Home › Forums › All Things Catholic › The tabernacle › Reply To: The tabernacle
[quote:1259t70q]
When an eastern rite or Orthodox priest takes communion to the sick, most of the Byzantine rites also take a portable kit which has a small chalice and spoon, as well as some non-consecrated wine to moisten the consecrated bread. While adoration is not a major theme in the East, once again because they did not have heresies that denied the real presence, they do accept the real presence and do reverence the Blessed Sacrament. All in all the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament differs from Rite to Rite, and sometimes within a rite when there is no universal rubric within the rite.[/quote:1259t70q]
Historically, all of Christendom did not reserve the Blessed Sacrament for adoration. That developed in the West. The tabernacle was used by the early Christians to reserve the Blessed Sacrament, in order to bring it to the sick.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is found in the Latin Church and in the Maronite Church.
[color=darkred:1259t70q]The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. [/color:1259t70q]
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a3.htm
[color=blue:1259t70q]In the Latin Church, as even today in the Eastern Church, the reservation of the Eucharistic Host had not been for public veneration but for communion of the sick. Gradually, however, customs of worshipping the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle and the monstrance were created at the request of contemplatives and became popular throughout the Latin rites. [/color:1259t70q]
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals … icle2.html