Altar Cards

We recently received altar cards…and they are beautiful! Most liturgical appointments (that’s the word used to describe the “things” Catholics use in their liturgical worship) are the result of practical needs. Before there was electricity, Catholics used candles to produce light. As for altar cards, there was/is a practical need to assist the priest with reminders of the liturgical prayers he ought to know from memory. Priests, just like everyone else, sometimes forget things. So, altar cards were/are placed at strategic places along the altar corresponding to the physical placement of the priest at certain times of the liturgical rite. Those in my patrimony like to make things as nice as possible, so instead of just writing the words on a post-it note they transformed the reminders into magnificent works of art. Those early liturgical artists did this to protect us against sterile (boring), utilitarian style of architecture and liturgical appointments. They discovered that ordinary things could be designed and developed to point us the extraordinary! The mundane was transformed to the magnificent. They sought to make a visible and physical connection between heaven and earth. Their work lifts our eyes, thoughts, and hearts ever heavenward. I am grateful that our patrimony preserves this precious gift. Indeed, in the document which established my diocese, Pope Benedict declared our patrimony “a treasure to be shared.” I am grateful for our altar cards and other such gifts of beauty which lift me to the transcendent mystery of God in Christ. Beauty, to my way of thinking, is one of the very few things which never disappoints!