Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
	The American summer is officially underway, and people are on the move. Signs of hospitality are everywhere. In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ visit home is hardly marked by hospitality. He goes up to the bema, the elevated place for solemn public reading of the Torah, and his message is poorly received. Today, we read from the descendant of the bema, the ambo, almost an “altar of the Word of God.” Many ancient ambos are preserved in Italy, decorated with marble, ivory, precious metal, and jewels. Six hundred years ago, the pulpit came into use, meant for preaching rather than proclamation of scripture. Before microphone systems, pulpits were often located halfway down the church, amid the gathered people, and not so clearly associated with the altar.
	Today, the ambo (the plural is “ambone”!) is an expected feature of our worship spaces because the Word is once again proclaimed to the people. Before 1964, typically the readings were done quietly by the priest at the altar in Latin, and optionally repeated in English from the pulpit. With the restored place of scripture in our worship, a beautiful and worthy ambo, related in design to the altar table, has once again become a prominent and familiar feature of Catholic architecture.
—Rev. James Field