Symbols and Customs
Catholicism is absolutely chok-full of symbolism and ancient customs. As a convert coming into Catholicism "fresh," I took the time to learn a lot of these symbols and customs, but I was suprised to discover that many "cradle Catholics" don't know these things - I guess that's a danger of growing up with these things around you.
I get excited about these symbols and customs, because they are so very charged with meaning and significance. Here are a few that come to mind:
Christmas on Dec. 25
There are two reasons why this feast is located on this date. First, because it's very close to the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21), which is when the days begin to get longer - i.e., the light slowly begins to dawn, lasting longer and longer each day. This makes Christmas a nature-lesson: Christ is born as the true light in the very dark of Winter, the darkness of history.
Incidentally, my daughter Lucy (whose name is a derivative of the word lucis, which means "light") was born on Dec. 21 - how appropriate!
Also, Dec. 25 was a pagan feast day to honor the Sun God - the Church found it very easy to use Christmas as an object lesson: come and worship the true "Sun," the One whom Malachi calls the "sun of justice." The word "Christmas" came from a conflation of two words from the Catholic Church: "Christ" and "Mass," because Dec. 25 was the day the Church celebrated the "Christ Mass."
The Rosary
it's no accident that the root word here is "rose." The Rosary is a Marian devotion, and Mary has always been associated with the rose flower, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that the Church saw a picture of Mary in the Song of Solomon: "I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley ... a lily among thorns." The rose was an appropriate symbol of Mary, not only for its radiant beauty, but also for its thorns, representing her many sorrows ("a sword shall pierce your own soul").
The Rosary consists of 15 Mysteries - events in the life of Christ and Mary. These 15 are further divided by 3, so that you have 5 Joyful Mysteries, 5 Sorrowful Mysteries, and 5 Glorious Mysteries.
Among the Joyful Mysteries you would find the Birth of Christ, the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
Among the Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, you would find the Crowning of Jesus with Thorns, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and Pentecost.
Each of the 15 Mysteries is given 10 Rosary beads, for a total of 150 "Hail Marys" - if you pray all 15 Mysteries. Because there are 10 beads, each mystery gets one "decade" (DEK-ehd, not DEK-ayd).
So how did this devotion get started? The monks used to chant all 150 of the Psalms, and it is said that they would keep track of their progress by counting with small stones. But the lay-people needed a devotion too, and they couldn't be expected to memorize 150 Psalms - nor did they have the time to chant them all.
So they started saying 150 "Our Fathers" - and like the monks, they kept track of their progress with stones. Eventually, the Rosary prayer developed, and people (presumably people with holes in their pockets) started keeping track of their prayers using knots on a rope. The Rosary prayer was interwoven with the Our Fathers, and since people were already accustomed to meditating daily on the events of Christ's life and death, the primitive Rosary was born.
The Rosary prayer is made up of two Scripture passages and one petition: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" is the greeting of St. Gabriel to Mary on the day of the Annunciation; "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" is the greeting of St. Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation. The last petition is simple: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."
Because the 150 Hail Marys grew out of the 150 Psalms, the Rosary is also called "Our Lady's Psalter" - a poor man's Psalm-book.
The Altar at Mass
This altar made of stone represents Christ, because Christ is called a "rock" in Scripture. Altars made of wood just don't quite preserve this symbolism. This also reminds us of the rock which gave water in the wilderness, a rock which St. Paul says "was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:2).
There are parallels here: the rock was struck once by Moses, and gave life-giving water; every time thereafter, Moses had only to speak to the rock, and it would give flowing water again. Likewise, Christ was struck once, pierced so that water flowed from Him; every time thereafter, His priests have only to speak the word at Mass, and the life-giving graces of the Crucifixion flow again.
The altar is wrapped in linen cloth to represent Christ's body in the tomb.
Bread and Wine
Both substances are life-giving and nourishing, but did you ever notice that both substances have to be made from natural elements that must first be crushed?
