from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A cup or goblet.
- n. A cup for the consecrated wine of the Eucharist.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A large drinking cup, often having a stem and base and used especially for formal occasions and religious ceremonies.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A cup or bowl; especially, the cup used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A drinking-cup or -bowl.
- n. The cup in which the wine is administered in the celebration of the eucharist or Lord's supper.
- n. The wine mingled with a little water for use at the eucharist.
- n. The custom or rite of adding water to the eucharistic wine. See krasis.
- n. A cup-shaped globe for diffusing light.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a bowl-shaped drinking vessel; especially the Eucharistic cup
This custom of enclosing the Body of the Lord in a chalice is a sign of the Passion which He undergoes in His human body, the Passion which He Himself describes as a “chalice” when He goes to pray in the garden.
Good points bought up in other comments but I enjoyed this anyway … since I have no idea how heavy gold can be; to me a chalice is a goblet and close enough to a mug to get the idea across; and know nothing about diaphragms, other than they prevent pregnancy.
He also knows that French revolutionary musician Chantal Orateur Deveau, who possesses the chalice is his soulmate; having seen her in a vision and kept that lovely sight in his dreams.
The entire rite of enclosing the second large Host in a chalice is omitted, and indeed, no large Host is consecrated for the celebrant of the rite of Holy Friday.
The Host thus enclosed in the chalice is left on the corporal, until the end of the Mass.
He then arranges the veil, without removing it from the chalice, in the same way that a chalice is set upon the altar for the celebration of Mass: another clear sign of the connection between the Mass and the death of Christ upon the Cross.
To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our lips as well.
The Democratic nomination in 2012 was obviously a poisoned chalice, but a politician can't help thinking that a poisoned chalice is better than no chalice at all.
Finally, the chalice is designed to contain nourishment for mortals, and it is used by mortals to celebrate one another's company, and to worship the gods.
The Deacon pours wine, the subdeacon water, into the chalice, which is placed on the altar; the celebrant says "in Spiritu humilitatis" and turning to the people invites their prayers, "Orate fratres", recites the Pater noster and sings the "Libera nos quaesumus Domine."