Reredos

A reredos is the wall behind an altar. It usually has some kind of ornamentation or icons, and helps to set the wall behind the altar apart from the rest of the room, and thus helps to direct the eyes of the worshipper to the cross and to God.

We have two altars at Mercy House--one in the Bonny Room (Oratory of St. Bonaventure, which is our chapel/library/music room), that has our Reserved Sacrament. The Bonny Altar has part of a beautiful reredos of wood which was made in Germany in the 1800's (the entire piece won't fit--there's not enough room). Morning and Evening Prayer is usually prayed in front of this altar, over which hangs a San Damiano cross.

The other altar, in the living room, is where the Chapel of St. Francis parish worships in Eucharist on Sundays and Wednesdays. Until last weekend, the Celtic cross sat on the altar. I mounted a shelf above the window which is over and behind the altar, and sat the Celtic cross on it. Now we begin putting together our reredos for the main altar--and I'm excited. We've decided to mount icons, not unlike our brethren in the Eastern Church. The icons will be mounted under the cross and above the window in the general order the Eastern Church does it. We already have a Christ icon and Mary with the Christ-child icon, and this particular one that Sr. Clare brought over this morning is called "Theotokos 'Of the Sign'". My intention is to have them up today before Eucharist. Also, we'll eventually have a St. Antony and a St. Francis. The St. John the Beloved by Br. Luke will be on the wall to the left of the altar, over Athalia the cockatiel's room, and a Holy Trinity icon will be mounted on the wall to the right of the altar (because we are now The Communion of the Holy Trinity).

We have two large icons in the Bonny--Christ, and Mary with the Christ-child. We'll add a Holy Trinity icon in there, too.

I'm excited! Now I need to get busy mounting these icons and get to my homework. :)
We welcome you to join us tonight at 7 for fellowship, Eucharist, and class. Topic: stem cell research, a Biblical look.


br. francis