Who is allowed into the Tabernacle?

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Inveni! (I found [it]!) I have found some references in documents on the USCCB’s web site pertaining to who has access to the tabernacle.

Here is an excerpt from an address by Francis Cardinal Arinze (Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the dicastery which put forth Redemptionis Sacramentum) to Bishops and a few hundred liturgists at a meeting in San Antonio in 2003. His talk was titled “Some Highlights of the Liturgical Renewal Initiated by Sacrosanctum Concilium”; here is an excerpt from section 6, “Lay Liturgical Roles”:There should be no attempt to clericalize the laity. This could happen when, for example, lay people chosen as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion no longer see this role as being called on to help when the ordinary ministers (bishop, priest and deacon) are not available in sufficient numbers to cope with the high number of communicants. When the extraordinary ministers see their role as a power display to show that what the priest can do, the lay faithful can do too, then we have a problem. How else can we explain the sad error of the lay faithful struggling around the altar to open the tabernacle or to grab the sacred vessels - all against sane liturgical norms and pure good sense?

Here is an excerpt from the March/April 2004 BCL (Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy) newsletter on Redemptionis Sacramentum:The ministers of Holy Communion are the priest celebrant or other priests or deacons who are present, or, in cases of necessity, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Because the faithful should ordinarily receive only hosts consecrated at the Mass which they are attending, the priest should not usually go to the tabernacle for already consecrated hosts to be used in the distribution of Holy Communion.

Here is a question and answer from “Thirty Questions on the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum…”:22. Should the priest regularly go to the tabernacle before the distribution of Holy Communion?

No. The instruction cites the Roman Missal in reminding us that because the faithful should ordinarily receive only hosts consecrated at the Mass which they are attending, the priest should not usually go to the tabernacle for already consecrated hosts to be used in the distribution of Holy Communion.

I read the GIRM and RS last night. (I don’t have the electronic version) I only found references of the Priest taking the remining Hosts to the tabernacle after Holy Communion. The fact the the documents do not anticipate the regular use of reserved Hosts at every Mass is why who goes to get them it is not found in the documents. The reference only to the priest returning them to the tabernacle after Holy Communion may be why we made the change a few years ago. No one has returned my phone calls as yet.

 

[Seatuck]

I read the GIRM and RS last night. (I don’t have the electronic version) I only found references of the Priest taking the remining Hosts to the tabernacle after Holy Communion. The fact the the documents do not anticipate the regular use of reserved Hosts at every Mass is why who goes to get them it is not found in the documents. The reference only to the priest returning them to the tabernacle after Holy Communion may be why we made the change a few years ago. No one has returned my phone calls as yet.

I wondered if there where a more general directive which allowed a Bishop to make a judgement on such a thing. This is why- I found the following instruction for EME( The term hadn’t been corrected yet , I guess)

In this archdiocese, if there is no concelebrating
priest or deacon, and the tabernacle is a distance
from the altar, then out of practical necessity, an
EME may remove and return it to the tabernacle after
Communion. This is the only situation in which an
EME may remove or return the ciborium to the
tabernacle

I’ve seen it before in other diocesan instructions.

64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:CsMWF-LJt0AJ:www2.creighton.edu/ministry/stjohns/information/overviewofgirm/fileadmin/user/ministry/StJohns/docs/Girm/k-GIRM_03-Etiquette4_CommunionA.pdf+archdiocese+of+omaha-+eucharistic+minister&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

 

[japhy]

I read the GIRM and RS last night. (I don’t have the electronic version) I only found references of the Priest taking the remining Hosts to the tabernacle after Holy Communion.

Indeed; GIRM 163 reads in part:
163. When the distribution of Communion is finished, the priest himself immediately and completely consumes at the altar any consecrated wine that happens to remain; as for any consecrated hosts that are left, he either consumes them at the altar or carries them to the place designated for the reservation of the Eucharist. …

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I wondered if there where a more general directive which allowed a Bishop to make a judgement on such a thing. This is why- I found the following instruction for EME( The term hadn’t been corrected yet , I guess)

I’ve seen it before in other diocesan instructions.

64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:CsMWF-LJt0AJ:www2.creighton.edu/ministry/stjohns/information/overviewofgirm/fileadmin/user/ministry/StJohns/docs/Girm/k-GIRM_03-Etiquette4_CommunionA.pdf+archdiocese+of+omaha-+eucharistic+minister&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

In this situation that would make sense because you do not want the priest to leave the sanctuary. They are not to leave the sanctuary even for the sign of peace or I believe the homily either.

Another solution might be to place a covered ciborium with the reserved Hosts on the corporal on the credence table just before Mass begins. This would require someone responsible to be near by at all times until Mass begins. Or have a smaller tabernacle in the sanctuary for this purpose.

 

[japhy]

In this situation that would make sense because you do not want the priest to leave the sanctuary. They are not to leave the sanctuary even for the sign of peace or I believe the homily either.

Yeah, the priest leaving the Sanctuary for anything other than distributing Communion seems weird to me. Of course, in places where altar rails are still standing, the priest doesn’t leave the Sanctuary to give Communion!

Another solution might be to place a covered ciborium with the reserved Hosts on the corporal on the credence table just before Mass begins. This would require someone responsible to be near by at all times until Mass begins. Or have a smaller tabernacle in the sanctuary for this purpose.

