The tabernacle and the feast
The Eucharist is reserved in churches or oratories to serve as the spiritual center of a religious community or a parish community. – Paul VI (Mysterium Fidei, 68)
Remember way back to Easter? If you played host, how long did you take to prepare the family meal? How many days did it take to fix the stuffing, the salads, the corn, the ham? Of course, at the Mass the Eucharist is the main course. We are the guests. His banquet took centuries to prepare.
Nothing in Catholic worship is arbitrary. Its origins lie in the Temple sacrifice of the Jews. God revealed the details in the Book of Numbers. The times, the places, and the parts to Israel’s worship were given by revelation first as types, then fufilled in the Church. Thus, Hebrew chant gave way to Gregorian; a bloody altar became bloodless; the Ark of the Covenant wonderfully became the tabernacle. In the Eucharist, God’s presence is literally rendered flesh: a body, bound by time and adored in fixed location.
Perhaps nothing so pointedly marked the loss of faith in the Real Presence as did the relegation of the tabernacle to the back corners of our “worship spaces.” The first example is taken from a church in Saskatchewan. (Yes, it is actually a grain elevator.) Here the Lord is sealed behind glass, boxed behind bars, and cornered so people show Him their backs. The other image comes from Calgary’s ordinariate parish. Fr. Kenyon and the community at St. John the Evangelist, so they tell me, entered full communion in 2011. Welcome to the party! They pray ad orientem. They run a choir school. And, from the looks of their altar, they had a good dose of Catholic sensibility long before they joined the family.
As Paul VI reminded us, “the Eucharist is reserved in churches or oratories to serve as the spiritual center of a religious community or a parish community” (Mysterium Fidei, 68). Within the House of God, the tabernacle is the true “tent” of the Lord. It must be artful. It must be adorable. It’s the place from which the Lord gathers his children to the Feast. Shouldn’t we want Him in the centre?
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
First Holy Communion: Sermon from May 16, 1943
Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion – after the rigours of the plague[…]Continue reading→
In the Glorious Light of Easter, Alleluia!
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). The Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour[…]Continue reading→
An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday
The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→
Europe’s Long Descent
(As we meditate on this day on Christ’s burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot ‘redeem’ hell, nor those therein, He can and did redeem the world. There is[…]Continue reading→
Pope Saint John Paul II’s First Good Friday Homily
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS AT THE COLOSSEUM Good Friday, 13 April 1979 When we make the Way of the Cross from one station to the next, in spirit we are always at the spot wherethis journey had its “historical” place: where it[…]Continue reading→