Wine is made from crushed grapes - in fact, Scripture calls it the "blood of the grape" (Gen. 49); bread is made from crushed grain. Both begin with seeds that must fall into the earth and die.
This makes bread and wine two very obvious choices for Our Lord to use as the elements that He would transform into His own body and blood at the Last Supper.
Nature is a symbol that points to a heavenly reality; the blood of the grape was only a sign that pointed forward to the true blood of Christ.
Notice also that these two substances were both the "product of choice" at two of Jesus' miracles: at Cana, He made water into wine; with the 5,000, He multiplied bread miraculously. In both cases, He produced more than was necessary - perhaps to show that there would be plenty of these two elements to last us until the end of time.
Because Christ does not suffer and die again at the Mass, the priest consecrates the bread and wine separately: one is body, one is blood, and the separation of the two symbolizes death.
Thus the Mass is both symbol and reality: the consecrated host contains all of Christ, His body, blood, soul and divinity; so does the consecrated chalice. But symbolically, the host represents (and is) the body, and the chalice represents (and is) the blood.
Confused?
Gardens
Gardens seem to be significant, don't they? It's where Creation begins; it's where the New Adam faces His greatest temptation and agony; it's where we are promised a return at the end of the Apocalypse.
But Gardens also symbolize a woman. In the Song of Solomon the Beloved is likened to a beautiful garden; is it not strange that for all of these years we've called children the "fruit" of the womb?
But the original Garden also represented a sanctuary - like the temple, it had a door that faced east. If the Garden is a woman, or more particularly the womb of the woman, what would that make the innermost sanctuary of the temple?
A womb, perhaps? The place out of which flows the life-giving graces which bear the fruit of virtue in our own lives?
Water
This is a weird one. It's a two-way symbol ... represents both life and death. As to life, think of the life-giving rains, life-giving water which we drink, the water of the woman's womb which accompanies the birth of new life.
But it also represents death. Dark waters covered the earth before Creation; the death-dealing flood waters covered the earth before the earth emerged again in Noah's time; David says "out of the depths I cry unto thee," and the Church has naturally associated this hymn (De Profundis) with Funerals and Prayers for the Dead; the waters of baptism represent, according to Rom. 6, our death and burial with Christ.
Psalm 69 begins with several verses associating stormy and chaotic waters with "the pit" and with the attack of enemies; oddly enough, it later says "they gave me vinegar for my thirst."
Sound familiar?
Then does it surprise you that in John 6, which takes place near the Feast of Passover (vs. 4) - which itself is tied into the symbol of the Last Supper, the Eucharist, the Passion, the Crucifixion, etc. - Our Lord walks across the chaotic waters to meet His disciples in the boat?
Talk about a loaded symbol! Tie the walking on the water in with Ps. 69, which predicts the Passion - then tie that bundle together with the story that precedes the walking on the water (the multiplication of the loaves) and the discourse that follows the walking on the water ("I am the bread of life ... you must eat my flesh and drink my blood") - what do you get?
The Sign of the Cross
This one is pretty obvious: you place yourself under the sign of Christ, the sign of His victory - the cross. This symbol says that you are willing to take up your own cross and follow Him, and that you wish to be marked with His seal and numbered among His followers.
It goes a bit deeper, though: the index and middle finger are held together and touched to the thumb (like pinching something); the ring and little finger are held together and folded down across the palm. Do you get it? One group of three, and one group of two.
It's simple: the grouping of three (thumb, index, middle fingers) represent the Trinity, which is separate (as are your fingers) but united in essence (which is why your fingers are pressed together); the grouping of two (ring, little fingers) represents Christ, one person with two natures.
All of that with one little gesture of the hand!
Halloween
This is a custom gone wrong. Nov. 1 is the Feast of All Saints, and the Church has always had a custom of keeping a night-vigil on the eve before the most important feasts. Thus, October 31 was the vigil of All Saints - All Saints' Eve.
