I hope he will not mind if I reproduce one of his photos here to illustrate what I meant about monstrances and the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Catholic churches.
First, here is the photo:
Now, no reverent Catholic is not going to take a close up shot of a consecrated host so we have a distant shot here and you'll just have to take my word about what you are seeing. However, if you look at the high altar in the very centre of the photograph, you will see a larger crucifix above the altar and smaller white cross in an arched niche on top of the altar. That smaller cross is the monstrance wherein the Blessed Sacrament is displayed. It will be on display like this for a period during the day and Catholics (and others if they wish) will drop in and pray before it. Because, as we Catholics believe, the consecrated host is the real presence of Jesus, it is a way of contemplating Jesus himself.
It's quite a powerful experience.
Watch it Jules. If you keep it up, this proddy's going to start 'getting' all this weird Catholic stuff. :-)
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
This must be a Canadian custom, I've never seen that here in the US. Maybe in part because they wouldn't leave anything as valuable as a monstrance in an unattended church. Most churches here are unlocked during the day, but when there isn't a mass going on, anything valuable, e.g., chalices, the monstrance, are placed in locked cabinets. The Adoration Chapel that I mentioned in an earlier post is kept locked 24/7, and only those who sign up and commit to an hour of adoration get the code to punch in on the keyboard outside which unlocks the door.
ReplyDeleteThe pictured church is in England. Out of curiosity, I Googled around a bit and there are places in the Canada, England and the USA where it is done—the Cathedral in Baltimore for example—but it is relatively rare everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWhere it no longer happens seems to be a function of how Vatican 2 was understood, or, to be more accurate, misunderstood. Nowhere in Vatican 2 does it say to get rid of Eucharistic Adoration but quite a few bishops and priests used Vatican 2 as an excuse to suppress stuff they didn't like.
I think this pre-dates Vatican II, at least here in the US. After 8 yrs. of religious instruction, 4 yrs of Catholic high school, and 4 yrs of Catholic college--most of it prior to Vatican II--I had never heard the term Eucharistic Adoration until maybe 8 or 9 years ago when the church near here created the Adoration Chapel. Around the same time my aunt, who is now 84, called me to tell me her priest had said in his homily that he was considering starting Eucharistic Adoration at their church if enough people would be interested, and she asked me if I knew what it meant because she had never heard of it. So apparently at that time there must have been an attempt by some here to start it. I don't think it caught on because as far as I know, the only place that does it is that one church with the Adoration Chapel. I guess maybe it might have been more common at the cathdrals in the large cities which might have security guards on the premises during the day.
ReplyDeletei live 10 min walk from a busy Catholicchurch in Calgary which is the only one of a few here in the city that offer a adoration chapel, however this is the only (St. Anthonys) church that has it available for people who are trustworthy 24/7/365, and forthose who arent so much from 8amish to 10pm, it is very special and has only been here for 7years..it is the only one in southern alberta, and is very loved..it was transformed from a storage area into its current 15(?) people chapel with candles for 7hours or 7days, and has many commited adorers..it is the best place to write, read, pray, think, budget, study, make jewelry(?) since doing these things in from of heaven and earths and all galaxies maker is who you are in the direct and substantial presense of(Jesus Christ). you cant go wrong if you bring a tote and do things there providing you can be quiet about it all...
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