A Space for Grace
A Time for Eucharistic Adoration
By Bishop Joseph N. Perry
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Congress X - Buffalo, New York 2007

One cannot be Catholic without a correct understanding of and approach to the Holy Eucharist. Central to our faith is a love and amazement of God's gift to his church of the abiding and Real Presence of Jesus in this Sacrament.

The late Pope John Paul II referred to the Eucharist as "the greatest treasure of the Church." This sacrament is the food of theologians, saints and mystics, the very strength of martyrs. It is the daily bread of our Christian lives.

Through the gift of a valid priesthood traced to the 12 apostles and to Jesus himself we are able to bring his body and blood down to the altar for our sustenance and sanctification. Therefore, the Church is careful to explain to believers exactly what happens on the altar. This food is meant for the transformation of our very lives!

At the Last Supper, Jesus begged his disciples not to forget him, not to forget the sacrifice of his life that was about to unfold on Calvary. "This is my body… this is my blood…Do this in memory of me," the church has taken seriously for over two thousand years.

We do not distribute crackers and grape juice here. We do not give you bread and wine at the reception of Holy Communion. This is not pageantry or make-believe anymore than the Lord's death on the cross was make-believe.

Something takes place on that altar only God can do. Therefore, what we receive is the body and blood of Christ under the signs of bread and wine. You are guaranteed this sacrament of the Lord's presence in our midst through his priesthood, the sacrament par excellence on our roster of worship. Each and every Mass is a memorial of the death of Jesus. As we proclaim after the consecration of the elements, "… we proclaim your death Lord Jesus until you come in glory!"

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch…. in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained … it is presence in the fullest sense; that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present…. It has always been the conviction of the Church… that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. nos. 1324, 1374, 1376.

Upon receiving Holy Communion the priest or deacon or communion minister does not say: "This represents the body of Christ, or, this stands for the body of Christ, or, let's pretend this is the body of Christ!" The priest or deacon or communion minister makes a declarative statement with earth-shaking implications for faith: "The Body of Christ… the Blood of Christ!" And we indicate our faith in this declaration by saying our "Amen!" Unless we can say our "amen" we cannot and should not receive the holy Eucharist.

As St. Paul admonishes us: "The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not communion with the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break is it not partaking of the body of the Lord?" Indeed it is!

This is why we have a special etiquette in church indicating our understanding of and proper reverence for this Sacrament: genuflection when we arrive in Church, kneeling or bowing before receiving Holy Communion or passing in front of the tabernacle, our whispered conversation in the vicinity of the tabernacle, the protrusion of the tongue or the cupping of the hand to receive the sacred host - instead of grasping with the fingers.

St. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 11, 29, that unless we distinguish the body and blood of the Lord we eat and drink condemnation unto ourselves.

Upon receiving Holy Communion, we spend some moments in prayerful thanksgiving speaking with the Lord who has just entered our hearts. We never leave the Lord unattended anymore than we receive a guest in our homes and leave them in the front room and we go about our business in the back of the house!

II

All across the country in parishes and other church institutions, chapels and oratories a renewed phenomenon of prayer and adoration has manifested itself in recent years… special chapels set aside where people can come and pray before the exposed Blessed Sacrament outside of the Mass… some chapels offering certain hours in the course of a day or week or month; other chapels open for prayer 24 hours a day every day of the year.

Our Catholic faith tells us that Jesus wanted to ensure his presence in our midst even after his death and going back to his Father. He gave us the Eucharist, a wondrous food given here in worship whereby the priest repeating the words of the Lord at his Last Supper can bring down from heaven the Lord in our midst in a marvelous way.

For us, Jesus is very real, not just an idea. Our coming together to celebrate the Mass and receive Holy Communion is a powerful exercise of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything we are and do in the course of the week points to this day, proceeds from this day, this hour… in our churches. You and I are continually amazed by the love of God that comes alive out of the scriptures and the sacraments.

Needing Jesus in between the times we come together for mass is also real. And that's where adoration comes in. We reserve the Holy Eucharist in the tabernacle for principally two reasons, to take to the sick and the dying and for prayer and adoration with use of a perpetual vigil light signaling the Lord's presence. When the tabernacle is empty the vigil light is snuffed out.

We hunger for an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ - more than we know. We are just sometimes distracted or lack the courage to take the time to be with the Lord…. "Could you not spend just one hour with me… pray so that you may not enter into temptation…" as he chided his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Praying with the Lord before the exposed Blessed Sacrament in its show-piece - the monstrance, as it is called, we are able to put things together while listening to the Lord.

