“Return to Me: Visits to the Tabernacle” (En Route Books and Media, 2024)
Author: Lynda Rozell is a Catholic evangelist, former lawyer and active parishioner at St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax. She has been a parishioner in the diocese since 1998 and sent her two children to St. Leo the Great School. Rozell has been a pro-life advocate with the Gabriel Project and Divine Mercy Care Gala and worked at Tepeyac Family Center. After discerning a call to share the Gospel, she moved into a camper van to travel the country as a roaming Roman Catholic and invite others to a deeper relationship with God. “Return to Me: Visits to the Tabernacle” is Rozell’s third book. Learn more about her at tincanpilgrimbook.com and an earlier Catholic Herald feature.
Why did you write the book? Last summer, I began work on a book about traveling in faith on family vacations. While I was volunteering at Sebago Lake State Park campground in Maine, the Diocese of Portland sponsored a Eucharistic procession in connection with the National Eucharistic Revival. I participated in this several-mile walk with our Eucharistic Lord through the streets of downtown Portland. Later, I learned more about the revival and felt that God wanted me to contribute in some way to it. Since I refuel spiritually by spending time at tabernacles in the churches I visit around the country, I realized that my photographs offered a unique way to share a visual approach to private adoration outside of a formal holy hour. By sharing how to pray in Christ’s real presence at any time, I could help increase understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist. I set aside my travel book to work on what became this book.
Synopsis: “Return to Me: Visits to the Tabernacle” discusses tabernacle images with reflections on their symbolism, encouraging devotion to Jesus in the tabernacle and drawing readers to adoration at the tabernacle outside of a formal holy hour. Organized under the themes of nourishment, sacrifice, Jesus, spirit, church, and mission, this book helps readers deepen their devotion to Jesus in his Real Presence. In addition to reflections from Scripture and tradition, the book includes photographs of tabernacles visited by the author to help guide the reader’s prayer and meditation. In so doing, they show the reader how to use visual images as a starting point for prayer, teaching readers how to enter more fully into their personal conversations with Christ by prayerfully “reading” their own tabernacle and those they encounter in their busy lives.
What should the average Catholic know about this book? You don’t need to wait for a formal holy hour to gain the grace and peace of resting in Christ’s presence. This visual approach to meditation at tabernacles enables you to more deeply encounter him as part of your daily life.
