Q: Our Pastor is working with us Deacon’s to try to standardize our movements at Mass so we have uniformity. A couple of questions have come up that I wanted your opinion on. After communion has been distributed to the faithful and the remaining hosts have been collected and put in the ciborium, the Deacon takes the ciborium to the tabernacle, opens the door, places the ciborium in the tabernacle, genuflects (or bows) and then closes the tabernacle. There was a questions as to when the Deacon genuflects. Before he closes the tabernacle or after he closes the tabernacle. The GIRM does not address this.
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A: Because the GIRM does not specify when to genuflect, I recommend that the deacon follow the procedure explained at the end of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Look up that mass in your missal, and you’ll see that the deacon first sets the ciborium in the tabernacle, then genuflects, and then closes the door. I think the same makes sense during any mass. You genuflect to the ciborium, not to the tabernacle.