I like to think of Eucharistic Adoration as a prolonging of the powerful experience we have together of the Eucharistic memorial on Sunday. Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel pledges that Jesus is always here when you feel the need. Eucharistic Adoration gives us an avenue to God. We are able to grow in our relationship with Christ in ways that our busy lives do not afford us when we can spend a few minutes, a half-hour, an hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

After mass, one Sunday recently, having spoken of the rewards of prayerful adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in one of our parishes back in Chicago, a woman came up to me and said: "Bishop, if we really believed that Jesus is present in the Sacrament of his body and blood we would be standing in lines anxious to see him!"

She has a point worth taking notice. Perhaps, it is a gift of God much taken for granted by us. Other Christians come over from other traditions just for the privilege to know the Lord this way in his Eucharist.

III

Disciples of Jesus Christ are formed and shaped in life through prayer. This is the source of our energy to find meaning in life. Our daily duties and decisions and actions with one another are inspired by prayer.

Where did this all come from?

Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is not new to Catholic piety. It's been around a long, long, long time. You might say we are re-looking at its power in these times. We are modeled in this by our late holy father, Pope John Paul II, who appeared many times carrying the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance in liturgies around the world; and with his own words and his proclamation of a special concentration on the Eucharist with the Year of the Eucharist just a couple years ago.

Ours is a cynical and self-confident culture that is in ways turned against the powers of the spirit. We dabble in the battle between sin and grace on a daily basis and are prompted to think this is all there is. People despair drowned in their own problems and the complexities of their life situation. Where do we find God in all this?

Eucharistic Adoration is a mystery practice in a world too busy and turned in on itself. We recognize that Adoration is a growing spiritual trend in our time, an emerging sign of the times where ordinary people, - children, youth, adults, seniors can explore the deepest levels of prayer and reap the benefits of the Lord present in every aspect of their lives. Around the world these chapels of adoration have increased 110% in recent days. Something is happening. People are turning to prayer in order to find meaning and arrive at solutions to some of the most perplexing issues of our day.

The results of this kind of prayer are truly marvelous as we hear people testify. Placing ourselves before God in this closer way - this special kind of prayer can bring true change in a person's life.

We notice:

People are turning to Christian action and service instead of being preoccupied with themselves.

People are testifying to receiving healing in their marriages.

People are testifying to experiencing an inner peace and serenity while tackling daily problems precisely from a regimen of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Young people are discovering vocations to priesthood and religious life through Eucharistic Adoration.

Pastors and parishioners are witnessing to Adoration bringing new life to their parishes in terms of the spiritual and prayer lives of their people and increased attendance at Mass, problems in marriages and families solved.

In every parish there is found a group of apostles of prayer whom the pastor can rely upon to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for the pastor's own intentions, the intentions of the parish, some difficulty or project of the parish.

IV

In the Archdiocese of Chicago from where I hail, over 200 out of 375 parishes have a program of Eucharistic adoration. Several times a year we call together the chapel leaders who arrange hourly worship schedules and see to the security and sustain of chapels in their parishes, college campuses and other institutions around the Archdiocese. We have a web-site under our name easily accessed that provides useful information.

I bid you - take advantage of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in your parish or where it may exist in your home dioceses. Take charge of your spiritual life! Take comfort in Jesus who desires to walk with you through life. Find an adoration chapel in your diocese. Be familiar with the adoration schedule - as familiar as you are with the door of your home you enter and exit every day. Spend a few minutes in the chapel before Mass on Sunday or on the way home from work or during the night if you happen to be out. Take your children to the chapel and show them the Jesus in the monstrance who loves them. Find in the chapel of adoration a refuge of quiet and peace and intimate friendship with Jesus truly present in our midst.

The famous 18th century priest-saint John Vianney [1786-1859] used to hear confessions for up to sixteen hours each day in the village Church of Ars in France. The story is told that, upon his routine of entering the confessional, he would see a man sitting quietly in the Church staring ahead at the tabernacle. The man was always there as daily as Father Vianney entered the confessional. One particular day, Father John Vianney asked the man what he was doing there every day, wondering whether the man needed confession. The gentleman answered: "Father, I look at Him and He looks at me. That's all that matters!"

Finally, our holy father, Pope Benedict XVI recently as last month, remarked:

"In life today, which is often noisy and scattered, it is more important than ever to recover the capacity for interior silence and recollection. Eucharistic adoration permits one to do this … may the Virgin Mary, Eucharistic Woman, lead us into the secret of true adoration. Her heart, humble and silent, was always recollected around the mystery of Jesus in whom she worshipped the presence of God and his redemptive love."