The Altar, a sign of Christ. Taken from the Rite of Dedication of an Altar.
4. Everywhere, in varying circumstances, the Church's sons and daughters can celebrate the memorial of Christ and take their place at the Lord's table. Nevertheless, it is in keeping with the eucharistic mystery that the Christian faithful should erect a stable altar for celebrating the Lord's Supper, something that has been done from the earliest times.
The Christian altar is by its very nature a unique table of sacrifice and of the paschal banquet:
- a unique altar on which the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated in mystery throughout the ages until Christ comes;
- a table at which the Church's sons and daughters are gathered to give thanks to God and to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
In every church, then, the altar is "the center of the thanksgiving that is accomplished through the Eucharist" around which the Church's other rites are, in a certain manner, ordered.