Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Combining Stations and the Passion Liturgy

ROME, MAY 10, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

A reader from Kazakhstan asked about the following point in our April 19 article on Holy Thursday: "You have said that Eucharistic adoration in a monstrance is totally forbidden. Where is it documented that it is forbidden? Nobody believes when I say it is not allowed, but all over Europe I have seen Eucharistic adoration in the monstrance up until midnight, and then the monstrance is veiled at midnight, and adoration continues until the morning. And then I don't know exactly what to make of an article by a priest when he speaks about the Holy Father saying that Eucharistic adoration is a part of Holy Thursday. How does all of this work together?"

Apart from the rubrics, this norm is contained in several documents. For example, the 1988 "Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts" issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship says in No. 55: "The Blessed Sacrament should be reserved in a closed tabernacle or pyx. Under no circumstances may it be exposed in a monstrance."

Second, the aforementioned article correctly quoted the Pope's recent homily in saying that Holy Thursday "ends with Eucharistic adoration, in memory of the Lord's agony in the garden of Gethsemane."

There is absolutely no contradiction here because Eucharistic adoration is not synonymous with exposition in the monstrance. Christ is equally adored in the tabernacle and the pyx as in the monstrance. Adoration in the monstrance helps the adorers concentrate on the Eucharistic mystery but does not make the adoration essentially different from worship offered to Our Lord in the tabernacle.

Also, adoration in the monstrance usually unfolds into the joyous experience of Eucharistic Benediction whereas in the concrete case of Holy Thursday the essential theme is accompanying him during his agony and there is no Benediction.

The rule forbidding solemn adoration after midnight means that there should be no further public prayers at the altar of repose once Good Friday begins. This does not prohibit private prayer and private adoration at the altar of repose; these may continue until the beginning of the celebration of the Passion on Good Friday.