New Tabernacle Opens Door to Honor God
Story by Joe Pisani
Throughout the day, Father Jaime Maldonado sees people kneel and pray before the tabernacle in Sacred Heart Church of Southbury, a place for people to sit in silence in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Father Maldonado, the pastor of Midd-South Catholic, the Roman Catholic Parish of Middlebury and Southbury, was in search of a new tabernacle for Sacred Heart Church. The project was completed earlier this year when Jesus received a “beautiful home where we reserve the most precious gift we have — the Blessed Sacrament,” he says.
“This was a very important decision because the tabernacle is the centerpiece of our church. We have God, himself, choosing to remain present with us in the Eucharist — the Body and Blood of Christ — and we have a place where we can encounter him.”
Father Maldonado searched for a tabernacle that would match the modern decor of Sacred Heart Church and finally found a brass cylindrical one with a dome top through Adrian Hamers Inc. of Larchmont, N.Y., a company that specializes in liturgical art and church interiors.
The new tabernacle, which has a Celtic cross on the door and a crown on the top, had been at another parish. To match the furnishings of Sacred Heart Church, the pastor had it nickel-plated and mounted on a base of Vermont Verde Serpentine, which is a dark green metamorphic rock only found in a quarry in the Green Mountains. The base matches the church’s altar and baptismal font.
The tabernacle resides in an open area to the right of the altar and is surrounded by chairs and kneelers where the faithful can meditate and pray.
“To preserve the intended design of the church,” Father Maldonado says, “we wanted the new tabernacle to look as if it was always meant to be here.” The church’s former tabernacle, which has two glass sides, will be used as a reliquary.
Another advantage of the new tabernacle, the pastor adds, is that it is “made of solid and inviolable material and cannot be removed.”
“The Church has said we have a responsibility to protect Our Lord Jesus Christ to the best extent possible, just as Our Lady nurtured Jesus and protected him as a child,” Father Maldonado says. “The Blessed Virgin Mary was given the mission to keep Jesus safe, even though he was an all-powerful king and the second person of the Blessed Trinity. The son of God was born a child and had to be nurtured and protected. The Eucharist is the same person.”
A spiritual benefit of the tabernacle is found in its beauty, he adds. “God is beauty. His attributes are truth, beauty and goodness, and to the extent that we can see something beautiful as an expression of God, we are led to him and transcended.”
The tabernacle has been well received by parishioners.
“It holds Christ himself, and is not to be taken lightly,” Father Maldonado says. “We should do our best to honor him, to pray to him, to appeal to him and to protect him in the tabernacle. And our job as Catholics is to lead other people to Jesus in the Eucharist.”
