Sacrificial passage

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High altar with sacrificial portals in the parish church of Heiliger Egyd in Tigring, market town of Moosburg , Carinthia

An offering is a custom in Christian worship in which the believers bring their money sacrifice ("sacrificial penny") in a procession to the altar and lay it there. Victims courses were up to modern times on certain days (holidays, weddings , funeral days , confirmation usual etc.), in the evangelical field altar handling or altar round called.

Forms of the sacrifice

The worshipers go in a row to the choir of the church and place the sacrifice in sacrificial boxes, plates or baskets, which in some places are held by altar boys. Regionally, this donation procession also made its way around the altar. In baroque churches, the altar structures had doors to the right and left of the altar, the “sacrificial passageways”, which made it possible to walk behind the altar. It was also possible to donate for two purposes, and there was one offering plate on the epistle side and the other on the gospel side . If there is another complete altar with tabernacle on the back, for example in the Zwiefalten pilgrimage church , this is called the sacrificial altar . Such "altar surrounds" or "altar surrounds" were common in both Catholic and Protestant worship. Occasions were baptism , wedding services or confirmation services, where the bride and groom or the confirmands made the altar rotation. In the Jewish worship service, people around the lectern, the bima , are held on the festival of Sukkot and prayers for a good harvest.

Even with donations in kind that were deposited in the anteroom of the church, the donors symbolically walked around the altar during the service. for example in Slovenia until the 20th century.

In the holy mass , the sacrifice usually took place at the offertory . But there are also testimonies of a sacrifice at the Kyrie , before the Gospel or when going to communion in order to avoid everyone going to the altar again. On certain occasions, the offering could be opened by certain people, such as the bride's guide or the head of a brotherhood .

Theologically, the sacrifice is interpreted as "active participation in the Lord's Supper, which takes place next to the common meal most clearly through the provision of material food". In the provision of bread and wine, the faithful express “their willingness to give themselves with Christ to the Father and to serve the brothers”.

history

In the old church , the celebration of the Eucharist was combined with a common meal, to which everyone brought something, and the table was set together. With the separation of meal and holy mass, the processes were ritualized. Since the 2nd or 3rd century ( Tertullian , Hippolyt , Cyprian ) it has been documented that the faithful brought gifts to the mass as a natural duty and brought them to the altar, for example in Rome, Milan and North Africa ( Augustine ). In the Eastern Church and in Gaul , on the other hand, the faithful placed their gifts in a room at the entrance of the church, from where the bread and wine required for the Eucharist were carried to the altar by the clergy in procession to the beginning of the sacrificial mass, accompanied by the singing of psalms . as it still happens today in the Divine Liturgy at the “Great Entry”. In the solemn papal mass of the early Middle Ages (8th century), the Pope, supported by a bishop and a deacon, collected the offerings of the faithful, bread and wine, in the church and handed them to sub-deacons , who carried them to the chancel.

Clerics usually brought bread and wine, lay people usually brought gifts in kind, food, candles, valuables and, since the 11th century, increasingly money. The gifts of the laity were understood as alms for the poor and as gifts for the upkeep of the clergy. Under Franconian influence, the sacrifice of all believers developed from the early Middle Ages, which according to the Creed moved as a procession to the altar: in front the men, then the women, lastly priests and deacons. Franconian knife experts saw this as an echo of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem ( Mt 21 : 1–12  EU ). The wine donations were brought in ampoules and poured into a large collecting cup by the deacons. What was not needed for celebrating Mass was placed on tables in the cross arms of the church and given to charitable purposes after the service.

Sacrifice was understood early on as a right of honor which, by virtue of baptism, was tied to the priesthood of believers and from which public sinners, penitents , heretics and enemies of the church were excluded; even the catechumens were not yet allowed to take part in the sacrifice. The donors were initially mentioned by name in the service, later as a group of donors interceding. To this day, the 4th prayer is prayed “for all who donate their gifts”, the 1st prayer says: “Remember all who are gathered here. [...] Before you, the eternal, living and true God, they bring their prayers and gifts. "

Alms and maintenance of the clergy were detached from the direct connection with the Holy Mass. Foundations and the trade fair scholarship system arose . With this, the general sacrifice of the faithful lost its meaning and was reduced to the Sunday community mass, after the turn of the 2nd millennium on festive days such as Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, All Saints' Day and the funeral mass. At the beginning of the 16th century it was mentioned on various occasions such as wedding and funeral masses. The priest took the gifts on the epistle side of the altar contrary, the donors kissed the maniple of the priest and received a blessing word. In the post-Tridentine liturgy based on Pope Pius V's Roman Missal from 1570, which was a pure “clergy liturgy”, the sacrifice was no longer provided, and the kissing of the maniples was forbidden. One reason is to be seen in the burden of the sacrificial rite by the "fiscal growths of the late Middle Ages" and the avoidance of a suspicion of simony : "work" on the part of the donors and profit-seeking on the part of the priesthood, who were able to keep the proceeds of the sacrifice and in part Dependent on it for their livelihood were also seen later as a danger, just like disruptions to worship through the offering of live animals.