Another word for "saint" is "holy," or "hallowed." So "All Saints' Eve" was also known as "All Hallows' Eve," or ... Hallow-e'en.
Unfortunately, a late-night vigil in which the faithful would pray and honor the souls of the holy saints has become a late-night shrine to the honor of candy and dressing up like demons, ghosts, vampires, etc.
That's a custom we could stand to lose, eh?
Number Symbols
3: The Trinity, the number of the three greatest virtues (Faith, Hope, Charity)
4: The number of the Gospels, the number of the "living creatures" who worship God in the Apocalypse, the corners of the earth, the directions on a compass, the number of "senses" of Scripture (literal, allegorical, moral, and eschatalogical)
5: The first books of the Old Testament, thus, the Law; also the number of holy wounds of Our Lord
6: The day on which man and beasts were created, thus, the symbol of beasts or purely natural tendencies; imperfection
7: From the Hebrew Shevah, meaning "to swear [an covenant]," thus, a symbol of covenant union with God; Man was created on day 6, but was alone among the beasts in being invited to rest with God on the 7th day; the symbol of perfection
8: The first day of a new week after 7 days have passed, thus, the symbol of new creation; infants were circumcised on the 8th day; Our Lord arose on the 8th day (or, the 1st day)
10: the number of the Commandments, also the number of creative "commands" spoken by God in Gen. 1
12: the number of tribes in Israel, the number of apostles; represents a foundation (the new Jerusalem in the Apocalypse sits upon 12 stones)
40: a number of testing, temptation, and a period of mercy while God waits for repentance; a number representing one generation's time; the number of days of the flood; the number of years of Israel's wandering; the number of days Moses, Elijah, and Our Lord fast; the number of years that pass between Our Lord's Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem
70: The number of nations in Gen. 10; the number of elders taken up on the mountain with Moses; the number of disciples sent out by Our Lord early in His ministry to preach to the "house of Israel"
153: the number of nations known to the world in Our Lord's day; the number of fish miraculously caught by the disciples in John 21; the number of Hail Marys on a full Rosary (15 decades X 10 Hail Marys + 3 Hail Marys for Faith, Hope, and Charity)
I get excited about these symbols and customs, because they are so very charged with meaning and significance. Here are a few that come to mind:
Christmas on Dec. 25
There are two reasons why this feast is located on this date. First, because it's very close to the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21), which is when the days begin to get longer - i.e., the light slowly begins to dawn, lasting longer and longer each day. This makes Christmas a nature-lesson: Christ is born as the true light in the very dark of Winter, the darkness of history.
Incidentally, my daughter Lucy (whose name is a derivative of the word lucis, which means "light") was born on Dec. 21 - how appropriate!
Also, Dec. 25 was a pagan feast day to honor the Sun God - the Church found it very easy to use Christmas as an object lesson: come and worship the true "Sun," the One whom Malachi calls the "sun of justice." The word "Christmas" came from a conflation of two words from the Catholic Church: "Christ" and "Mass," because Dec. 25 was the day the Church celebrated the "Christ Mass."
The Rosary
it's no accident that the root word here is "rose." The Rosary is a Marian devotion, and Mary has always been associated with the rose flower, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that the Church saw a picture of Mary in the Song of Solomon: "I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley ... a lily among thorns." The rose was an appropriate symbol of Mary, not only for its radiant beauty, but also for its thorns, representing her many sorrows ("a sword shall pierce your own soul").
The Rosary consists of 15 Mysteries - events in the life of Christ and Mary. These 15 are further divided by 3, so that you have 5 Joyful Mysteries, 5 Sorrowful Mysteries, and 5 Glorious Mysteries.
Among the Joyful Mysteries you would find the Birth of Christ, the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
Among the Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, you would find the Crowning of Jesus with Thorns, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and Pentecost.
Each of the 15 Mysteries is given 10 Rosary beads, for a total of 150 "Hail Marys" - if you pray all 15 Mysteries. Because there are 10 beads, each mystery gets one "decade" (DEK-ehd, not DEK-ayd).
