Why I don't stay to pray in front of the Tabernacle when Mass ends

 Staying behind in Church when the celebration of the Liturgy ends is something which is quite a norm among many Catholics. For some, this is a rare chance for them to have some quiet time with our God, something which seems to be rather difficult to do during the week. For others, they know that having just received the Eucharist, they are as close as they possibly can get to our God, and they take comfort in savouring the moment. Some do it out of personal habit. 

This post is not written with the intent to discourage people from spending that precious time with our God after the celebration of the Eucharist. I assure you, my dear reader, that it is not. Nor is this post written as an attempt to push any agendas. When I felt called to begin writing weekly musings and reflections at the start of this year, one key area in which I knew I was called to share with others by means of this blog is on how I practice the Catholic faith, which I dearly love. I do not write any of my posts with the aim to correct or criticise others on how they practice the faith. I write this with only one aim in mind; to shed some light on another perspective. I personally don't see the need to spend time in prayer immediately after the celebration of the Mass, but that's not to say that you should stop doing so just because of what you read in this blog. This post is merely a means for me to put it out there as to why I choose not to do so. 



I'll begin sharing my thought process by sharing about the Catechesis which I received. When I was growing up, I was taught by my parents, my Catechists, and even my seniors in the Altar Servers ministry that after receiving the Eucharist, one should make the sign of the cross. I never knew why it was necessary, but I just did so as an act of piousness. It was only years later, as a Senior Altar Server, after a new Parish Priest (who is a Liturgical Theologian) came into the parish, that I learnt that the rubrics of the liturgy do not call for us to do so. My then Parish Priest explained to me that when we receive the Body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ. Blessing one's self then becomes redundant. It's quite akin to washing our hands immediately after taking a bath. In light of this, I stopped making the sign of the Cross after receiving the Eucharist, and I corrected this among the Altar Servers as well. It became necessary for me to capture the fact that we become what we receive. 

After studying more about the Liturgy of the Church with my then Parish Priest, one thing I noticed is that the concluding rites of the Mass are extremely brief and short. This is consistent with both the Ordinary Form, and the Extraordinary Form. According to the GIRM, the rites consist only of announcements, the priest's greeting and blessing, the commissioning and dismissal of the people, and the priests and deacons making one last act of reverence to the Altar. In fact, even the announcements are meant to be kept brief. The announcements made at Mass should only be those which are with regard to the Mission of the Church. 

The reason why the concluding rites of the Mass are so brief is to emphasise one thing, the urgency to go out and evangelise, both with our words and our actions. The very last words at Mass which are spoken to us by the Priest, who acts in the person of Christ, is to go forth to announce the Gospel of the Lord. Most of us know that we come to Mass to be fed, both from the Table of the Word, and the Table of the Eucharist. However, after receiving our spiritual food, many of us (myself included) forget that we are required to go out to feed others. As Christians, this is not an option. It is a requirement. 

Personally, I feel that we can talk to God anytime and anywhere. In fact, as disciples of Christ, we should be making time for God in our daily schedules, rather than expecting God to make time for us. We don't come to Mass just to talk to God. We come to do what we cannot do elsewhere, which is to celebrate the Mystery of Christ as a community. But too often, we forget that it is not about us. It is not about "me and my sweet Jesus". It is about being part of the Body of Christ. It is about being bread broken for others and wine poured out for others. 


I come back to my first point about not needing to make the Sign of the Cross upon consuming the Eucharist. Personally, I feel that the gestures we make at Mass are very important, as they remind us of why we celebrate what we celebrate. To me, knowing that I becomes the Body of Christ upon receiving the Body of Christ, it emphasises the urgency for me to be Christ to others in my daily living, as much as I struggle to do so. Personally, I feel that while it's important to spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, it's not necessary to do so immediately after receiving the Eucharist because we have just become what we have received. Faith is not about feeling the solitude of spending time with Jesus. As much as that's important, faith demands that we be Christ to others. As I always tell my youths in Catechism; faith is not a feeling. 

I sincerely hope that nobody reading this musing misunderstands what I'm trying to say here. I'm not saying that it's not important to have quiet time with God, nor am I saying that the idea that we are as close as we can possibly get to Jesus upon receiving the Eucharist is amiss. I do however feel that the urgency of living the Gospel in our lives should be more of a priority for all of us. In my hopefully humble opinion, the very fact that we are as close to Jesus as we possibly can get upon receiving him, that should emphasise the urgency for us to go out. 

The Eucharist is not about us, nor is it about spending time in private prayer. Jesus does not need us to spend time in silent prayer immediately after the Mass ends. He needs us to live our faith in the world, and to allow the Eucharist to transform from a noun into a verb. Will we take up this call to mission? 

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