Search Page

Whether we are healthy or disabled, Christ told me that when we pray before the tabernacle, where He dwells, it is as though each of us is like a child sitting on the steps beneath His Heavenly throne, enjoying His company as He enjoys our conversation.

Christ asks us not to allow ourselves to become distressed, whilst praying at Mass, about inaudible readings or the immodest clothing of ministers of Communion. We should rejoice in His Real Presence in the tabernacle and, later, on the altar; it is normally later that we should speak about or work to change whatever is unworthy of God's house.

Christ urges us all to go to Him at the tabernacle and to ask for His help, in our fight against temptations. With His powerful graces, He can give us new hope and strength, and save us from Hell. With Him, we can do good and avoid evil.

The Lord invites everyone to reflect on what happens in church, where we enter into the presence of the Saints and Angels, gathered about Christ Who is Really Present in the tabernacle. The Father looks down upon the sanctuary where we shall offer the One Holy Sacrifice of His Son; and we should ask ourselves: "Am I worthy to be present?"

When in Queen visits a hospital, people use every possible means of showing respect, through their approach, dress, speech, manner, welcome, warmth and gestures: yet how many Catholics use any of these means of showing reverence towards their King: Jesus Christ, Divine King and Savior, Present on the altar and in the tabernacle?

To be near the tabernacle, where Jesus Christ is substantially Present, hidden under the appearance of bread, is to be close to Christ's Divine Life and power. It is as if a fire burns, at the tabernacle, just as in the heart of the bush, as Moses looked on, long ago, when the Lord told him that where he stood was 'holy ground'.

The Living Word, Who is Christ, is as if waiting to meet us through our reading of Sacred Scripture. We can meet Him there, as well as in our prayer, our spiritual Communions, our visits to Him at the tabernacle, our gathering-together with fellow Catholics - and our supremely powerful and intimate union with Him during the Mass, in Holy Communion.

An orthodox and fervent form of catechesis is badly needed. Things began to go wrong thirty years ago when many tabernacles were moved to unsuitable, make-shift chapels unworthy of our Divine Saviour. Christ's Real Presence is ignored or forgotten. Children were taught little about His Presence. Attention was paid, frequently, more to the community than to almighty God.

St. John Vianney's burning desire was to share the Faith and to save souls. His first preparation for his priestly task was to pray to the Lord, at the tabernacle, pleading for his flock, and also making a worthy preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which he would offer for his parish as well as the whole Church.

All who love Christ, and trust in His love as they pray before Him Who is Present in the tabernacle, receive many graces. He is our Divine Saviour, Sacramentally Present; and He cannot be out-done in generosity. If we show reverence and love towards Him, how can He fail to reward us?

Christ is deeply touched whenever we show devotion to Him in the Blessed Sacrament - and especially when we search out the tabernacle whenever we enter a Catholic church away from home, and cannot see our way to it. Christ would like to show us more delight and gratitude, but would completely overwhelm us.

Christ does not see many images of Angels or even Saints in many modern churches, though He would be pleased to see them; but He assures us that real Angels really surround Him at the altar, both at the Mass and during Benediction, or by the tabernacle. They are servants of Him, the King.

A Christian in a state of grace is intimately united with the Triune God. By Baptism, all sin is washed away from the soul, the person is made a member of the Church; Baptism brings the life of God to shine within the soul through the presence there of the Blessed Trinity: called the Divine Indwelling. No longer need people go to a special Temple in order to pray - though we have churches for our public worship as the Body of Christ: consecrated places where Christ is Really Present, in the tabernacle, in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Angels look on with joy, to see their Lord, Jesus Christ, adored. This is true whether the venue of the Mass is a tent or a Cathedral, or whether Christ is being adored in the Mass, or in the tabernacle - or enthroned in the monstrance, for Adoration and Benediction.

St. Therese of Liseux was overjoyed that her relics had inspired people to have greater devotion to God; yet the gaze of the faithful should eventually turn from relics to the Church's greatest treasure: Jesus Christ Himself, sacramentally Present in the Blessed Sacrament, in the tabernacle, as here, in Westminster Cathedral.

It is tragic that when the Real Presence has been banished from a Christian group, the joy of members must often depend on whether or not a person sees a particular pastor as a congenial and helpful leader, and not on a joyful dependence on Jesus Christ, sacramentally Present on the altar and in the tabernacle.

The Real Presence is not a myth or a fairytale, but a work of God. Christ wants everyone to know the meaning of 'Real Presence'. It means that, in what appears to be bread and wine, after the Consecration, Jesus Christ is truly Present: our Risen Lord, bodily Present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, glorious, loving, sharing His love for us. The same is true of Christ, Present in the tabernacle.

We should focus on the tabernacle, and, through it, to Heaven, if strange or distorted things are heard in church from the pulpit. We can be certain that the Father has given Christ to us, Who has spoken all His Father wants us to know; and we can rely on the Church's teaching, given through the Pope and the Catholic Bishops, easily found in our Catechism. We must be confident that the truth has been handed on, and can be known.

Some people are tempted to imagine that God is thousands of miles away, and cannot hear them - or that they are not close to Him. But just as Christ is Present in the tabernacle of a Catholic Church, even if He cannot be seen, even if the tabernacle cannot be seen, if a person walks through a church when the lights are off, so Christ is very close to every soul, even when a person feels as though she walks in darkness, alone, without any feelings of companionship.

If we find it hard to believe that Jesus is Present in the tabernacle of our church - sacramentally Present - we can picture Heaven as being so vast that it stretches as far as our church, over the place where the tabernacle has been placed. Christ Who is Really Present in Heaven is also Really Present, we can deduce, in the tabernacle.