The origins of the custom of burning a lamp before the tabernacle are in Jewish worship, where a lamp called ner tamid or “eternal flame” burns before the ark in every synagogue. The ark contains the sacred scrolls of the Torah. The flame represents the menorah in the Temple, and therefore is never extinguished. In fact, the word “tabernacle” itself is derived from Hebrew, as taber is the Hebrew…
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TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Customs surrounding the naming of babies are interesting, and over time the Church has tried to offer some motherly advice to direct parents in this necessary chore. The ritual book used for baptism from the sixteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries advised priests to guard against giving ridiculous or pagan names to babies consigned to their ministry. In 1666 the diocesan ritual of Bourges in France…
Last week’s “Treasure” noted that the official headgear of the pope, the tiara, has been set aside in favor of the miter. Although Pope Paul VI had a coronation in 1963 to begin his ministry as pope, he later gave his tiara away to the Catholics of the United States as a stimulus to end…