Wow! those chalices are huge and so beautiful.
I wonder what the size of the original altar bread was? The Lamb looks like it is at least four inches tall. Somewhere, there must be a huge seal.
And how does the priest serve Holy Communion or even pour from them? I only ask because as a member of the laity, I cannot imagine how it is done. The curtain during the communion of the clergy is closed except at Pascha, and then we members of the choir sing the Pascha canons so we do not get to see what goes on.
Maybe it must all remain a mystery.
I will be satisfied with that answer too.
Dear Elizabeth Maria,
As to the Lamb: the Prosphoron need not be much larger than the Lamb you see on the Discos. Russians typically just shave off the sides of the main Prosphoron to make it into a square Lamb and then shave off the bottom of the Lamb in one thin piece before "sacrificing" the Lamb, i.e. cutting it crosswise on the bottom so it can later be broken into four pieces.
I have never been present at a Liturgy with a Chalice quite that large, but I have been to Liturgies with a Chalice too large to commune the Clergy. In those cases a sacred ladle is used to carefully transfer the contents of the large Chalice into two or more smaller chalices. The Clergy all commune from one Chalice, and then that Chalice and the others are brought out for the Communion of the people.
The problem I see with such a huge Chalice as displayed in the photgraphs is the logistics of moving it in the Great Entrance, getting all the way up there to tranfer the contents into small Chalices, and actually purifying it after Communion. I'm glad I'm in a small parish!
Fr David Straut
