adoration – Communio

Private notes of Jorge Bergoglio from pre-conclave meetings published

Reading the notes from the pre-conclave meetings of the cardinals meeting in the General Congregation is not usual reading material for most people. One has to admit that it is interesting to know what the cardinals think and what they verbalize with regard to the life of the Church and the proposal for future ministry. Zenit.org published today the notes of Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio (now Pope Francis). Nothing really new except that now we know with better certainty the perspective of the made elected the Supreme Pontiff. The notes follow:

The archbishop of Havana says that a speech given by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) during the cardinals’ pre-conclave meetings was “masterful” and “clear.”

Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino spoke of Cardinal Bergoglio’s speech at a Mass on Saturday in Cuba, having returned home from his trip to Rome to bid farewell to Benedict, participate in the conclave, and welcome Francis.

Cardinal Ortega said that Cardinal Bergoglio gave him the handwritten notes of the speech, and the permission to share the contents.

“Allow me to let you know, almost as an absolute first fruit, the thought of the Holy Father Francis on the mission of the Church,” Cardinal Ortega said.

Continue reading Private notes of Jorge Bergoglio from pre-conclave meetings published

Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization

The Most Reverend Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, announced today that he is sponsoring an international conference on Eucharistic Adoration to be held in Rome, Italy, 20-23 June 2011: Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization.

The Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist, a community founded in 2007 Bishop Rey is doing the organizing of the conference.

In the words of Bishop Rey: “The first condition for the new evangelization is adoration.” No truer words have been spoken. And as we know so well, Eucharistic Adoration is key in the spiritual life and human flourishing and it figures prominently in the pastoral plan of Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Dominique Rey is renown for his pastoral directness and knowing Christ through sacred Scripture and the sacred Liturgy. His background includes earning a doctorate in economics and he worked for the Ministry of Finance of France. He is a priest of the Emmanuel Community and received episcopal ordination in 2000. Since becoming bishop, he’s known to be supportive of the good work of new communities, the lay movements and religious orders. His agenda is the Church’s: the lex orandi, lex credendi tradition. He’s been an exponent of the new evangelization brought on the world stage by Pope John Paul II and continued by Pope Benedict XVI.

For more information: contact@adoratio2011.com

Media contact: Father Florian Racine: fr@adoperp.com

The press release with a list of the speakers is found here: Eucharistic congress 2011, Rome.pdf

Understanding Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Periodically people ask about the practice of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I typically find the questions interesting because it seems like we have forgotten the reasons why we adore the eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ and this experience of eucharistic adoration is key for every Catholic and for every parish, school, hospital, convent, abbey, etc.

When questions arise about the character of Adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament we should go to the liturgical book called Holy
Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass. While it does not provide
details about what ought or ought not be done at Adoration, it does provide a
liturgical theology by which we follow. There it says that

Exposition of
the Holy Eucharist is intended to acknowledge Christ’s marvelous presence in
the sacrament. Exposition invites us to the spiritual union with him that
culminates in sacramental communion. Thus it fosters very well the worship
which is due to Christ in spirit and in truth. This kind of exposition
must clearly express the cult of the blessed sacrament in its relationship to
the Mass. The plan of the exposition should carefully avoid anything
which might somehow obscure the principal desire of Christ in instituting the
Eucharist, namely, to be with us as food, medicine, and comfort” (n.82).

Therefore,
we can reason that devotions, songs, prayers, etc., ought to be consistent
with what is given in this book.

The Directory on Popular Piety and the
Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines does offer examples of what is
consistent with the purposes of Eucharistic adoration. It says:

The
faithful should be encouraged to read the Scriptures during these periods of
adoration, since they afford an unrivalled source of prayer. Suitable
hymns and canticles based on those of the Liturgy of the Hours and the
liturgical seasons could also be encouraged, as well as periods of silent
prayer and reflection. Gradually, the faithful should be encouraged not
to do other devotional exercises during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Given the close relationship between Christ and Our Lady, the rosary can
always be of assistance in giving prayer a Christological orientation, since it
contains meditation of the Incarnation and the Redemption (n.165).

This list of practices is not exhaustive, and it is not meant to be but it does give a useful sense of how to
evaluate our devotional practices during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Boston’s Blessed Sacrament Adoration gets more attention, but what about in Connecticut?

On August 3rd, I mentioned here in this blog that after 40 years the eucharistic of perpetual adoration is returning to the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal O’Malley is opening the endeavor with a Mass on August 15. Visit St Clement’s Shrine.

Read Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson’s article on the renewed interest in perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It’s picking up steam in Boston, why not in other dioceses?

There are a few places in the Bridgeport Diocese that have regular adoration: one is 24/7 (St Marguerite Bourgeois Church) and the rest have near perpetual adoration; it seems to me that we need more 24/7 adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Seems to be nowhere in the Diocese of Norwich, CT. In the Archdiocese of Hartford I can think of the Dominican nuns in North Guilford, CT, having perpetual adoration but their chapel is not open to the public for the full 24 hours.

While I know adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a awesome gesture of prayer, beauty, sacrifice and communion, is it wanted or needed by the people of God (& clergy)? I get the sense that it’s not based on these three dioceses but I think I’d be wrong to make this conclusion. Paulson’s article brings to light that people are truly changed after spending time with the Lord; and I dare say it’s also vice versa –that the Lord wants to spend time with us. So why can’t more dioceses restore a sensible practice of eucharistic adoration 24/7?

Eucharistic adoration returns to Boston

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)

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?