Tabernacle Letters
Tabernacle Letters is an initiative to give the many who miss attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion, a way to send a concrete act of love to Christ, the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, now alone in Gethsemane. In a sense, it is a way to draw near and “stay awake” with Him. Professor of Theology and author, Annabelle Moseley, offers this initiative spearheaded in her own New York parish, inviting the many who are longing for the Eucharist throughout the nation to join in. She shows how this idea may be initiated in your own parish, or how you are welcomed to send a letter right now to the New York church where it all began, and where each day, love letters from the faithful are gathered from the mail and placed in large baskets before the Tabernacle. As we journey through this desert without receiving Eucharist, let us send our reminders of love to Him. This initiative is a physical reminder of the way our prayers are meant to stay close to Him. Let’s all take the opportunity to express our hunger in a way we won’t soon forget. Join us!
Tabernacle Letters is an act of faith, hope, and love showing our belief in the Real Presence, and our desire to give love to Him, a way to decorate and symbolically populate the empty churches, and a great comfort to those who participate as they write out their feelings, their longing for the Lord’s Real Presence.
This initiative, begun at my own parish, St. Hugh of Lincoln R.C. Church in Huntington Station, is now being shared nationally Aleteia.
At the end of the filmed Mass at St. Hugh, Fr. Bob, our pastor, holds up the basket of letters, that we might see that some small part of us has drawn near to the Eucharistic Lord, and will remain at the foot of the Tabernacle until this crisis is over and we have returned to Mass.
It might be a small thing, but Mother Teresa told us to “do small things with great love.” And best of all, it’s a way to involve everyone, including our children, in a concrete action to express the pining we feel for our Lord. Let us hunger and thirst for Him, let us feel it so strongly it makes us appreciate the return to the Eucharist like never before … but let’s take the opportunity to express it in a way we won’t soon forget.
Little did I know when I founded this blog and named it how much we would need that Bread in the desert. But we do need it, now, more than ever as we journey this lonely and painful road unable to receive the eucharist or visit the Real Presence in person. But remember… God always provides manna in the desert for those who love Him! And even as we yearn for answers to our prayers and for a return to church, we mustn’t forget that our Eucharistic Lord is there in the Tabernacle of a very quiet church… let us send him our love! Not only in our prayers… but in something that can gather upon His altar, before His Tabernacle… let us send Him love letters! Send your Tabernacle Letter today!
Mirror Sonnet:
Mary Describes the Institution of the Eucharist
I hoped that when he washed your feet you’d know
how humble he would make himself for love.
How much more will he leave you as he goes?
Food meant to join the earth to God above.
He withholds nothing from you. Take his soul,
his body, blood, divinity within.
Let nothing separate you. He is whole
within you, nourishing—forgiving sin.
He has transfigured, shone his outer view.
He has transformed mere water into wine.
What better wedding gift will he give you?
To transubstantiate fruit of the vine,
make work of human hands into what lasts.
He feeds you. But the world would have you fast.
He feeds you. But the world would have you fast.
Make work of human hands into what lasts—
He transubstantiates fruit of the vine.
What better wedding gift could he give you?
He has transformed mere water into wine;
He has transfigured, shone his outer view.
Within you, nourishing—forgiving sin,
let nothing separate you. He is whole.
His body, blood, divinity within,
He withholds nothing from you. Take his soul—
food meant to join the earth to God above.
How much more will he leave you as he goes?
How humble would he make himself for love?
I hoped that when he washed your feet you’d know.
—Annabelle Moseley
Read about more ways to honor the Most Holy Eucharist during the pandemic.
