Last October I wrote a story about a letter that Bishop Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre wrote to my pastor. In the letter, Bishop Murphy lamented the comportment of the faithful prior to the celebration of the Eucharist. Bishop Murphy cited as one reason for this lack of focus on the Eucharist squarely on the location of the tabernacle.

In my judgment, a major reason for this is the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a separate chapel that is so removed from the main body of the church that no one knows where the Blessed Sacrament is. I don’t mean that literally but I mean that conscious awareness of’ the presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is lacking to those who enter the main body of your parish church. This is further hampered by the fact that the music ministry is set up in front of the doors into that chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. That means that anyone who wishes to go and pray needs to go through the paraphernalia of those who provide music. I find this problematic.

Problematic indeed. Bishop Murphy directed the pastor to move the tabernacle back to the center of the church in order to bring the Eucharist back to the center of our lives.

Therefore, I am directing you to begin a process of locating the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament in the main body of the ‘church. The most simple thing would be to place it in the center of the reredos in the place which clearly set up to have a tabernacle, and where at the last liturgy I celebrated there was a bouquet flowers.

Well, it took some time, but the tabernacle is back where it belongs. At the center of our church. Bishop Murphy was on hand today to say mass for us and to bless the tabernacle. In his remarks Bishop Murphy spoke of his hope that by relocating the tabernacle back to the center of the Church, we will keep the Eucharist at the center of our lives. I think that this was a tremendous day for my parish and also a great day for Bishop Murphy. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the pastor of our Diocese most definitely performed his job as our shepherd well. Thank you to Bishop Murphy for this wonderful day.

Now some pictures.