So how did this devotion get started? The monks used to chant all 150 of the Psalms, and it is said that they would keep track of their progress by counting with small stones. But the lay-people needed a devotion too, and they couldn't be expected to memorize 150 Psalms - nor did they have the time to chant them all.
So they started saying 150 "Our Fathers" - and like the monks, they kept track of their progress with stones. Eventually, the Rosary prayer developed, and people (presumably people with holes in their pockets) started keeping track of their prayers using knots on a rope. The Rosary prayer was interwoven with the Our Fathers, and since people were already accustomed to meditating daily on the events of Christ's life and death, the primitive Rosary was born.
The Rosary prayer is made up of two Scripture passages and one petition: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" is the greeting of St. Gabriel to Mary on the day of the Annunciation; "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" is the greeting of St. Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation. The last petition is simple: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."
Because the 150 Hail Marys grew out of the 150 Psalms, the Rosary is also called "Our Lady's Psalter" - a poor man's Psalm-book.
The Altar at Mass
This altar made of stone represents Christ, because Christ is called a "rock" in Scripture. Altars made of wood just don't quite preserve this symbolism. This also reminds us of the rock which gave water in the wilderness, a rock which St. Paul says "was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:2).
There are parallels here: the rock was struck once by Moses, and gave life-giving water; every time thereafter, Moses had only to speak to the rock, and it would give flowing water again. Likewise, Christ was struck once, pierced so that water flowed from Him; every time thereafter, His priests have only to speak the word at Mass, and the life-giving graces of the Crucifixion flow again.
The altar is wrapped in linen cloth to represent Christ's body in the tomb.
Bread and Wine
Both substances are life-giving and nourishing, but did you ever notice that both substances have to be made from natural elements that must first be crushed?
Wine is made from crushed grapes - in fact, Scripture calls it the "blood of the grape" (Gen. 49); bread is made from crushed grain. Both begin with seeds that must fall into the earth and die.
This makes bread and wine two very obvious choices for Our Lord to use as the elements that He would transform into His own body and blood at the Last Supper.
Nature is a symbol that points to a heavenly reality; the blood of the grape was only a sign that pointed forward to the true blood of Christ.
Notice also that these two substances were both the "product of choice" at two of Jesus' miracles: at Cana, He made water into wine; with the 5,000, He multiplied bread miraculously. In both cases, He produced more than was necessary - perhaps to show that there would be plenty of these two elements to last us until the end of time.
Because Christ does not suffer and die again at the Mass, the priest consecrates the bread and wine separately: one is body, one is blood, and the separation of the two symbolizes death.
Thus the Mass is both symbol and reality: the consecrated host contains all of Christ, His body, blood, soul and divinity; so does the consecrated chalice. But symbolically, the host represents (and is) the body, and the chalice represents (and is) the blood.
Confused?
Gardens
Gardens seem to be significant, don't they? It's where Creation begins; it's where the New Adam faces His greatest temptation and agony; it's where we are promised a return at the end of the Apocalypse.
But Gardens also symbolize a woman. In the Song of Solomon the Beloved is likened to a beautiful garden; is it not strange that for all of these years we've called children the "fruit" of the womb?
But the original Garden also represented a sanctuary - like the temple, it had a door that faced east. If the Garden is a woman, or more particularly the womb of the woman, what would that make the innermost sanctuary of the temple?
A womb, perhaps? The place out of which flows the life-giving graces which bear the fruit of virtue in our own lives?
Water
This is a weird one. It's a two-way symbol ... represents both life and death. As to life, think of the life-giving rains, life-giving water which we drink, the water of the woman's womb which accompanies the birth of new life.
But it also represents death. Dark waters covered the earth before Creation; the death-dealing flood waters covered the earth before the earth emerged again in Noah's time; David says "out of the depths I cry unto thee," and the Church has naturally associated this hymn (De Profundis) with Funerals and Prayers for the Dead; the waters of baptism represent, according to Rom. 6, our death and burial with Christ.
Psalm 69 begins with several verses associating stormy and chaotic waters with "the pit" and with the attack of enemies; oddly enough, it later says "they gave me vinegar for my thirst."
Sound familiar?
Then does it surprise you that in John 6, which takes place near the Feast of Passover (vs. 4) - which itself is tied into the symbol of the Last Supper, the Eucharist, the Passion, the Crucifixion, etc. - Our Lord walks across the chaotic waters to meet His disciples in the boat?
Talk about a loaded symbol! Tie the walking on the water in with Ps. 69, which predicts the Passion - then tie that bundle together with the story that precedes the walking on the water (the multiplication of the loaves) and the discourse that follows the walking on the water ("I am the bread of life ... you must eat my flesh and drink my blood") - what do you get?
The Sign of the Cross
This one is pretty obvious: you place yourself under the sign of Christ, the sign of His victory - the cross. This symbol says that you are willing to take up your own cross and follow Him, and that you wish to be marked with His seal and numbered among His followers.
It goes a bit deeper, though: the index and middle finger are held together and touched to the thumb (like pinching something); the ring and little finger are held together and folded down across the palm. Do you get it? One group of three, and one group of two.
It's simple: the grouping of three (thumb, index, middle fingers) represent the Trinity, which is separate (as are your fingers) but united in essence (which is why your fingers are pressed together); the grouping of two (ring, little fingers) represents Christ, one person with two natures.
All of that with one little gesture of the hand!
Halloween
This is a custom gone wrong. Nov. 1 is the Feast of All Saints, and the Church has always had a custom of keeping a night-vigil on the eve before the most important feasts. Thus, October 31 was the vigil of All Saints - All Saints' Eve.
Another word for "saint" is "holy," or "hallowed." So "All Saints' Eve" was also known as "All Hallows' Eve," or ... Hallow-e'en.
Unfortunately, a late-night vigil in which the faithful would pray and honor the souls of the holy saints has become a late-night shrine to the honor of candy and dressing up like demons, ghosts, vampires, etc.
That's a custom we could stand to lose, eh?
Number Symbols
3: The Trinity, the number of the three greatest virtues (Faith, Hope, Charity)
4: The number of the Gospels, the number of the "living creatures" who worship God in the Apocalypse, the corners of the earth, the directions on a compass, the number of "senses" of Scripture (literal, allegorical, moral, and eschatalogical)
5: The first books of the Old Testament, thus, the Law; also the number of holy wounds of Our Lord
6: The day on which man and beasts were created, thus, the symbol of beasts or purely natural tendencies; imperfection
7: From the Hebrew Shevah, meaning "to swear [an covenant]," thus, a symbol of covenant union with God; Man was created on day 6, but was alone among the beasts in being invited to rest with God on the 7th day; the symbol of perfection
8: The first day of a new week after 7 days have passed, thus, the symbol of new creation; infants were circumcised on the 8th day; Our Lord arose on the 8th day (or, the 1st day)
10: the number of the Commandments, also the number of creative "commands" spoken by God in Gen. 1
12: the number of tribes in Israel, the number of apostles; represents a foundation (the new Jerusalem in the Apocalypse sits upon 12 stones)
40: a number of testing, temptation, and a period of mercy while God waits for repentance; a number representing one generation's time; the number of days of the flood; the number of years of Israel's wandering; the number of days Moses, Elijah, and Our Lord fast; the number of years that pass between Our Lord's Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem
70: The number of nations in Gen. 10; the number of elders taken up on the mountain with Moses; the number of disciples sent out by Our Lord early in His ministry to preach to the "house of Israel"
153: the number of nations known to the world in Our Lord's day; the number of fish miraculously caught by the disciples in John 21; the number of Hail Marys on a full Rosary (15 decades X 10 Hail Marys + 3 Hail Marys for Faith, Hope, and Charity)
<< Home