The shining

In the few days leading up to the Maundy Thursday evening liturgy, I decided to polish the silverplated altar vessels which I found in the Chapel sacristy. I suspected they'd not been used in a long time, as they all were almost black with tarnish.

I hoped to use the ciborium and pitcher for the small 'altar of repose' I needed after the Mass.

So I spent quite a number of hours trying to clean up those items, and even recruited SPC C to help for a while.

We started on the big pieces first, since they were what interested me most for Thursday evening's liturgy. Each took a lot of time and energy to get polished up appropriately. If I'd thought ahead, I'd have taken photos of the lot before, and after, all that work.

I did manage to snap some shots of a couple of the small pieces, however.

There's only one more item that needs cleaning, the cross. As we have a large processional cross we use during liturgy, it's not something I need when I celebrate Mass. I will, however, clean it up so that one of the other Chaplains might find it appropriate for his services.

I photographed all of the other pieces with the cross so that one can get a sense of what the rest of the set looked like before the shining began.

The 'altar of repose' looked beautiful, but I did not get a photograph of it, unfortunately.

Blessings and peace to one and all,


Fr. Tim, SJ

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