Liturgy Corner: Burse & Veil

As you may have noticed, we are continuously taking efforts to make our already beautiful liturgies even better. Of course, all liturgy this side of Heaven is inadequate in some way, but we should always strive to draw closer to the Divine Liturgy of Heaven.

The next initiative that we would like to introduce will be the burse and the chalice veil.

Though these articles did not exist in their current form in the early Church, they are indeed very fitting for the liturgy. It is an ancient practice, especially among our Hebrew predecessors, to veil anything that is holy – to emphasize its holiness and to protect it from damage or profane (that is, unholy) use.

The burse is a small square bag of sorts that contains the corporal, which is the square linen cloth on which rests the Sacred Host during the Liturgy of the Eucharist (the second half of the Mass) – hence the name, which is connected to corpus, which means “body”. The burse does harken back to the early Church in its similarity to the linen bags in which Deacons and/or ordained acolytes would carry the Blessed Sacrament to the sick (which is also still the use for another kind of burse that holds a pyx, for exactly that purpose). Today, as you will see, the burse is usually made of the same decorative fabric as the vestments for Mass.

The chalice veil, of more recent origin (only the 1500s, haha), is a large square cloth that covers the chalice and paten for the ancient reasons mentioned above. It harkens back to the veils that covered the Tabernacle (tent) in the time of Moses and especially the veil that covered the Holy of Holies, in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed and only the Priest could enter. Fittingly, the veil remains in place until the Offertory, reminding us how that veil was torn by the supreme Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross (and in which we participate at every Mass). Like the burse, it is also made of the same fabric as the vestments.

This with be introduced beginning with this year’s Sacred Paschal Triduum. Though these articles are now optional, we are happy to bring them back in order to enhance the majesty and mystical nature of the Divine Liturgy. We hope that this will enable you to enter more and more deeply into the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.