Incense boats are small metal containers that hold supplies of aromatic substances during church services. Called navicula (from Latin, ‘boat-shaped’).
 The burning of incense was considered both an offering to God and an act of purification.

What is the central focal point of a church? What is its heart and centre? The Altar


"The ciborium represents here the place where Christ was crucified; for the place where he was buried was nearby and raised on a base. It is placed in the church in order to represent concisely the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

"It similarly corresponds to the ark of the covenant of the Lord in which, it is written, is His Holy of Holies and His holy place."



One can clearly see in St. Germanus' words that very focus on the Mass and the altar as the place that Golgotha is perpetuated. When, in the usus antiquior, the priest stands and prays the prayers at the foot of the altar -- "Introibo ad altare Dei" -- he stands in a mystical way at the foot of the Cross. When he ascends to the altar, he ascends to the Cross itself, acting in persona Christi and offering to God the Father that one, true sacrifice.

This is the heart and centre of the Catholic Faith and liturgical worship and it defines -- or at least should define -- the liturgical ordering of our churches. When one thinks of the great churches of Rome and Italy generally, while there are many elements that attract one's eye in these places, filled as they are with masterpieces of Western civilization, it is the ciborium that pinpoints, like a compass of sorts, the most important place in the church and draws our attention there to the altar of sacrifice. The ciborium points to and enshrines that very spot upon which the solemn, liturgical worship of the Church is offered to God the Father, through Christ the Son, in the Holy Spirit. It is akin to the ark of the covenant, as St. Germanus suggests, which covers and surrounds the Holy of Holies; is it the sacred tent.