Genuflecting to what?

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There are many churches in my area that are designed in such a way that the tabernacle is not in the Church. In some of the Churches it’s still visible from the Church, but sometimes it’s not.

If the tabernacle visible I’ll give a bow to the altar and genuflect toward the tabernacle, sometimes genuflecting backwards to face the tabernacle if necessary. If it’s not visible I’ll bow to the altar and sit down without genuflecting.

My understanding is that genuflection is a sign of reverance to the Lords presense in the tabernacle. Am I wrong? I notice that pretty much everyone elese genuflects forward in all cases, seemingly without a second thought. Why?
  1. Does the average person not know why they are genuflecting?
  2. Do they know why, but just do it habitually without thinking?
  3. Do they not want to feel weird so they genuflect forward knowing God is elsewhere?
 
People will also genuflect on Good Friday when the tabernacle is empty. I think many of them do it without thinking about what they’re doing and why.
 
Not having the Tabernacle on the main altar as THE center of the church is wrong. It should never have been moved to some remote corner. Ridiculous, IMO. We believe the Divine Presence is in the Tabernacle. That means God Himself is right there. He should be where we can see Him and where we can bow and genulfect to honor Him.
 
I believe the average catholic does not know why we bow and/genuflect. I have seen many genuflect to saints or any other statues in church. It is my understanding the you bow to the altar, and genuflect to the tabernacle.
 
Ralph4454 said:
I believe the average catholic does not know why we bow and/genuflect. I have seen many genuflect to saints or any other statues in church. It is my understanding the you bow to the altar, and genuflect to the tabernacle.
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Why debate this point.Jesus is present Body ,Blood ,Soul and Divinity in the Tabernacle no matter where in the Church it is placed He is under the roof. We genuflect whether we can see the red tabernacle lamp or not.
In the old days it was not uncommon for people to acknowledge Jesus in the tabernacle while passing a Catholic Church, especially in large Catholic cities in the US and Catholic countries like Ireland and Italy.:DCarlan
 
aicirt said:
Not having the Tabernacle on the main altar as THE center of the church is wrong. It should never have been moved to some remote corner. Ridiculous, IMO. We believe the Divine Presence is in the Tabernacle. That means God Himself is right there. He should be where we can see Him and where we can bow and genulfect to honor Him.
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Absolutely right. However, I always make a point of finding out where the Tabernacle is and genuflecting in that direction.
 
aicirt said:
Not having the Tabernacle on the main altar as THE center of the church is wrong. It should never have been moved to some remote corner. Ridiculous, IMO. We believe the Divine Presence is in the Tabernacle. That means God Himself is right there. He should be where we can see Him and where we can bow and genulfect to honor Him.
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Hi,
I agree with you. The first time I was in a church where the tabernacle was not present I felt like I came to visit Jesus and He was not home. I felt like I was in a Protestant church.
I had an occasion to ask the young priest why the tabernacle was not visible and in the main church. His answer, was to me, astonishing. He said that the tabernacle was distracting to the people while mass was being said. I at once told him that that was ridiculous. I have been in several Churches where this was done and I thank God that it was not done in my church.

Just my 2 cents
Jeanne
 
Why debate this point.Jesus is present Body ,Blood ,Soul and Divinity in the Tabernacle no matter where in the Church it is placed He is under the roof. We genuflect whether we can see the red tabernacle lamp or not.
In the old days it was not uncommon for people to acknowledge Jesus in the tabernacle while passing a Catholic Church, especially in large Catholic cities in the US and Catholic countries like Ireland and Italy.Carlan

I don’t believe there is anything to debate over. I think it was more of an educational question that was brought up. I personally don’t mind being corrected for something I’ve been doing for years, and finding out it was “wrong” perhaps out of ignorance. There are still many who acknowledge the tabernacle as we drive or walk by the church.
 
Ralph4454 said:
Why debate this point.Jesus is present Body ,Blood ,Soul and Divinity in the Tabernacle no matter where in the Church it is placed He is under the roof. We genuflect whether we can see the red tabernacle lamp or not.
In the old days it was not uncommon for people to acknowledge Jesus in the tabernacle while passing a Catholic Church, especially in large Catholic cities in the US and Catholic countries like Ireland and Italy.Carlan

I don’t believe there is anything to debate over. I think it was more of an educational question that was brought up. I personally don’t mind being corrected for something I’ve been doing for years, and finding out it was “wrong” perhaps out of ignorance. There are still many who acknowledge the tabernacle as we drive or walk by the church.
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If you went to visit the Queen, would you expect to see her on her throne in the main room where everyone else is or be dragged to a remote corner in a shady knook where she has been told to stay?

It should NEVER have been changed.
 
