offertory

plural offertories

1. ChristianityA prayer said or sung as an anthem while offerings of bread and wine are placed on the altar during the Roman Catholic Mass or the Anglican Communion service.First known use 14th c.

   There was an impressive musical program, conducted by Sheldon Smeeth, educational director of the Y.M.C.A., who also sang the offertory.

   1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC

2. ChristianityThe part of the Eucharist service when offerings of bread and wine are placed on the altar and when any collection is taken; also, the money or other things collected.First known use 15th c.

   I sat through the sermon, and the offertory, and the recessional.

   1922, Upton Sinclair, They Call Me Carpenter

   2 more examples

   Before a month had passed the congregation at the evening service at St. Asaph's Church was so slender that the offertory, as Mr. Furlong senior himself calculated, was scarcely sufficient to pay the overhead charge of collecting it.

   1914, Stephen Leacock, Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich

   Even the coins in the offertory were accredited with magical value; there were numerous popular superstitions about the magical value of communion silver as a cure for illness or a lucky charm against danger.

   1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 30

3. historicalChristianityA linen or silken cloth anciently used in various ceremonies connected with the administration of the Eucharist.