Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OF'FER-TO-RY, n. [Fr. offertoire.]

1. The act of offering, or the thing offered. [Little used.] Bacon. Fell.
2. Offertory was properly an anthem chanted or a voluntary played on the organ during the offering and a part of the mass, in the Catholic church; but since the Reformation it denotes certain sentences in the communion-office, read while the alms are collecting. Todd. Cyc.
3. Anciently, the linen on which the offering was laid. Cyc.