Q: I listened online to your Workshop Sessions ARS Celebrandi held in New Zealand. In the last session you talked about the Offertory gifts. Included in this was the Collection. Could you please clarify for me as I have recently taken this up with our Parish Priest as we are in the habit of taking the collection basket up into the Sanctuary and placing at the foot of the altar once collection has been completed. The Church’s liturgical norms make a clear distinction between the gift of bread and wine and monetary offerings. GIRM 73 states “they are to be put in a suitable place away from the Eucharistic table”. The Sanctuary represents the meeting of heaven and earth. The altar is the centre of the Sanctuary and although the collection basket is not being placed on the altar it is being taken into the ‘holy of holies’ – the Sanctuary. Our collection is not taken up with the bread and wine but taken separately whilst the concentration is in progress, which is another problem as it is very distracting. My understanding is that monetary offerings are not to remain immediately around the altar but rather in a suitable place away from it.
Could you please clarify what you meant when you commented about the collection being an acceptable part of the offering gifts. Thank you for your workshop, it was extremely helpful.
Godbless
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A: Regarding the placement of the collection, here’s a previous post: https://paulturner.org/collection/
Regarding the timing of the collection, here’s another previous post: https://paulturner.org/the-collection/
In general, I believe the offerings of the people have their most symbolic expression if they are included with the bread and wine in the procession of the gifts and set on the floor near the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer.
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