Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – Page 2

Thursday: a fitting day for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

In some places it’s now catching-on that Thursday is a
fitting day for Eucharistic adoration with the intention of reparation, perhaps
replacing Fridays if one had to make a choice or either-or. I tend to think
that Thursday is a more apt for Eucharistic adoration on a stable basis in one’s
life and perhaps in parish life since as Catholics our center is Eucharistic and
the identification the Church makes with events that happened on Holy Thursdays
and Corpus Christi. Some theologians and spiritual writers today are advocating
this move for just this reason: Do this in memory of me. Whatever the case is,
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is clearly a return to “the Cenacle, there
to relive in adoration and joy the gift and mystery of the Most Holy
Eucharist.”

Thinking about what Pope Benedict XVI has said regarding the
Lord’s Supper, “the Church commemorates the institution of the Eucharist, the
ministerial priesthood and the new commandment of charity, left by Jesus to his
disciples.” In another place he said that there is
a “…renewed invitation to render thanks to God for the supreme gift of the
Eucharist, to be received with devotion and to be adored with lively faith.
Because of this, the Church encourages, after the celebration of Holy Mass,
watching in the presence of the Most Holy Sacrament, recalling the sad hour that
Jesus passed in solitude and prayer in Gethsemane, before being arrested and
then being condemned to death.” We therefore adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, either following Mass or at another time to live in the graces of what happened at Mass. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament extends the graces of the Mass even after Mass has ended.

What better day than to work on this invitation to live in a
spirit of renewal with the Eucharist, the ministerial priesthood and the
theology of the Mass. The gift of sanctification (holiness) promised us by the
Lord is made real in the bond we have with the Eucharistic Lord. Our lives
depend on it because a strong Eucharistic spirituality centers our heart in the
heart of the Church.

I devoutly adore the Presence of Christ

Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee, truly present underneath
these veils: all my heart subdues itself before Thee, since it all before Thee
faints and fails.

Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit hearing only do
we trust secure; I believe, for God the Son has said it- Word of truth that
ever shall endure.

On the cross was veiled Thy Godhead’s splendor, here Thy
manhood lies hidden too; unto both alike my faith I render, and, as sued the
contrite thief, I sue.

Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas, Thee, my Lord,
and Thee, my God, I call: make me more and more believe Thy promise, hope in
Thee, and love Thee over all.

O memorial of my Savior dying, Living Bread, that gives life
to man; make my soul, its life from Thee supplying, taste Thy sweetness, as on
earth it can.

Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven, me, a sinner, in Thy
Blood to lave, to a single drop of which is given all the world from all its
sin to save.

Contemplating, Lord, Thy hidden presence, grant me what I thirst for and implore, in the revelation of Thy essence to behold Thy glory evermore, Amen.

Epiphany Novena for priests

Little more than a year my friend Fr. Mark at Vultus Christi initiated a plan of prayer for the priesthood, particularly in reparation for sins committed by priests. This plan of prayer was inspired by a letter from Cardinal Claudio Hummes, OFM to the world’s bishops encouraging them to designate people, including priests, whose “ministry” it would be to pray for the priesthood in the wake of the sex abuse crisis. The point of the letter was to begin to think about and work for a renewal of the priesthood. Today begins a novena inspired by Saint Peter Julian Emyard who in 1857 began his own renewal of the priesthood adoration movement. Let’s be united in prayer for the intentions of our priests.

Fr. Mark has also developed a program of prayer called Thursdays in Adoration and Reparation for Priests which keeps the Holy Thursday event of Our Lord forming the priesthood and giving us the gift of His Eucharistic Presence.

There are many opportunities to spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in parishes today (more now than a few years ago). And there religious orders who make it a point to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament regularly, if not daily, for example, the Dominican nuns in North Guilford, CT and Linden, VA to name two monasteries, the pink sisters found in cities such as Philadelphia, St. Louis, Lincoln and Corpus Christi; the monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey and Newark Abbey have the daily practice of adoration prior to the Divine Office, the monks of Saint Mary’s Abbey (Morristown, NJ) have adoration and confession on the second Friday of the month for vocations and for the priesthood, the monks of Belmont Abbey (Belmont, NC) have recently dedicated an adoration chapel in the center of their college campus in honor of Saint Joseph where monks, students and other interested people gather with the Eucharistic Lord.

What better time than in Epiphanytide to develop a habit of prayer in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament?