Church tabernacle

The ( also ) tabernacle (Latin tabernacle, tabernacle, tent ') is in Catholic churches the name given to the place of storage of the converted in the Mass communion wafers, which are according to the Catholic faith Body of Christ. When the tabernacle is an artistically designed sacrament house with solid walls and lockable door; the Tabernacle is a place of silent adoration. In image Stock Tabernakelpfeilers shape of the standing on a pedestal enclosure is called a tabernacle.

Importance

The name is a reclassification and new coinage of the tabernacle ( NASB) or the tabernacle ( NRSV ) of the Hebrew Bible, the Latin Bible in the tabernacle testimonii (Latin, tent of the (divine) revelation ') is named. In the Hebrew language it is as Mishkan ( משכן, God's abode on earth ' ) are known. In their bid sheets Moses were kept (as sanctum ) and carried on the biblical walks of Israel; see Mishkan. At the same time the Word in the Christian use is an anticipatory reference to the " heavenly Jerusalem " (see eschatology ), which is referred to as the " tent of God is with men" ( tabernacle Dei cum hominibus ) (Rev 21.3 EU).

Location in the Church

In Romanesque churches consecrated hosts were kept in a latticed niche in the choir room or in a wall tabernacle. The Gothic style developed first tower-like sacrament houses ornate stonework. From the 14th century the tabernacle was laid on the altar, where he centered built into the reredos.

At least in the baroque period the tabernacle was almost always fixed to the altar. He should be in the control on the main altar, in churches, in which the Liturgy of the Hours was celebrated (cathedral, collegiate and monastic churches ), but at the altar of a sacrament chapel. There was not usually celebrated after the Caeremoniale episcoporum until the so-called Tabernakeldekret from June 1, 1957 prescribed this too. The same decree enshrining the old custom that the eternal light in the tabernacle should show the reservation of the Eucharist in the tabernacle.

The Second Vatican Council wished in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, that the Tabernakelgesetzgebung should be changed. In since that time built or rebuilt churches, the tabernacle, therefore, is usually in a separate side chapel or in the sanctuary on a stele.