Q: The General Instruction of the Roman Missal has “75. The bread and wine are placed on the altar by the Priest to the accompaniment of the prescribed formulas;”. In “Chalices on the altar” of 15 December 2022 you wrote that it was OK to “place pre-filled chalices on the altar before the gifts of bread and wine are brought forward”. I think Father Dennis Smolarski would disagree, with his emphasis on GIRM 75 in “How Not to Say Mass” Revised Edition. He wrote “We also should not have the gifts on the altar already–that is counter-symbolic since they should touch the altar only after the prayers are said.” He opposed a deacon, servers or lay people placing the gifts on the altar.

The solution he describes is for a deacon, concelebrant or (in the absence of these) the celebrant to prepare the chalices at the credence table. Or for the celebrant to hold the chalice off the altar when he pours the water and wine into it. 

Some parts of the GIRM that support pouring wine into the chalice at the credence table are:

GIRM 73: “First of all, the altar or Lord’s table, which is the centre of the whole Liturgy of the Eucharist, is made ready when on it are placed the corporal, purificator, Missal and chalice (unless this last is prepared at the credence table).”

GIRM 178 (Mass With a Deacon): “He may also carry out the preparation of the chalice at the credence table.”

In Mass, without a deacon or concelebrants, is it permitted for the Priest to pour the water and wine into the chalice at the credence table? Should this be the preferred option when there is more than one chalice?

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A: OM 23 and 25 say that, after the priest praises the Lord God of all creation, he places the chalice on the corporal, not on the altar. The chalice may be prepared on the altar off the corporal. 

A priest could pour water into wine at the credence table, but I think the only advisable circumstance would be when he has no altar server.