What Is Consecration?

Preparing for the last Sunday after the Epiphany: Two Days before Transfiguration Sunday (Year A)

Scripture

Psalter: Psalm 2

Old Testament: Exodus 19:9b-25

Epistle: Hebrews 11:23-28

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Prayer

You revealed your glory and presence in your beloved Son, Jesus the Christ. In receiving our prayers, reveal the glory and presence of your Spirit alive in the world today, free us from all doubts, and empower us to act as a transfigured people. Amen.

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Reflection

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”

When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow (Exodus 19:9-10a).

from Britannica.com

Consecration, an act by which a person or a thing is separated from secular or profane use and dedicated permanently to the sacred by prayers, rites, and ceremonies. While virtually all cultures and religions have some form of purification rite, consecration is especially associated with Christianity and Judaism.

Consecration in the strict sense is distinguished from blessing, benediction, or dedication in that consecration effects an intimate transformation in the essence of the object and that it is permanent and can be neither revoked nor repeated. Within the Roman Catholic Church, the act of consecration typically can be applied to a bishop, a fixed altar, an altar stone, a church, and a chalice and paten. The ordinary minister of a consecration is a bishop, while the ordinary minister of a blessing is a priest. At a consecration, holy oils are normally used; at blessings, customarily holy water. In the Old Testament, which has served as the basis for many kinds of consecrations in Christianity, among the persons consecrated were priests (Exodus 39), kings (1 Samuel 10), and prophets (1 Chronicles 16). Among things consecrated are the pillar or stone of Bethel (Genesis 28); vessels of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 8); the altar of holocausts (Exodus 29); and the second Temple (Ezra 6), the consecration of which is commemorated at Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication.

PRAYER: God of life and glory, your Son was revealed in splendor before he suffered death upon the cross; grant that we, beholding his majesty, may be strengthened to follow him and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.

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Read more on consecration here.