The great temple of Solomon was a magnificent achievement, yet the King prayed earnestly for God to dwell there, conscious that nothing built by human hands could be worthy of His presence. The holy of holies was the guarantee of God’s promise “My name shall be there” until its veil was torn in two at the time of the crucifixion of Our Lord.

From then on, God has lived with us in the person of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and present in various ways in our sacred Liturgy. Rather than one temple, we have countless Churches, each of which hosts the presence of God in its symbols, especially the altar, in its congregation which is the mystical body of Christ, in its proclamation of the inspired words of scripture, and most eminently in the real presence of our Divine Saviour in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle.

We therefore respect the House of God, our Church, as a sacred place, dedicated for the worship of God (and for nothing else), a place of prayer that belongs to all the faithful. Our material efforts to behave reverently and keep it in good order are a sign of our recognition of the presence of God.