The first tabernacle...

Feast of the VISITATION

May 31

Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord

has said would be fulfilled. ~ Luke 1:45

"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. 

For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? 

To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? 

You are greater than them all, O Ark of the Covenant, clothed 

with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found 

the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, 

the flesh in which Divinity resides." ~ St Athanasius

 “Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the Incarnation, 
the Church’s Eucharistic faith.  When, at the Visitation, she bore 
in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a ‘tabernacle’ – the first ‘tabernacle’ in history – 
in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, 
allowed Himself to be adored by Elizabeth radiating His light 
as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary.

And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary …

that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us 
every time we receive Eucharistic communion?" 

Pope St John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 55

Painting: The Visitation - Karl von Blaas

Tabernacle at St Peter Catholic Church - St Charles, Missouri - USA

“Is it not this also the joy of the Church, which receives Christ

incessantly in the holy Eucharist and takes Him to the world

with the testimony of active charity, full of faith and hope?

Yes, to receive Jesus and to take Him to others is the true joy of the Christian! Let us follow and imitate Mary’s profoundly Eucharistic

soul, and our whole life will become a Magnificat.”

Pope Benedict XVI

31 May 2005

"Let Mary's soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. 
Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. 
Christ has only one mother in the flesh,
 but we all bring forth Christ in faith." - St Ambrose

Blessed Mother Mary and St Elizabeth, pray for us!