Consecration
Definition
- 1. The action of consecrating; a setting apart as dedicated to the Deity; dedication with religious rites to a sacred purpose.
- b. esp. The formal dedication and setting apart, by a bishop, of a church, churchyard, or burial-ground.
By Hooker Eccl. Pol. V. xii, called dedication; but in recent times dedication has been employed to denote a less formal kind of consecration of a burial-ground, not having the legal consequences attaching to consecration.
- c. with a and pl. (Sometimes more or less concr. = Consecrated things.)
- 2. The giving of the sacramental character to the eucharistic elements of bread and wine.
(Variously taken according to the opinion held of the nature of the Eucharist.)
- 3. Ordination to a sacred office: spec. the action or religious ceremony of ordaining a bishop.
- 4. Rom. Antiq. Apotheosis, deification; also transf.
- b. Loosely applied to canonization. Obs.
- 5. Dedication to destruction; anathematization. Obs. Cf. CONSECRATE v. 7.
- 6. transf. and fig. Dedication or devotion to some cherished purpose or pursuit; also, appropriation to a special purpose.
- 7. transf. and fig. The action of rendering sacred; hallowing.
Annointment as consecration
In preparation for battle, in danger from wild animals, in the hour of death, and at other special times, anointment is used to endow an ordinary person with special holiness. He is “set aside” for a particular relation to that which is regarded as holy and good. Anointment as consecration is frequently applied not only to persons but also to objects. Altars, sacred vessels, temples, and sometimes even weapons and items of clothing are anointed to dedicate them to the service of the divine and to assure and symbolize the presence and pleasure of the divine in the holy place. In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, the ritual anointing of the seriously ill and the elderly has been practiced as a sacrament since early times. In the Roman Catholic Church, unction was long regarded as a last rite, usually postponed until death was imminent and the dying Christian was in extremis; thus, the name extreme unction developed. In modern times, a more lenient interpretation permitted anointing of the less seriously ill. In the Eastern Orthodox churches the name extreme unction was never used, and the healing aspects of the sacrament have been considered most important. In the Greek Orthodox Church the sacrament is sometimes administered to well persons to prevent illness.
Quote
These seraphim become associates of the division chiefs of the numerous educational and training institutions of the local universes, and they are attached in large numbers to the faculties of the seven training worlds of the local systems and of the seventy educational spheres of the constellations. These ministrations extend on down to the individual worlds. Even the true and consecrated teachers of time are assisted, and often attended, by these counselors of the supreme seraphim.[1]
