Elevation (liturgy)
ritual raising of the consecrated elements of bread and wine during the celebration of the Eucharist
In Eastern and Western Christian liturgical practice, the elevation is a ritual raising of the consecrated Sacred Body and Blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist. The term is applied especially to the Sacred Body of Christ (Host) and the chalice containing the Most Precious Blood of Christ being lifted up and shown to the congregation immediately after each is consecrated, in the Mass, both in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church and in the Lutheran Churches. The term may also refer to a musical work played or sung at that time. The consecration has been historically accompanied by the ringing of the church bells.
Background
Some Christian liturgies have an elevation of the Blessed Sacrament, prior to the Rite of Communion, which shows the congregation, as an act of reverence, Whom they are about to receive. The Elevation was already practiced at the time of the Apostolic Constitutions.
In the Byzantine Rite, this elevation takes place as the last ekphonesis, i. e. audible exclamation, by the priest before Communion. He raises the Lamb (Host) slightly above the diskos (paten) and exclaims: Τὰ ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις, i.e.
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This entry incorporates text from “Elevation (liturgy)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.