After a 40-year absence, the practice of perpetual adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament has returned to the Archdiocese of Boston. This is
another positive response to Pope Benedict’s calling for a Year of the Priest
and a desire to intimately know the Lord.
In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul told us that:
It is pleasant to spend time with him [Christ], to lie close
to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite
love present in his heart. If in our time Christians must be distinguished
above all by the “art of prayer”, how can we not feel a renewed need to spend
time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before
Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament? How often, dear brother and sisters,
have I experienced this, and drawn from it strength, consolation and
support! This practice, repeatedly praised and recommended by the
Magisterium, is supported by the example of many saints. Particularly
outstanding in this regard was Saint Alphonsus Liguori, who wrote: “Of all
devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after
the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us”. The
Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by
praying before it outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the very
wellspring of grace. A Christian community desirous of contemplating the face
of Christ in the spirit which I proposed in the Apostolic Letters Novo
Millennio Ineunte and Rosarium Virginis Mariae cannot fail also to develop this
aspect of Eucharistic worship, which prolongs and increases the fruits of our
communion in the body and blood of the Lord.
In Mane Nobiscum Domine we read: “Our faith in the God
who took flesh in order to become our companion along the way needs to be
everywhere proclaimed, especially in our streets and homes, as an expression of
our grateful love and as an inexhaustible source of blessings.” So the
liturgical practice of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
deepens the heart’s desire “to cultivate a lively awareness of Christ’s
real presence” (18).
Get the point? Adoration of the Eucharistic face of the Lord awakens in us something new, something beautiful.
Officially Boston’s Eucharistic adoration begins with the Sacrifice of the Mass on
August 15 celebrated by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap.
Visit website for the Saint Clement Shrine
“O taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” (Psalm 34)