That sounds dangerous, even with an alert responsible guard on duty! As for the smaller tabernacle, why not just keep the normal tabernacle in the Sanctuary?

One thing I’m curious about is… what happens as the tabernacle becomes more and more full with the “extra” Hosts? The practice at my parish is that on Sundays (and other days of obligation), many Hosts are consecrated (and probably some from the tabernacle are distributed as well); on weekday Masses, the only Host consecrated at that Mass is the one the priest holds during the Eucharistic Prayer; he consumes half of it, the EMHC consumes a fourth, and some lucky parishioner consumes the other fourth. The rest of us receive previously consecrated Hosts. This way, the “supply” of reserved Hosts is kept in check.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Yeah, the priest leaving the Sanctuary for anything other than distributing Communion seems weird to me. Of course, in places where altar rails are still standing, the priest doesn’t leave the Sanctuary to give Communion!

That sounds dangerous, even with an alert responsible guard on duty! As for the smaller tabernacle, why not just keep the normal tabernacle in the Sanctuary?

One thing I’m curious about is… what happens as the tabernacle becomes more and more full with the “extra” Hosts? The practice at my parish is that on Sundays (and other days of obligation), many Hosts are consecrated (and probably some from the tabernacle are distributed as well); on weekday Masses, the only Host consecrated at that Mass is the one the priest holds during the Eucharistic Prayer; he consumes half of it, the EMHC consumes a fourth, and some lucky parishioner consumes the other fourth. The rest of us receive previously consecrated Hosts. This way, the “supply” of reserved Hosts is kept in check.

Remember thst the only reason the Hosts are reserved in the first place is so that they are available at any time for the sick and dying. There should be a minimal number of Hosts in the tabernacle depending on the circumstances of the parish. If there is no resident priest more might be reserved for necessary Communion services. Those that are there should be used in the normal visiting of the people in the hospital and the home bound.

 

[japhy]

Remember thst the only reason the Hosts are reserved in the first place is so that they are available at any time for the sick and dying. There should be a minimal number of Hosts in the tabernacle depending on the circumstances of the parish. If there is no resident priest more might be reserved for necessary Communion services. Those that are there should be used in the normal visiting of the people in the hospital and the home bound.

Makes sense. At my brother’s parish (where is the only priest), daily Mass is held in a chapel in the rectory; as people enter, there is a dish of communion wafers next to a paten, and they take a wafer and place it in the paten so that the proper number will be consecrated.

 

[Sure]

I still don’t see anything here that says an EMHC may not (after Communion) return a ciborium to the tabernacle. At our parish they bring their ciboria to the tabernacle and then use the ablution cup. Then they genuflect and return to their pews. Is there some explicit instruction that says ONLY priests and deacons can access the tabernacle during Mass?

Thanks!

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I still don’t see anything here that says an EMHC may not (after Communion) return a ciborium to the tabernacle. At our parish they bring their ciboria to the tabernacle and then use the ablution cup. Then they genuflect and return to their pews. Is there some explicit instruction that says ONLY priests and deacons can access the tabernacle during Mass?

Thanks!

The GIRM ONLY make mention of the priest taking the remaining Hosts to the tabernacle. It does not mention anyone else doing this. I would interpret this as saying that only the priest should do this. IF it said "After Holy Communion the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion take the remaining Hosts to the tabernacle. Then I would think otherwise.

 

[quiet52]

Remember thst the only reason the Hosts are reserved in the first place is so that they are available at any time for the sick and dying. There should be a minimal number of Hosts in the tabernacle depending on the circumstances of the parish. If there is no resident priest more might be reserved for necessary Communion services. Those that are there should be used in the normal visiting of the people in the hospital and the home bound.

This serves to explain why previously-consecrated hosts are retrieved during mass and intermingled with the newly-consecrated hosts. In a parish with several Sunday masses, it is difficult to calculate exactly how many people will be receiving Holy Communion during each mass. It may be 250 people one Sunday during a particular mass, and 300 the next Sunday. The person who sets up before mass does his best to estimate – he ensures that there will be enough, but doesn’t want several ciboriums with reserved hosts left in the tabernacle by the last Sunday mass, either. Like Bro. Rich said, there are to be a minimal number of reserved Hosts left in the tabernacle for the sick and homebound.

 

[porthos11]

I need help from everyone concerning: **Can EM’s go into the tabernacle? **During Mass our EMHC go to tabernacle, retrieve Hosts and put them back at end of communion. Need a reference if you can find the answer.

I did a double-take here. A funny picture of an EMHC actually entering that teeny Tabernacle.

Strictly speaking, only our Lord is allowed in the Tabernacle, for the simple reason that only the Eucharistic species are small enough.

Sigh. Okay, fun’s over. Back to regular programming.

 

[Seatuck]

I did a double-take here. A funny picture of an EMHC actually entering that teeny Tabernacle.

Strictly speaking, only our Lord is allowed in the Tabernacle, for the simple reason that only the Eucharistic species are small enough.

Sigh. Okay, fun’s over. Back to regular programming.

The same thing happens to me when people say “on the altar” as in " who is allowed on the altar". I always picture father and others standing up on the altar (table). Somehow it takes me a minute to get that they are referring to the raised up sanctuary or something.

 

[japhy]

Eucharistiae Sacramentum 91 allows (for the purposes of Eucharistic Adoration only) for an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion to go to the tabernacle for the exposition and reposition of the Eucharist.