Today’s find: Wide open

It was not lost on me, the fact that I was encountering an empty tabernacle on the eve of April 14, the calendar date that I consider my “second birthday.”

The place: the chapel at LaSalle Retreat Center. The occasion: a team Mass at the start of our parish Men’s ACTS Retreat.

The doors of the tabernacle were flung wide open, as is the practice at LaSalle, because consecrated hosts are not typically reserved there until a retreat actually begins.

So: Jesus was NOT there in the Eucharist. But I had an inkling that He’d be making an appearance…

And why not? After all, I have good reason to expect marvelously mystical things when I encounter empty tabernacles on April 14.

It’s a story I never tire of telling, because it’s how my heart came to be flung wide open for Christ, on that date some 22 years ago.

You can read about it here:

https://bit.ly/2V8O3M9

And yes, I’m delighted to report that the Lord did not disappoint. The Risen One made his presence known not only on April 14, but again and again throughout the days of our Easter Octave retreat!

Let us remember that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS