Hospitality 
It is not hospitable to greet dinner guests at the door, rush them immediately to the table and then usher them out as soon as the dessert is finished.  The more important a social event is the more we need to gather before it.  The more successful a social event the more we tend to linger at and after its end.  Sunday Eucharist is the Catholic social event.  In this act of ritual prayer we become more the members of Christ’s Body, more his People.  This is ultimate socialization.
The liturgical act really does begin in the car park or the footpath in front of the main door.  The smooth flow of traffic and the barrier free entrance tells us that we are welcome at this House of God’s People.  Sunday Eucharist in Roman Catholic parishes demands a space where individuals and families can gather and become remembered as the Body of Christ, a place where we can share news of sick members and new births, a place where strangers can be introduced and welcomed.

Roman basilicas often had in front of them an enclosed garden which provided a buffer zone between the noise and activity of  
the street and the prayerful quiet of the house of prayer.  A person’s movement through this space was not simply physical.  It was also a psychological procession from preoccupation with one’s own business to a more selfless attention to the other members gathering for common prayer.  In that sort of greeting and exchange we encounter Christ in one another for it is Christ who has called us together.
Our very act of assembly is a response to God’s call in Christ; it is an experience of the real presence of Christ in our midst.  We can say, in fact, that the real presence of Christ which we proclaim to be in the proclamation of the Word, in the service of liturgical ministers and in the consecrated bread and wine begins with and depends upon the Christ whom we hospitably greet in one another as we gather for worship. 

The Altar 
Imagine what stories would be told if our dining room or kitchen tables could speak.  So much happens around our tables that in many  ways they are the most 
powerful symbols of a family’s history.  We come to the table to me nourished, to share a common life, by sharing ones food and drink.  We do this in times of great joy and in times of grief, on ordinary days and in extraordinary circumstances.
So it is with the Table of the Lord, the altar. ‘While they were at table, Jesus took the bread……………….’  The altar is the repository of our history.  It is the table around which we gather for the meal which is at one and the same time the expression of our common life and the source of that life. (cont)

The Altar 
This table, like God’s family, has had a long history and its shape and form reflects that history.  The table at which Jesus and his 
disciples celebrated the Last Supper was probably lower than we might imagine it to be because Jesus would have reclined at the table.  Early Church communities gathered in houses and their tables were undoubtedly the dining room tables of the households where they gathered.  As the Eucharist became more of a ritual meal separate from dinner, the table became higher and smaller for it had only to hold the bread and wine being consecrated.
When the growing size of early Church communities necessitated the building of special places of worship, the table was often a portable wooden one which could be brought in when needed.  As the Church grew even more and many ordinary Christians lost their sense of being baptized into the priesthood of Christ, the altar was removed from the midst of the congregation and was confined to that part of the worship space restricted to the clergy.  In this way it became fixed against the back wall and became a base for all sorts of religious art which practically made it impossible to realize that the priest was celebrating the Eucharist at a table. (cont)

The Altar 
The freestanding altar is one of the clearest symbols of the liturgical change brought about through    the   Second    Vatican 
Council.  After the assembly itself, which is the primary symbol of Christ’s presence, the altar is for Roman Catholics the most important Symbol of Christ in our places of worship.  Altar, of course, bespeaks more than a simple table for eating.  The bread and wine on our altars are God – given gifts which we want to offer to God only in union with the self-sacrifice of Christ.  The altar is seen traditionally as a sign of Christ himself, a silent yet eloquent witness to his saving work which is perpetuated throughout the ages until he comes again.  That is why the tradition of the Church can say: ‘The altar is Christ’.  Thus the altar is always to be treated with the greatest of reverence.  It is not a shelf for holding papers or other objects to be used in the liturgy.  Only bread and wine and the sacramentary (missal) properly belong on the altar.  Therefore we should not expect the altar to be very large.  It should be in good harmony with the human body.  If it is too long it becomes an obstacle between the presiding priest and the congregation. (cont)

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