Liturgical Furniture

I was honoured to be invited to seal the altar during the chapel’s consecration. So, with the relics safely entombed, I set the table’s stone in place and sealed it in an act of completion.

Now the altar waits for the Bishop to come and consecrate it (and the new chapel) for use. My boys and I have been invited to attend and I’m looking forward to it next week.

After a herculean effort (especially moving the altar’s stone table) everything came to rest in place and there was a moment of fellowship among the friends who had helped.

Believe it or not, my son and I were able to load up the altar by ourselves by sliding it up on two lengths of plywood. And, after covering it up and strapping it down I made the trip up to the Mt. Carmel Spirituality Centre without incident.

It’s a beautiful moment seeing the altar’s woodwork finished with multiple coats of linseed oil and beeswax.

It’s pretty amazing how much the final woodworking step of inserting the panels finishes the altar’s woodworking. Although no one will likely see it again, I’m quite pleased with even how the inside turned out …

It’s always an exciting moment in a project when all the pieces get put together … I think that all the planning and work is going to pay off.

The triple columns on the altar’s outer legs proved to be the element of its design that was the hardest to make. It took a little bit of figuring out how to hollow out the columns so they would fit tightly on the altar’s outer pillars, but the effort was worth it, and I’m happy …

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I really haven’t had a lot of experience turning wood on a lathe, but after a morning of doing so I think I quite like it. Best of all, the wood blanks turned out looking great. Now all that’s left is cutting and fitting them to the altar’s main legs …