The earliest Christian altars were of wood, and identical in form with the ordinary house tables. The tables represented in the Eucharistic frescoes of the catacombs enable us to obtain an idea of their appearance. The most ancient, as well as the most remarkable, of these frescoes, that of the Fractio Panis found in the Capella Greca, which dates from the first decades of the second century, shows seven persons seated on a semi-circular divan before a table of the same form. Tabular-shaped altars of wood continued in use till well on in the Middle Ages.
History of Christian Altar
The Jewish menorah is a seven-branched candelabrum and is one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish people. The menorah is used in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
In the Latin-rite Catholic Church, seven candles are used. But in the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Church, they use the menorah (a seven-branched candelabrum) on their altars. Below is a photo of an Eastern Catholic menorah. And the Eastern Catholics are in communion with the Pope. So, since the Eastern Catholics, who are in communion with the Pope, can use and has been using a menorah on their altar for thousands of years, why is the Neocatechumenal Way being criticized and persecuted for using a menorah during the Easter Vigil?
Did you read Uma Tuna
ReplyDeleteI didn't read the one today. Why?
DeleteRead page 8 and 9 answering Tim White Tiger Roar's claim parishioner pump in to RMS.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article on the subject:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/five-myths-about-worship-in-the-early-church
Dear Anonymous,
DeleteYour article did not provide sources to support what they say. For example, Myth #3 stated the following:
But when Jesus worshipped in the synagogue, the language used was Hebrew, which had already been dead for 300 years. And for the first three centuries in Rome, the Mass was mostly celebrated in Greek, not Latin, which was only understood by a minority of the congregation.
This is clearly false. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which dated to the first century in Jesus' time, were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Therefore, Hebrew and Aramaic were still spoken during the first century. Also, scholars are convinced that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew due to the many Hebrew idioms found in the Gospel. Sometime later, the Gospel of Matthew was translated to Greek.