JeanneH said:
Hi,
I agree with you. The first time I was in a church where the tabernacle was not present I felt like I came to visit Jesus and He was not home. I felt like I was in a Protestant church.
I had an occasion to ask the young priest why the tabernacle was not visible and in the main church. His answer, was to me, astonishing. He said that the tabernacle was distracting to the people while mass was being said. I at once told him that that was ridiculous. I have been in several Churches where this was done and I thank God that it was not done in my church.

Just my 2 cents
Jeanne
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Got the same answer. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it. :whackadoo::banghead:

How about Mary and Joseph? Mary is now a tad larger than a home statue in a knook at the rear of the Church. St. Joseph is nowhere to be found. Ditto for confessionals.
 
While I understand the presence of the tabernacle in a certain spot, I do not need it to feel the presence of God. He is everywhere I am, wether sitting at church, driving, working, or at home. And a church is no less of one if the tabernacle is not where we would prefer it to be.
 
Ralph4454 said:
While I understand the presence of the tabernacle in a certain spot, I do not need it to feel the presence of God. He is everywhere I am, wether sitting at church, driving, working, or at home. And a church is no less of one if the tabernacle is not where we would prefer it to be.
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Could you give me a reason as to why after, how many years?..a thousand plus?, the Tabernacle NEEDED to be removed? Was there an outbreak of parishoners screaming remove it because it is distracting to us? This was told to two of us as posted on this board. Because if there was such a protest, I wasn’t aware of it.
 
If I recall correctly, the directive was to move the Tabernacle away from the main altar so that at Mass the focus would be on the Eucharistic Presence on the altar.

The GIRM says
It is more in keeping with the meaning of the sign that the tabernacle in which the Most Holy Eucharist is reserved not be on an altar on which Mass is celebrated.
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Consequently, it is preferable that the tabernacle be located, according to the judgment of the Diocesan Bishop,
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Either in the sanctuary, apart from the altar of celebration, in a form and place more appropriate, not excluding on an old altar no longer used for celebration;
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Or even in some chapel suitable for the faithful’s private adoration and prayer and which is organically connected to the church and readily visible to the Christian faithful.
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So - “readily visible” would suggest that one could genuflect toward the tabernacle, which is in fact correct - one bows toward the altar, but genuflects in the Presence.
 
Aicirt, I could not possibly give you a reason for it to be moved, for I am just a humble catholic and fairly new to CAF. The only thing I can say for certain is this, I am positive that if this move was a grave sin, The Holy See would see to it that it gets “fixed”. I just don’t think that it is anything to get worked up over, or anyone leaving the catholic church over.
 
Ralph4454 said:
Aicirt, I could not possibly give you a reason for it to be moved, for I am just a humble catholic and fairly new to CAF. The only thing I can say for certain is this, I am positive that if this move was a grave sin, The Holy See would see to it that it gets “fixed”. I just don’t think that it is anything to get worked up over, or anyone leaving the catholic church over.
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I doubt that it is a sin. I do, however, believe that it was not the intention of Vatican II. It appears that many of the changes were attributed to Vatican II and now we are being told that some things were a misinterpertation.

I think maybe you’d see things differently if you had been a Catholic before Vatican II.

Back to the question: If the laity didn’t complain about the Tabernacle being on the main altar and the Vatican didn’t insist on the Tabernacle being removed, than why was it removed? Maybe someone else can answer.
 
aicirt said:
If the laity didn’t complain about the Tabernacle being on the main altar and the Vatican didn’t insist on the Tabernacle being removed, than why was it removed? Maybe someone else can answer.
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There could be a couple of different reasons. One of them more silly than the other.
  1. When designing the church the person making the decisions decided that a seperate room or special place would be more significant than a spot in the sanctuary. The mindset was hopefully, why give God a shelf when we can give him a whole room? They decided the room was a place with the greatest honor.
  2. Or, they were trying to correct a percieved “privatized piety” which some thought could distract from from the community nature of Eucharistic worship.
Either case. I’m glad my church has Christ front and center. I think there should be a rule that Jesus should be in the sanctuary. It’s time to stop welcoming each other and holding hands and chatting. Put the community and kumbaya stuff aside and put God back front and center where he belongs. Christ’s ability to bring us together through his sacrifice is far more powerful than anything we can do holding hands with our fellow parishoners.
 
JeanneH said:
Akin to bowing to Mecca!!!???
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I think, and feel free to correct me, that the priest faced east toward the Rising Son and the rising sun. That is why his back was toward us and we, the laity, faced east too. So, yeah, kind of like the Muslims bowing to Mecca. I believe the Jews face toward the east also looking to Israel and where the last temple stood.
 
aicirt said:
I think, and feel free to correct me, that the priest faced east toward the Rising Son and the rising sun. That is why his back was toward us and we, the laity, faced east too. So, yeah, kind of like the Muslims bowing to Mecca. I believe the Jews face toward the east also looking to Israel and where the last temple stood.
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HMMMM
I just learned something. Thanks
 
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