should have a strong and elemental simplicity to it and possess a certain mass that remains visually constant from whatever angle it is viewed. The space around it should be flat and adequate to accommodate numbers of people and without complicated risers which endanger access and render the space fussy.

The Holy Table is not an idol but a sacramental symbol of the presence of the Unseen. It is consecrated by water and oil similar to the way a Christian is consecrated in baptism.