Regionally, however, the sacrifice remained in practice as an element of popular piety during the missa lecta performed by the priest . In the case of funeral services, this can be observed in the entire German-speaking area, in Holland and Belgium, similarly at wedding masses. On the northern edge of the Alps, in Upper Silesia and elsewhere, sacrifice was common on Sundays or even on weekdays: “Someone from the family for whom Mass is celebrated opens it, others join, initially from relatives, The order is based on the degree of kinship. ”The priest took no account of the sacrifice, but continued to“ read ”the mass while the faithful brought their offerings forward in procession.

For Austria, Joseph II ordered in 1785 that the celebration of mass should not be disturbed by the sacrifice and that the sacrifice should take place before the beginning of the service; no burning candles were allowed to be carried with them, only money should be sacrificed. In Bavaria, in the course of the Enlightenment, there were similar tendencies towards the state influencing church practice; In some cases, two sacrificial courses were held there for each mass at this time. In 1804 Joseph Maria von Weichs decreed for the electoral state administration in Munich that "in future, in order not to constantly disturb the prayer and spiritual gathering of those present, only one sacrifice should take place at the parish church services, which must begin immediately after the so-called relay prayers ." The priests questioned in the Diocese of Passau considered a sacrifice only at communion - as initially planned by the state administration - or after the end of the service, as “harmful; many sheep would then sneak away without sacrificing, because with this too enlightened spirit of the times people tried to withdraw not only their voluntary gifts but also their owed kingdoms from the houses of God, and even more so from the priests ”.

There was also a substitute sacrifice, in which only the city superiors (in parts of Spain) or monasteries performed the Sunday sacrifice. In the Diocese of Passau it was customary until the 20th century for the youngest female member of the deceased's family to bring a white candle to the altar at the funeral mass. In Bonn continues to this day, the resulting late medieval custom that the Mayor for the Feast of the city patrons annually Cassius and Florentius , 10 October, in Bonn Minster sacrifices a candle on behalf of the City Council and inflamed.

The reformers rejected the sacrificial character of the holy mass , but the collection of gifts was also preserved in Protestant worship and is understood as a sacrifice of thanksgiving .

Today's forms

At the offertory of the Mass, the gifts of bread and wine, which is usually on the side of the sanctuary on a be credenza ready by acolytes brought to the altar and the priest or deacon passed. A relic of the sacrifice can be seen here. The bell bag is brought to the front by the collectors after the collection and placed in front of the altar or on a table for gifts in the sanctuary; In some places in Protestant church services it is received by the liturgist with a blessing. In other Protestant churches it is common for all worshipers to make sacrifices as a normal form of collection, for example in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania .

In the course of the renewal by the liturgical movement in the 20th century, one of whose basic principles was the Participatio actuosa all in worship, the sacrifice received a new appreciation within the Catholic liturgy, and new forms developed. In group masses, but in some places also in the community mass, a “host sacrifice” became a custom. The worshipers go in procession to the altar at the offertory and use a small shovel to place a host in the ciborium , which the priest offers. It is more common that the worshipers place a host in the prepared host bowl at the entrance to the church , which is then brought to the altar by altar servers or individual parishioners in a "gift procession" during the preparation of the gifts . Such rites were carried out by Pope Pius XII. in his encyclical Mediator Dei (1947): "Then the believers sometimes bring bread and wine to the servants of the altar - and this happened more often in earlier times - so that they may become the body and blood of Christ."

“Then you bring the offerings to the altar. Appropriately, bread and wine are offered by the faithful, but received by the priest or a deacon in a suitable place to be brought to the altar. Even if the faithful no longer bring the bread and wine, which are intended for the liturgy, with them as they used to, the rite of carrying them to the front still retains expressiveness and spiritual significance.
Money or other gifts that are donated by the faithful for the poor or for the church or collected in the church are also welcome. That is why they are placed in a suitable place, but not on the table of the Eucharist. "

- Basic Order of the Roman Missal (2007) No. 73

Special occasions for the sacrifice

  • Bread and wine were brought to the altar by lay people on extraordinary occasions: at the coronation of the king, the consecration of virgins , the primacy , at solemn festivals, at wedding and funeral services.
  • From 1391 until the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , part of the rite of the papal mass at a canonization was that two loaves, two kegs with wine and water, five candles and three cages with doves and other birds were brought in three groups to the altar and there have been blessed by the Pope; Each group consisted of four nobles as gifts bearers and a cardinal . At the episcopal ordination the newly consecrated bishop sacrificed two loaves of bread, two kegs with wine and two candles until the 2nd Vatican Council.
  • The sacrificial process lasted the longest at the funeral mass. In the 19th century in Champagne (France) it was customary for relatives of the deceased to bring bread, wine and a candle to the altar at the Requiem ; elsewhere such a custom was common at All Souls' Day . Until the 20th century, bread and flour or rolls were placed on the choir screen at some funeral masses in the Alpine countries . The sacrifice of the whole community with money sacrifices at the requiem had sunk to an empty formality in the 20th century. At large funerals it could last until communion was given . Death notes were handed out during the sacrifice , and the sacrifice was an occasion for some to document that they had participated; it was not uncommon for people to leave the service after the sacrifice.
  • Also for Thanksgiving, it is customary in the region to surround the altar, with a symbolic sacrifice of money as thanks to God. In some places, natural produce is placed in baskets at the church entrance on Thanksgiving, and these baskets are brought to the altar when the gifts are prepared.
  • On themed Sundays such as Caritas Sunday or World Mission Sunday , the collection is held in some places in the form of a sacrifice for all. Liturgical scholars emphasize that this should not be done in order to "put pressure on the willingness to give" in this way.

