Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Mixing Blessed and Unblessed Oils
ROME, FEB. 13, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
After our Jan. 30 column, some readers offered further information on the use of holy oils in various Catholic rites.
A Canadian reader commented: "As a matter of information, in both the Orthodox Church and in the Byzantine-rite Catholic Churches, the oil for holy unction is always blessed by the priest during the course of the mystery; 'pre-blessed' oil is never to be used."
I am grateful for this kind of information, for I am less familiar with all of the practices of the Eastern Churches than with the Latin rite.
For this reason I am unable to offer a documented response to an American Ukrainian Catholic who asks: "Our pastor accumulates the leftover holy oils in a very nice crystal flask which he keeps in the tabernacle. Is this allowed? Should he not dispose of this oil upon receiving a new supply on Holy Thursday? If he is to dispose of it -- what is the way to do it? Would soaking cotton with it and burning it be the way?"
With respect to keeping the holy oils (above all, the chrism for confirmation) it would appear that traditions vary. A cleric from another Byzantine Church, a Greek Melkite from Syria, informed me that it is customary in some places to keep the chrism along with the Eucharist. He also told me that there are several customs for older oils, including mixing newly blessed chrism with the old.
It would appear, therefore, that the actions of the Ukrainian priest probably fall within the range of his liturgical tradition.
Regarding the disposal of old oils: In the Latin rite it they are usually burned, but may also be consumed in lamps. Any burning of the oils should preferably be done outdoors as the oils generally produce a lot of smoke.
A writer from Ireland asked about the rite of blessing the holy oils: "At this year's Chrism Mass, the oils that were to be blessed by the bishop during the Mass were placed in front of the altar in sealed individual plastic bottles. The bottles were on three different trays, one for chrism, one for catechumens and one for the sick. During the Mass the bishop made no reference to the bottles; instead, three large vessels were presented to him for consecration in the usual way. At the end of the Mass, the priests of the diocese took the sealed bottles home with them while not receiving oil from the larger vessel. My question is: Since these individual plastic bottles were sealed and separate from the large containers that were consecrated, are they properly consecrated?"
I would not doubt the validity of the consecration of these oils. Some large dioceses necessarily consecrate more than one vessel as the amount of oil required may be too heavy for a single large container and the bishop would clearly intend to bless them, even if they remain sealed.
These extra vessels, however, are usually few in number and of the same style as the vessel brought before the bishop at the moment of blessing. While the use of individual bottles, plastic or otherwise, is not invalid, it does not correspond to the rite foreseen by the Church. It gives the impression of being cheap and sloppy and detracts from the solemnity and beauty of the Chrism Mass liturgy.
It was probably concocted as a pragmatic "solution" so that the priests could immediately collect the holy oils after Mass. However, there are surely more dignified means of expeditiously distributing the oils to all that need them.
After our Jan. 30 column, some readers offered further information on the use of holy oils in various Catholic rites.
A Canadian reader commented: "As a matter of information, in both the Orthodox Church and in the Byzantine-rite Catholic Churches, the oil for holy unction is always blessed by the priest during the course of the mystery; 'pre-blessed' oil is never to be used."
I am grateful for this kind of information, for I am less familiar with all of the practices of the Eastern Churches than with the Latin rite.
For this reason I am unable to offer a documented response to an American Ukrainian Catholic who asks: "Our pastor accumulates the leftover holy oils in a very nice crystal flask which he keeps in the tabernacle. Is this allowed? Should he not dispose of this oil upon receiving a new supply on Holy Thursday? If he is to dispose of it -- what is the way to do it? Would soaking cotton with it and burning it be the way?"
With respect to keeping the holy oils (above all, the chrism for confirmation) it would appear that traditions vary. A cleric from another Byzantine Church, a Greek Melkite from Syria, informed me that it is customary in some places to keep the chrism along with the Eucharist. He also told me that there are several customs for older oils, including mixing newly blessed chrism with the old.
It would appear, therefore, that the actions of the Ukrainian priest probably fall within the range of his liturgical tradition.
Regarding the disposal of old oils: In the Latin rite it they are usually burned, but may also be consumed in lamps. Any burning of the oils should preferably be done outdoors as the oils generally produce a lot of smoke.
A writer from Ireland asked about the rite of blessing the holy oils: "At this year's Chrism Mass, the oils that were to be blessed by the bishop during the Mass were placed in front of the altar in sealed individual plastic bottles. The bottles were on three different trays, one for chrism, one for catechumens and one for the sick. During the Mass the bishop made no reference to the bottles; instead, three large vessels were presented to him for consecration in the usual way. At the end of the Mass, the priests of the diocese took the sealed bottles home with them while not receiving oil from the larger vessel. My question is: Since these individual plastic bottles were sealed and separate from the large containers that were consecrated, are they properly consecrated?"
I would not doubt the validity of the consecration of these oils. Some large dioceses necessarily consecrate more than one vessel as the amount of oil required may be too heavy for a single large container and the bishop would clearly intend to bless them, even if they remain sealed.
These extra vessels, however, are usually few in number and of the same style as the vessel brought before the bishop at the moment of blessing. While the use of individual bottles, plastic or otherwise, is not invalid, it does not correspond to the rite foreseen by the Church. It gives the impression of being cheap and sloppy and detracts from the solemnity and beauty of the Chrism Mass liturgy.
It was probably concocted as a pragmatic "solution" so that the priests could immediately collect the holy oils after Mass. However, there are surely more dignified means of expeditiously distributing the oils to all that need them.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
10:14 AM
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