To be honest with you, I dislike the custom of taking the Most Blessed Sacrament in procession to another chapel some distance from the church after the Holy Thursday’s Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
I have always had inside processions in the church, ending up at an altar of repose in the church, maybe a side altar, or if no side altar, back at the tabernacle.
I have also done, and for years, the stripping of the altar after the Blessed Sacrament is Reposed with the choir chanting the proper chant for it. It’s quite beautiful and in a darkened church.
But I just saw this explanation on Facebook and as it is describe, the longer procession with the laity makes good sense. What do you prefer?
From Facebook:
✝️ WHY THE BLESSED SACRAMENT IS TRANSFERRED TO THE ALTAR OF REPOSE😳
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At the end of Holy Thursday Mass, something deeply moving happens.
The Eucharist is not left on the altar.
It is not kept in the main tabernacle.
👉 It is carried in procession to another place:
The Altar of Repose.
Why?
✝️ THIS IS NOT “STORAGE”, IT IS A JOURNEY
The Church is not relocating the Eucharist for convenience.
👉 She is re-enacting the movement of Christ Himself.
After the Last Supper:
Jesus leaves the Upper Room
He walks into the night
He enters Gethsemane
Now the Church does not just remember this.
👉 She makes you walk it.
The procession with the Blessed Sacrament is:
The Church walking with Christ into His agony.
✝️ WHY A DIFFERENT PLACE?
The Altar of Repose represents:
👉 The Garden of Gethsemane
It is often beautifully prepared, but not like the main altar.
Because this is not the place of sacrifice.
👉 It is the place of waiting, sorrow, and surrender.
✝️ THE EUCHARIST IS THE SAME CHRIST
The One carried in procession is not a symbol.
👉 It is the same Jesus who said:
“My soul is sorrowful unto death” (Matthew 26:38)
“Stay here and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38)
So when the Blessed Sacrament is placed there…
👉 Christ is now “in the garden.”
✝️ THE INVITATION MOST PEOPLE MISS
After the transfer, the Church does something unusual:
👉 She stays.
Adoration continues.
Silence deepens.
Why?
Because Jesus asked:
👉 “Could you not watch one hour with me?” (Matthew 26:40)
This is not devotion.
👉 This is obedience to Christ’s request.
✝️ A HARD TRUTH
Many attend the Mass.
Few stay for the vigil.
History repeats itself:
The disciples slept
The crowd disappeared
And today?
👉 Many still walk away.
✝️ WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU
The Altar of Repose reveals something uncomfortable:
👉 Faith is not only about receiving Christ.
👉 It is about staying with Him when it is difficult.
When prayer feels heavy…
When God feels silent…
👉 That is Gethsemane.
✝️ THE FINAL TRUTH
The transfer of the Blessed Sacrament is a question:
Will you follow Jesus only to the
👉 Or will you follow Him into the night?
The most important moment of Holy Thursday is not only the Eucharist…
👉 It is what happens after, when Jesus waits…
…and asks:
“Will you stay?”
#CatholicsOnlineClass ✝️
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PICTURE: gotten from @San Antonio De Padua Parish - Malabon
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4 comments:
I saw this also and liked it. It sounds nice and symbolic but is there any official church teaching? I know over the years the procession has gotten longer and the altar of repose further away. It's kind of like lifting arms at the Pater Noster...not harmful but not in the rubrics.
Living in Phoenix the weather is warm. We had a lovely and not too long procession outdoors to the courtyard. It was dark and silent...except for altar of repose and the candles...
When Jesus asked the disciples to "watch and pray" they were at the garden so I like that analogy.
The problems being many parishes don't have much in the way of a place of repose, them lacking much of a church at all especially with sterile "modern" interiors, zero side altars, often either no adoration chapel at all, or, even worse, some tacky room somewhere designated a "chapel" with tawdry leftover appointment or cheap stackable chairs in equally sterile "modern" room.
The entire point of the removal to me has been to experience what the earliest followers experienced, the total loss of the Messiah, an empty church bereft of God, its heart ripped out, and any place of repose inside the church negates that, where even a social hall or tacky removed "chapel" can magnify the effect, them good stand-ins for the ugliness of the grave. Meanwhile, those tacky "chapels" are a poor stand-in for the church as for a place fitting for adoration, where if the chapel can be secured for those seeking time with God, then why not the church for which parishoners are paying? Sadly, most churches are locked except for organized communal events of often less than spiritual nature. Quite a digression from the topic, but very much related.
In all of my parishes, there have been side altars set up for the Reposition and beautifully so. That enabled us to have a procession throughout the church with the choir and laity chanting the Latin Pange Lingua. Everyone stays for this. And then I and others would go to strip the altar. Most stayed for this. On Holy Thursday, I , a retired priest, celebrated the evening Mass at a local parish. They had set up the altar of repose in the social hall, which, btw, was the original church. Most did not process out as they are elderly, the choir could not hold the Pange Lingua together because of the lag in sound traveling and then the altar of repose was on a folding table, nicely decorated with the metal chairs—not, as you describe, that beautiful. I like my way better!
I like what you described, Fr. AJM.
In the East, we don't have this tradition; rather we shift our focus to the symbolic tomb with the shroud laid within placed directly in front of the Royal Doors. So, rather than progressively emptying the church, we simply move its focal point with a procession around the church and to the tomb as a means of journeying with our Lord. Vigil at the tomb is an important tradition for us. For Resurrection Matins, we again process around the church intoning the Paschal Troparion before the priest opens the doors of the lit/decorated church for all to enter with the joyous observance of the resurrection continuing.
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