Christ Living on Our Altars

CHRIST LIVING ON OUR ALTARS 

 
If you go into a Catholic Church seeking Christ, you will find Him. You will see a little red light burning before the altar. That is the sign that the living Christ is present in the tabernacle upon that altar. That is why the Catholic Church is truly the temple of the living God. It is not a meeting house. It is not a temple of worship where only sermons are given and prayers are said. It is the temple where the living God dwells, just as truly as He dwells in heaven. Here is the continued presence of Christ upon earth. That is why the Catholic looks upon his churches with so much reverence, whether they be the magnificent temple of St. Peter's in Rome or the humblest wayside shrine, where the little red lamp keeps its silent vigil before the tabernacle of the living God. That explains the holy atmosphere of the sacred place. That explains the awful difference between a dead shrine, no matter how beautiful, and the living house of God, no matter how plain.

"If the non-Catholic world did but know this gift of God by the hundreds of millions they would return home to partake again of the heavenly banquet that a loving God has prepared for them, and to live their lives bathed in the divine sunlight of His Presence.

Photo History:
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, 

Poughkeepsie, NY, 1953