Fruitful Waiting: Meditating With Jesus in the Tabernacle
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!” (Luke 13:34).
Editor’s note: This article is part of our Advent 2024 series, “Waiting for Christ With a Receptive Heart.” Read more here.
As we wait for the birth of the Savior and contemplate Him as a prisoner for love in the womb of the Blessed Mother, it’s good to remember that He waits for us, too, as a prisoner for love in every Tabernacle. He waits for us to return His loving gaze by visiting Him there.
Author Lynda Rozell has written a new book, Return to Me: Visits to the Tabernacle, that can help us respond to Jesus’ longing to connect with us.
Perhaps you want to make visits to Jesus in the Tabernacle but aren’t sure what to do when you get there. Maybe you’ve been visiting regularly for years and wish it could feel new and fresh again. Or, maybe you used to visit regularly, but life took over and you’re out of the habit now.
Whatever your experience before the Eucharistic Jesus, this book is a valuable companion.
Far and Wide
Rozell, who calls herself the “Tin Can Pilgrim,” has journeyed to every state in the lower 48 in her beloved Airstream, gently witnessing Christ along the way. Her spiritual fuel is Jesus in the Eucharist, Who has drawn her to pray before more than 100 tabernacles in her travels. The richness of her love for Christ comes through in Return to Me. Her joy at his love for us overflows in meditations that provide potent spiritual food for the adorer.
Visual Prayer
The meat of the book comprises nine chapters that unpack various visual themes the author has encountered in tabernacles on her travels. They include nourishment, sacrifice, Jesus, spirit, Church, and mission.
With each theme, she explains and ponders symbols such as the anchor, grapes and wheat, the cross, the Holy Family, and the Eucharist Himself, sparking the reader’s imagination to fruitful meditation. Each includes a photo of the tabernacle she is writing about and prayers pertaining to that motif.
Return to Me flows from the heart of a writer deeply in love with Jesus. That love transfers to the reader and will enrich your visit to Jesus in the Tabernacle. It is a book to be sipped and savored, as each short chapter offers food for the mind, the imagination, and the heart:
The Mind Wants to Know
Return to Me provides food for the mind by giving us a greater understanding of the Tabernacle itself and the rich symbolism depicted there. For example:
The original meaning of the word tabernacle in Latin means a hut or tent. In the Old Testament book of Exodus, the word tabernacle refers to the tent in which the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred objects were kept.
As our mind absorbs facts about a practice thousands of years old, we feel connected intellectually to eternal truth and the rich tradition of which we are part. Abundant footnotes provide sources for further investigation.
The Imagination Wants to Dream
The book provides nourishment for the imagination, as the author walks us through a meditation on the art of each of dozens of tabernacles. These meditations, focused on what we see, are a form of prayer that is called visio divina. For example, a tabernacle adorned with a pelican motif inspires this meditation:
In the pelican theme, the baby birds represent us, the nest encircling them represents the Church, and the mother pelican represents Christ as head of the Church. Just as a sharp lance pierced Jesus’ side as he hung on the cross, the sharp beak of the mother pelican pierces its breast. The Blood of Christ feeds us; the blood of the mother pelican sustains her children. The mother sacrifices her life that her babies may live; Christ sacrificed His life so that we could live.
The Heart Wants to Love
Nourishment for the mind and the imagination makes our heart ready to engage with love Himself: Jesus present before us in the Tabernacle. This conversation with Jesus is often expressed in wordless silence. If you are moved to use words but aren’t sure what to say, Rozell includes short prayers that have flowed from her own heart and the hearts of others before the Tabernacle, making this book a modest school of prayer.
The Will Wants to Act
And there is a fourth thing: The author reminds us that the intellectual and spiritual food we receive at the Tabernacle is not only to be taken in and enjoyed but also transformed into fuel for our apostolate:
When we see loaves and fishes on a tabernacle, we can reflect how Jesus ultimately gives us Himself to eat, but calls us to give of ourselves to others. Like the disciples, we are to share all that we have in imitation of Christ. To do so we must become as children, trusting God to make the most of the little we have to offer.
Many of us crave pockets of silence in our life to be able to listen to God, Who alone can give the peace of soul we long for—but we don’t know how to make it happen. This book provides an incentive to visit Jesus in person, because it appeals to all the ways we connect with Him. Return to Me keeps us from ever showing up to a visit with Jesus with nothing to do. It helps ensure we will experience the rich connection with Jesus for which we were born.
And what better time than during Advent?
Rose Folsom helps Catholic women go from restless to resilient by guiding them to a closer connection with God – in a way that feels joyful and natural to them. Rose is a convert, Lay Dominican, and spiritual director who has helped over 9,000 Catholics have a deeper relationship with God in prayer. They come away with peace that the world cannot take away. Download Rose’s free 31-day prayer journal, “Bless You Daughter: Praying with Resilient Women of the Bible.”