Flanking Side chapels (5/9)
This is the fifth of a nine-part series explaining various aspects of the floor plan of a church. Holy Mother Church has deliberately filled her buildings with great symbolism; this series will introduce some of the many facets involved in designing and building this home for the Immaculata.
NB: These images and renderings are still approximations of the final design. They are meant to give general knowledge and perspective rather than a precise and final version of what will be built.
“Flanking Side chapels”
By Fr. Patrick Rutledge
In the early days of the Church, the principle of one altar in one church was normally observed. This reinforced the idea of one community under one head – the bishop – with one sacrifice at one altar. Taken together, this was the symbolic representation of Christ. What a beautiful image of the Mystical Body, specially united with the hierarchy in prayer. Remnants of this symbolic unity still exist in the traditional ordination ceremony when the newly ordained priests offer Mass together with the ordaining bishop.
As the number of priests grew and private Masses became more common, starting around the 6th century, side altars became more prominent. As the number of saints filled the sacred catalogs of the Church, devotion to them also led to greater numbers of side altars. Despite the growing prevalence of side altars, it was always desirable that they be placed in side chapels or at least were somewhat recessed so that the main altar would retain as much prominence as possible.
The Immaculata will have two side chapels flanking the main altar. The main altar is already dedicated to the Immaculata since the main altar’s title must be the same as the church’s title. Therefore the side altars in these smaller chapels will be also dedicated, one to the Sacred Heart and the other to our glorious patron, St. Pius X. Normally the Divine Person or saint of higher rank is placed on the Gospel side, which is why it will be dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
These side chapels will have a dual use – as chapels and as a choir. As chapels, they will be able to seat up to 50 faithful and could easily be used for special Masses, such as a celebration of a 50th wedding anniversary or a Mass celebrated for a more private reason with a small group of faithful. One of these chapels will also be the place where the Blessed Sacrament is adored after the stripping of the altar on Holy Thursday and reserved during the Sacred Triduum. It could likewise be used as the place of exposition during the Forty Hours Devotion since ideally this takes place at a different place from the main altar where Mass is said and Communion is given. Though these side chapels flank the sanctuary, the faithful will be able to come and pray in them at any time with access to them from hallways that remain outside the chancel or sanctuary. As with the other side altars in the church, which will be discussed in a future post, we hope to have places in this very large church that are also intimate and quiet to facilitate private prayer and silent peace.
The other use for the side chapels will be as a choir for the clergy who attend the sacred liturgy. Many churches of Christendom had a choir surrounding the main altar, where the clergy chanted the Mass. This formed a certain crown around the altar – corona in Latin – from which we derive our word choir. For the Immaculata, the seating and kneelers placed in the side chapels will be easily moved to turn and face the main altar. From there the clergy will attend the sacred liturgy fittingly from a place separated from the laity and will be able to see the main altar through a large arch that leads into the sanctuary.