Couldn't find the tabernacle!

  • Thread starter Thread starter JoyToTheWhirled
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
No, I’m in the UK. It’s in my diocese, legitimately Roman Catholic, and aside from the internal geographical confusion, seems to be quite a good church.

Btw, thanks to the pp for the pointers about bowing/genuflecting. Every day is a school day! 🙂
 
I’ve had this problem. Sometimes I have to go to an actual Mass and see where the priest goes to get the hosts in order to know where the tabernacle is.

If it’s a church built between about 1970 and 1990 and the tabernacle isn’t front and center, it’s usually off to the left or right of the altar, but really could be most anywhere. For the later “modern” churches, they seem to have realized this was a problem and returned to putting the tabernacle either front and center, or in an obvious spot close to the altar.
 
That’s happened to me before, I so know what you feel like. Odd isn’t it. There’s this church near where I house sit and it’s a huge big place, it’s round… the whole church and I had the same experience. Oops where is Jesus. I did as you did genuflect in the general direction of the altar and pray about it. Eventually I found it, can’t remember if it was that first time. It is a strange gold box on a pedestal off to the left set far back but not against the wall. I only saw the red light some time later on the wall to confirm it was in fact the tabernacle. Give me my nice 130yr old gothic style church with the tabernacle behind the marble altar and a totally unmodern Christ on a crucifix any day. Still a church is a church, I am grateful that one is near where I housesit cos the next nearest is about an hour and a train journey away and this round one is 15 min walk.
 
Last edited:
Our small parish ~ 300 families has both a tabernacle in the church and an adoration chapel which probably sounds strange to most of you. However the reasoning is the cold winters here and the high ceilings in the church. In winter heating the church is a HUGE expense (think thousands per month) so when nothing is scheduled there the thermostats are set to 60 degrees F which gets pretty chilly if you want to stay for any length of time.

So our bishop approved the small (12 seats with kneelers) adoration chapel. People turn the heat on in there whenever they arrive and turn it off as they leave. Much cheaper and invites people to stay a lot longer. 🙂

There is also the benefit of having money that is not “going out the windows” available for other needs.
 
Last edited:
It isn’t uncommon for church buildings to have multi-use when the parish is fledgling. This building is destined to be relegated to a communal meeting space when the parish has the resources to have a dedicated sanctuary, but at the beginning it is both sanctuary and communal meeting space because the parish can only afford to build one building.

I’m not saying this is what was going on with the parish you visited, but in the case when the church is frequently put to uses other than Catholic worship–for instance, as a shared worship space with a different denomination–the tabernacle is usually in a small room dedicated for prayer off the main space that can be locked. Otherwise, the Catholics would constantly moving the Blessed Sacrament in and out of the space and there would be constant confusion about whether the Blessed Sacrament were in repose in the tabernacle or not.
 
My Sponsor eventually explained to me why folks should be bowing, not genuflecting in the specific case our altar… Because the tabernacle is actually in the lady chapel. It is interesting to see how many folks do genuflect though. Now I’m ‘in the know’ I have occasionally wondered who among them, including many 'cradle Catholics no doubt, never had the difference explained? It certainly never cropped up in RCIA…
 
There are actually many people who also bow before the tabernacle because they have a physical disability that makes genuflecting difficult, whether they are visibly disabled or not.
 
Gorgias said:
…
Actually, it says “readily noticeable”. Perhaps @JoyToTheWhirled simply walked past it on her way in, since she expected to find it in the sanctuary… 🤷‍♂️
…
Click to expand...
Could be. (BTW: my quote was from the Vatican translation which used “readily visible”.)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top