Question about Holy Thursday

[mlz]

I am not Catholic (yet) but went to the Church tonight for Adoration and noticed that the Tabernacle was open and empty. There was another tabernacle in a different part of the church with a pair of Knights of Columbus men taking turns standing there. Can someone explain this to me. This is all new to me.

Thank you,
mlz

 

[Phemie]

I am not Catholic (yet) but went to the Church tonight for Adoration and noticed that the Tabernacle was open and empty. There was another tabernacle in a different part of the church with a pair of Knights of Columbus men taking turns standing there. Can someone explain this to me. This is all new to me.

Thank you,
mlz

The Tabernacle is empty to symbolize that this is the night when the Lord first instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood. We’re starting ‘afresh’ so to speak. Enough hosts will be consecrated at this Mass to give Communion to everyone and have enough remaining to give Communion during the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and Communion to the dying at any time before the Vigil.

Once Communion is over on Holy Thursday, the remaining Hosts, the Blessed Sacrament, are taken to an altar of repose (ideally, not the same place where the Blessed Sacrament is usually reserved). It would have been the Altar of Repose that was guarded by the Knights.

The Tabernacle will remain empty until after the Vigil since any Hosts that remain after the Good Friday Communion are to be taken out of the church to a properly prepared place – usually a locked location somewhere in another part of the church. We use the sacristy or a small tabernacle in the chapel.

 

[TheMc]

I am not Catholic (yet) but went to the Church tonight for Adoration and noticed that the Tabernacle was open and empty. There was another tabernacle in a different part of the church with a pair of Knights of Columbus men taking turns standing there. Can someone explain this to me. This is all new to me.

The “regular” tabernacle is supposed to be empty when the Mass of the Lord’s supper begins. Before Mass, the Eucharist is moved to the “other place of reservation”. That is probably what you saw the knights guarding. After Holy Thursday Mass, the Eucharist is moved to the altar of repose for adoration, but it is still often kept in the “other place”.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

In some places the Knights stand guard over the altar of repose as they do at the wake of a brother Knight.