Solemn Spy Wednesday

We did something a little different at my parish this evening; I wonder if anyone did anything like this. We had a mini-Eucharistic procession, similar to what happens tomorrow, but with no great solemnity.

Here's why--and any "armchair liturgists" as Todd at Catholic Sensibility terms them, feel free to comment.

First datum. At our parish, Mass on Wednesdays is in the evening, at 6 -- we have confessions starting at 5. Our parish is blessed with a perpetual exposition chapel, in the basement under the sanctuary. That also happens to be where daily Mass usually is, and where people come, obviously, for prayer before our Eucharistic Lord.

Second datum. The rubrics say that the tabernacle is empty on Holy Thursday.

So, question: when and how to remove the Blessed Sacrament from the tabernacle?

I decided to do it following this evening's Mass. I explained what I'd do, and said anyone who wanted to could come along, but it was a simple, practical thing, not a solemn procession as happens tomorrow. (My concern was to confuse people.)

So, here's how I did it. After communion, I kept the Blessed Sacrament on the altar, rather than return the Lord to the tabernacle. After the post-communion prayer, blessing and dismissal, I genuflected to the altar, rather than tabernacle, exited briefly to take off my chasuble, and put on a humeral veil, and returned. The reader and server carried candles ahead of me, and we went outside, around and down to the chapel. I wondered if anyone would sing; no one did. I placed the ciborium on the altar, before opening the special "tabernacle" we have, that contains the monstrance. I removed the monstrance, placed the host in the ciborium, and put the ciborium in the tabernacle. And then departed simply and quietly, putting the monstrance away until after the Vigil.