Tabernacle empty while Church empty?

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skippykerrie

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Hi All,

I was just wondering what should happen to the consecrated hosts if the Church was to be left alone for a while?

Our Parish priest, along with the assisting Priest and Deacon, are on a Pilgrimage trip with a few of our Parishioners. With no one to cover them due to shortage of priests, both Churches in our Parish will be left.

I am not sure if the hosts were consumed after mass, but we attended the last one before they were due to depart, and they were placed in the Tabernacle as per usual.

I can’t help but wonder, is our Lord alone? I’m also curious about this situation.

Thank you in advance for any replies!

God Bless xx
 
I imagine this will vary from parish to parish.

If this were to happen in my parish, there would still be consecrated hosts in the tabernacle for the appropriate people to take to the sick and housebound. I’m the head sacristan and thus in the church every day for at least a few hours, so Jesus wouldn’t be alone for more than 24 hours…which is about how long He’s normally reposed anyway, when the priests are around and offering Mass daily. Even if I couldn’t be there on a given day, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s His house; He’s probably safer there than He would be in a lot of other places. 🙂
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I imagine this will vary from parish to parish.

If this were to happen in my parish, there would still be consecrated hosts in the tabernacle for the appropriate people to take to the sick and housebound. I’m the head sacristan and thus in the church every day for at least a few hours, so Jesus wouldn’t be alone for more than 24 hours…which is about how long He’s normally reposed anyway, when the priests are around and offering Mass daily. Even if I couldn’t be there on a given day, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s His house; He’s probably safer there than He would be in a lot of other places. 🙂
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THIS^^^. You saved me a lot of typing, UPUP! 😉
 
I don’t understand the concept of “Jesus is alone” in the context of the tabernacle reposed and locked Sacramental Presence in the Eucharist. Isn’t “alone” imposing an almost anthropomorphic quality on the Presence which is not theologically sound? This is of course different from the issue of not leaving the exposed Host in a monstrance alone.
 
I’m a new Catholic so I’m not sure what you meant in the last post. I don’t think I explained this very clearly. I do appreciate your comments, though.

I enjoy going to adoration and spending time before and after mass with Jesus. This morning I read a number of things which got me thinking about this, and I felt a ‘bothered’ feeling about it. Jesus said to Padre Pio that people did not come to visit him and that some priests caused him distress over their treatment of the blessed sacrament.

I didn’t mean He feels lonely, etc. out of respect it somehow seems wrong and perhaps irreverent to leave the tabernacle occupied and lock the church for a week.

I was just interested if there was something which should be done in this instance and any comments I wasn’t asking if Jesus was lonely.

God Bless.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
I don’t understand the concept of “Jesus is alone” in the context of the tabernacle reposed and locked Sacramental Presence in the Eucharist. Isn’t “alone” imposing an almost anthropomorphic quality on the Presence which is not theologically sound? This is of course different from the issue of not leaving the exposed Host in a monstrance alone.
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He is never alone.
 
I would be very surprised if no one is going to be in your church for an entire week. Surely at least one person would check in on things periodically just to make sure everything was all right. That’s just common sense.
 
Ok, thanks everyone for your comments. I was jst asking. For one thing I thought the hosts would go bad. It wasn’t so much concern that someone won’t open the church and stick their head in the door all week, just that it seemed disrespectful to reserve the sacrament for a whole week if the church will be locked up. It seems better to be on the side of respectful concern with things like this.
 
In rural areas that share priests, you’ll often find that churches are locked up from Sunday to Sunday. Ours has one extra Mass mid-week, which will get cancelled if the priest is on vacation or on retreat. So it’s the norm in many places… y’all are lucky to have that luxury to (a) have an open church you can visit anytime you like, and (b) have the option of attending Mass as frequently as you’d like. 🙂
 
In one parish here someone is always assigned to sit and “guard” the Hosts when no one else is there. A friend of mine (who is a Knight) often volunteers for this.
 
captainrick said:
In one parish here someone is always assigned to sit and “guard” the Hosts when no one else is there. A friend of mine (who is a Knight) often volunteers for this.
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That’s excellent!

I wish the church was open all week, lol. It’s ‘just’ for morning mass each day, which we are lucky to have…definitely.
 
If the priests are to be gone for a length of time, they would normally leave hosts in the tabernacle so that EMHC’s could take communion to the sick, the homebound, and the dying in case of need.

Also, on Sunday there may be the celebration without a priest in which the Body of Christ is distributed.
 
To ease your mind, hosts don’t “go bad” in a week unless they somehow get wet. They last for many, many months.

Why don’t you just ask the priests? No one here can really answer your question.
 
skippykerrie said:
Ok, thanks everyone for your comments. I was jst asking. For one thing I thought the hosts would go bad. It wasn’t so much concern that someone won’t open the church and stick their head in the door all week, just that it seemed disrespectful to reserve the sacrament for a whole week if the church will be locked up. It seems better to be on the side of respectful concern with things like this.
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Indeed.

As has been mentioned, however, the hosts aren’t reserved for no reason. The reserve is available to those who take Communion to the sick and housebound. Many of these kind souls are lay persons who cannot confect the Eucharist themselves, and without this reserve they would not be able to fulfill their mission.

Carolyn is right: properly stored hosts take eons to go bad. The tabernacle is designed to house them correctly, so the church being dark for a week isn’t cause for concern. Be at peace!
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I imagine this will vary from parish to parish.

If this were to happen in my parish, there would still be consecrated hosts in the tabernacle for the appropriate people to take to the sick and housebound. I’m the head sacristan and thus in the church every day for at least a few hours, so Jesus wouldn’t be alone for more than 24 hours…which is about how long He’s normally reposed anyway, when the priests are around and offering Mass daily. Even if I couldn’t be there on a given day, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s His house; He’s probably safer there than He would be in a lot of other places. 🙂
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👍
 
skippykerrie said:
I’m a new Catholic so I’m not sure what you meant in the last post. I don’t think I explained this very clearly. I do appreciate your comments, though.

God Bless.
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He was being a little technical.

Jesus’ presence transcends time and space. The same Jesus is present in a tabernacle in France and a tabernacle in Japan. It doesn’t matter if it was a tabernacle in the year 850 or a tabernacle in the year 2015. It is all the same Jesus. He exists substantially in the conscrated host and bodily in heaven and so can never truly be alone.

We all understand “alone” to mean no humans near the tabernacle, locked up in the Church with no one around. This is not a problem. Those in the church office, the sacristans and everyone else left in charge know what to do.

-Tim-
 
If a security guard or maintenance personnel is around just to clean or guard the church, it wouldn’t be a problem. Though some personnel from the parish office who didn’t join up with those who went on pilgrimage may at least invite some priests around the diocese to celebrate one Mass every Sunday there and temporarily omit weekday Masses until the priests return.

Priests in my school (and also the rest of the priests that belong to their congregation) would go for a month-long general retreat every October or November, so all weekday morning Masses in the school chapel aren’t celebrated until they return from their retreat. The chapel at that time is virtually empty during the day, except in the morning where students will pray before going to their classes and at evening, where students will pray before going home.
 
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