Adoration Via Bullet Proof Glass

[AnneLine]

AnnieLine: Then you would have all sorts of problems with due reverence. Do I need to genuflect to the Cathedral every time I exit a building where the Eucharist would be in sight? Getting out of my car in a parking lot? Why should I go do a holy hour at the church when I can just sit in my front lawn and look at the cathedral with binoculars? I think such a thing would take the solemnity out of reverence and due respect for the Eucharist.

 

 

 

Edit: that last sentence is totally butchered and im too lazy to fix it, but not lazy enough to not write a note explaning that it is butchered. I hope you get my drift.

Yeah, I do get what you mean.   SOME people would go after God every chance they got.   Grrrrr. 

 

However, I'm also looking at this from a slightly different 'lens' - pun intended.

 

I don't drive, and I live up on top of a big hill.    No public transit a lot of the time, and a husband who works 16+ hours a day.   So... like it or not, adoration for me is getting in line of sight with a Church and adoring from afar.  Works pretty well.  And I don't feel TOO much need to genuflect every time I turn around in my home.... but I actually do genuflect (and sometimes prostrate....) when I start my time with Him.  

 

There's a story about St. John of the Cross who asked for a particular cell in the monastery at Baeza.  he was really taken with it because it was set up in such a way that during the day he could kneel at his window and by fluke of architecture, could look straight at the Tabernacle.  They often found him at the window doing just that.  Other times he wold kneel at the window looking up at the mountains and meadows.  Again, lost in adoration.... And at night, sometimes they would find him in exactly the same place, lost in contemplation of the starry skies, and again, lost in wonder at the Beloved.

 

I suspect I picked it up from him, so perhaps he spoiled me....

 

I like the hybird idea with the openable shutters... very much like what the Summit Dominicans have, by the way.... for their Monstrance:

 

 

From the lay people's side.... curtains that can be drawn when Mass is going on....

 

 

 

 

 From the Nuns' side.... shutters that can be closed when Mass is going on and/or when there is no Sister available to adore.  They are a perpetual adoration community, but don't have a full complement of vocations... but they're working on it!

Edited December 10, 2012 by AnneLine

[beatitude]

It is my understanding that people have to be present when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed not just for protection, but as a simple gesture of respect.

[AnneLine]

Right, Beatitude, and that is why the cloistered Adoration MOnasteries have had it set up like that for over a century.  It lets the Nuns repose the Sacrament in the giant over-the-altar monstrances without having to have a priest present.   It is done with handles and/or ropes and pullies I suspect....

 

Here's a different monastery with the same set up.   I've seen variations of this in all the 'adoration monasteries' of various kinds.  I was startled when i first saw it, but apparently it is totally legit....   (You can se the Sister in the choir (behind the grilles) to the left, and Jesus WAY up in the Monstrance throne...

 

Best photo, but flickr won't let me post...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicsanctuaries/6947229756/

 

 

 

 

Above, Pink Sisters somewhere Asia...

 

Below, Dominican Nuns, Menlo Park.   Maybe Sr. Mary Catharine of Summit could explain what is legit and why?

 

 

Edited December 10, 2012 by AnneLine

[AccountDeleted]

Well, in Singapore, at the Carmelite church of Sts Peter and Paul, just down the road from the Cathedral, there is an adoration room set up - a very large room - about the size of small chapel. Inside that room is a tall glass case (or perspex or bullet proof glass, I don't know) with the Blessed Sacrament always exposed in a monstrance (no curtains, no doors, no windows to surround the glass case to open or close). The door to the room may be locked at certain times - I don't know - but every time I went there, even in the early morning, it was unlocked and usually when I went there, there was no one else present. Sometimes others would join me, sometimes not. A few times, a group would come and recite the Divine Mercy chaplet (I think it was a regular time each week).

 

Obviously the Archbishop knows about it since it is right down the street from the Cathedral and his home, so dispensations must be allowed for times when no one is present? Does anyone else know this Adoration Chapel? I loved it - no chairs, bare floor and cushions against the wall with a bench up the back for elderly or infirm. One always takes their shoes off outside the door before entering and it is very cool (air conditioned). It was like heaven on earth in that room.

 

I found a picture of it here...

Edited December 10, 2012 by nunsense

[dUSt]

It seems that several of the ideas I questioned have already been implemented then... hmmm... 

 

[OnlySunshine]

NOPE.  At least not the tabernacle.  Code of Canon law canon 938: 

 

 

 

Can't be transparent.  Hmm, the next paragraph does make exception's for grave cause, but I don't think perpetual adoration would count, simply because the law only stipulates that the Church be open for part of the day for veneration, its a few paragraphs up from these two paragraphs.  I'm intrigued by the second idea though.   

 

Someone needs to tell that to the Carmelites in Hudson, WI.  I always thought their tabernacle shown on the website was odd.  It's made of what looks like crystal.  :blink:

 

Edited December 11, 2012 by MaterMisericordiae

[AnneLine]

dUSt wrote.....

It seems that several of the ideas I questioned have already been implemented then... hmmm...

 

 

 

 

 

And then there is the Tabernacle of the Carmelite Hermit Sisters in Houston, MN.

 

Full article -- and a picture - is here:

 

http://www.carmelitereview.org/issues/v45n2/making-honey.php

 

 

I think it is set up so they can see Him from their hermitages... there is that John of the Cross thing again....

 

(from the article above)

 

On Sunday, July 16th, the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, this community of five hermit-nuns and their chaplain celebrated their 25th anniversary of foundation. Soon after that foundation in Emory, Wisconsin, the community moved to their current location—a large (500 acre) parcel just north of Houston, a small town in the southeast corner of Minnesota. There they have a central building with a chapel upstairs, and offices, kitchen, etc., built atop the largest hill for miles around. The chapel has a floor to ceiling bay window overlooking the valley with a glass tabernacle (approved by the bishop) in the center of this window. In a semi-circle down the slope are nine identical hermitages, each the same distance from the central building facing that chapel window and that tabernacle. Throughout the night the tabernacle is illuminated and becomes the focal point of meditation from each hermitage—truly a “chapel in the midst of the cells” (Carmelite Rule, chapter 14) design. The whole area is extremely peaceful and quiet. The only sound heard outside throughout the weekend (other than the chapel bell summoning us to prayer) was the wind blowing past one’s ears.

 

 

Slappo.... it might not work in a big city because of the danger of abuse, but it seems to me that there are some times and places where it not only works well... it is awesome in the best sense of that word!

Edited December 11, 2012 by AnneLine

[AnneLine]

Brilliant Minds, Mater... we must have posted at the same time....

[truthfinder]

Then again we have to remember that often initiatives are taken that are contrary to the will of the Church either out of ignorance or because it was thought to be beneficial.  Just because it's being done does not mean that it is a legitimate precedent.  

[AnneLine]

I realize what you are saying.  They did get permission from the Bishop..... if the BIshop got it wrong, well, then it shoujld be changed.  But the Hermit Sisters still did the right thing, in my book... and I would imagine it makes for a beautiful way to connect with God....  but I do understand the point you are making, truthfinder....

[Gabriela]

no chairs, bare floor and cushions against the wall with a bench up the back for elderly or infirm. One always takes their shoes off outside the door before entering and it is very cool (air conditioned). It was like heaven on earth in that room.

 

I found a picture of it here...

 

Oooooh!!! I love that there are no chairs! It's just you and Jesus in an empty room—awesome!