literature

  • Josef Andreas Jungmann SJ: Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass , Volume 2. Herder Verlag, Vienna, Freiburg, Basel, 5th edition 1962, pp. 3-34.
  • Georg Schwaiger : Sacrifice courses in the Diocese of Passau at the beginning of the 19th century. In: Walter Dürig (Hrsg.): Liturgie: Gestalt und Vollzug. Munich 1963, pp. 316–323.
  • Theodor Maas-Ewerd : Sacrifice of the believers . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 7 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, Sp. 1071 .

Web links

  • Article “Altarumgang” in the Church ABC of the Saxon State Church ; accessed on March 24, 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 26.
  2. ^ Hans Albrecht Oehler: Synagogue or Fides? To Johann Georg Weckenmann's Haigerloch altar figures . In: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 30/31 (117) 1994/95, p. 199, digitized
  3. ↑ Eduard Emil Koch : History of the hymn and hymn of the Christian, ... , Volume 4 (1853), page 793 ( digitized version )
  4. ^ Franz Delitzsch : Talmudic Studies , in: Journal for the entire Lutheran theology and church 1835, page 654 ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , pp. 19/20, note 71.
  6. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 21f., Esp. Note 81. p. 30f. Note 125.
  7. ↑ a b c d Adolf Adam , Rupert Berger : Pastoralliturgisches Handlexikon. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1980, p. 377ff.
  8. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. Vol. I, Herder Verlag, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1963, p. 388.
  9. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , pp. 3–9.
  10. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. Vol. I, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1963, p. 314f.
  11. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , pp. 12-18.
  12. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. Vol. I, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1963, p. 390.392
    Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 26f.
  13. ^ Hans Bernhard Meyer: Eucharist: history, theology, pastoral. Regensburg: Pustet 1989, ISBN 3-7917-1200-4 (Church service, vol. 4), p. 244ff.
  14. ↑ Mentioned in Johannes Burckard : Ordo servandus per sacerdotem in celebratione Missae sine cantu et ministris (around 1500) - see Hans Bernhard Meyer: Eucharist: History, Theologie, Pastoral. Regensburg: Pustet 1989, ISBN 3-7917-1200-4 (Church Service, Vol. 4), p. 218. 291f.
  15. ^ Hans Bernhard Meyer: Eucharist: history, theology, pastoral. Regensburg: Pustet 1989, ISBN 3-7917-1200-4 (Church Service, Vol. 4), p. 215.
  16. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 30.
  17. ^ Schwaiger: Sacrifice courses in the Diocese of Passau ; P. 316.
  18. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 28, note 114; P. 26; Pp. 30/31 note 125.
  19. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 22, note 81.
  20. ^ Schwaiger: Sacrifice courses in the Diocese of Passau ; Pp. 317f.322.
  21. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 28, note 114.
  22. ^ Schwaiger: Sacrifice courses in the Diocese of Passau ; P. 323.
  23. ↑ www.bonner-muenster.de ; Leif Kubik: City Patron Festival in Bonn: Mayor and council bring candle offerings . General-Anzeiger Bonn , October 13, 2014; Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  24. ↑ Theodor Maasewerd : Practical about the sacrifice of the believers. In: Liturgical Yearbook. 8th year (1958), pp. 243-249, here pp. 243f.
    Alfons Kirchgässner : sacrifice and communion. In: Alfons Kirchgässner: Our service. Herder Verlag, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1960, pp. 172–177, here pp. 173f.
  25. ^ Encyclical Mediator Dei No. 90.
  26. ^ Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference: Missale Romanum. Editio typica tertia 2002, Basic Order of the Roman Missal Book, preliminary publication for the German Missal Book (3rd edition) (PDF; 545 kB); Working Aids No. 215; Bonn 2007; 28
  27. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , p. 20. 26.
  28. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , pp. 18f.25.
  29. ↑ Jungmann: Missarum Sollemnia , pp. 17–18, note 94.
  30. ↑ Theodor Maasewerd: Practical about the sacrifice of the believers. In: Liturgical Yearbook. 8th year (1958), pp. 243-249, here p. 246.
  31. ↑ Article “Altarumgang” in the Church ABC of the Saxon State Church ; accessed on March 24, 2014.
  32. ^ Alfons Kirchgässner: Sacrifice and communion. In: Alfons Kirchgässner: Our service. Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1960, pp. 172–177, here p. 174.
  33. ^ Alfons Kirchgässner: Sacrifice and communion. In: Alfons Kirchgässner: Our service. Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1960, pp. 172–177, here p. 173.