offertory

Noun

offertory (plural offertories)

1. A 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.
   • 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. The 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.
   • 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
   • I sat through the sermon, and the offertory, and the recessional.1922, Upton Sinclair, They Call Me Carpenter
3. (historical) A linen or silken cloth anciently used in various ceremonies connected with the administration of the Eucharist.