What is a Church Dedication?
When a church is consecrated it is, like all Catholics, baptized, confirmed and communed in the Holy Eucharist.
At the beginning of the Dedication, the Bishop blesses water and sprinkles the entire church with Holy Water; the church is baptized. Later in the service, the bishop takes the Sacred Chrism (consecrated by him on Holy Thursday, the oil is perfumed, so it carries the “sweet fragrance of Christ” (Cor. 2:15). The Sacred Chrism, which takes its name from Christ, is used to anoint babies at Baptism, the faithful in Confirmation, priests and bishops at their Ordinations and for the Consecration of Churches and Altars. It is the oil which confers the Holy Spirit, “for whatever the Holy Spirit touches is truly sanctified and changed.” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, CL 23).
As we received First Communion, so too does the church building and altar as the bishop offers the first Mass in the new church. The altar is marked with five crosses to remember the five wounds of Christ. It is on the altar that the Sacrifice of Christ is offered anew. Thus the dedicated church, like all Catholics, is “initiated” to be a presence of Christ in the world.
Under the altar is a hole cut in the floor which contains the relics of the saints. The Book of Revelation (6:9) states that saints who shed their blood for Christ stand under God’s altar in the temple of heaven in perpetual prayer for the Church and in unending praise of God. The Church places relics of the saints under the parish altars asking for their intercession because they shared in the Sacrifice of Christ.
You will hear a long list of names mentioned at Mass beginning with Mary, the Mother of the Lord, St. John the Baptist the forerunner of the Lord, St. Joseph, with last few saints mentioned relics that lie underneath the altar that all have special meaning to our Catholic Church and to our parish. We ask them to unite with us on earth as they celebrate at the Lord’s altar in heaven.
