Eucharistic Adoration

The following is a transcipt of a talk given by Craig at St. Clement of Rome Catholic Parish in 2018

I was introduced to Eucharistic adoration in college when a priest talked about two things. First he mentioned what’s called mental prayer where he talked about getting the gospels, for example, and pausing on the sections that I liked and skipping the dry parts. God could then gift me with a deeper understanding of the faith and its beauty without working for it, if I just sat with the sections that I liked. In terms of Eucharistic Adoration, he said that Jesus, who is God, is truly present in the consecrated host. Like soaking in the rays of the sun while getting a tan, all we had to do is to soak in the rays of God’s grace and His love, just by being in His presence in adoration where Jesus is in the Eucharist is exposed in the monstrance. So I started to practice a daily prayer time and to meditate for 15 minutes with a book, The Imitation of Christ. And I received the gift of faith and prayer for the very first time. And this private time with God became so special to me that I always scheduled it in and would never miss it as this time was more precious to me than gold, and was and is that pearl of great price that no money could ever buy, no moth or rust could ruin, no thief could break in and steal. My Jesus.

God then led me to do my private prayer time once a week in the adoration chapel across the parking lot in our Adoration chapel while home over break for at least 15 minutes, although I stayed much longer, and it became like my prayer time on steroids, like mental prayer super charged. The peace, joy, consolation, and love that I felt was simply overwhelming. Not all at once however, as adoration is not magic, and I had to practice some faith. However, the more that I went, the more that Jesus strengthened my faith that He was truly present and the more that He gradually over time, revealed to me the riches of His love and the treasures of heaven contained in His heart. And this is the point. Jesus showed me that because He was truly present in adoration, that all of Heaven was there as well, in terms of the angels and saints helping me to pray. Why it was so much easier there. That adoration is literally a portal to paradise. That Moses and the burning bush have nothing on our adoration chapel here at St. Clements.

So what I am asking today is for those of you that already have a prayer life and a private time with God, to consider doing it in the chapel at least once per week for 15 minutes, if you are not already. For those of you who don’t, Msgr. mentioned that Lent is coming early this year. I can’t think of a better Lenten resolution than to start a daily prayer time for just 15 minutes a day. Often all that it takes is a good spiritual book. Send your guardian angel out to get one that moves you. Many, many a saint became a saint, from the reading of one, good spiritual book and then meditating on it. And then once a week, do it in the adoration chapel.

So what can you do in this time in adoration? Well, besides mental prayer, you can also pray the rosary. Mary leads us to Jesus and to eternal life. Mary’s love is amazing. We all need Mary in our lives. We receive Mary’s love, guidance, and protection for our families by committing to her rosary daily. Just start with one or two decades for starters, it will only take 5 or 10 minutes. Thirdly, you can meditate on decisions you have to make. Just commit to a course of action in your mind’s eye and then sit before our Lord in adoration and see where your peace grows. Lastly, you can just simply look on God, and let Jesus simply look back on you, and soak in the rays of God’s grace and His love, just by being in His presence in adoration. And parents, please take you children and adolescents to adoration! God has placed in each of us an infinite whole that only He can fill. Before the world tries to fill this in us and our children with its “fools gold”, take them to the true gold, to Jesus and His love in adoration.

I’ll be in the back to answer any questions that you may have. We also do have some adoration hours that need to be filled. If you feel led to sign up or to be an alternate to fill in, we would be so appreciative. For those of you who have never been before we are not asking for you to commit to an hour or to sign up for anything. I just want you to experience adoration. And that’s the point, that it is so hard to express just how special adoration is, the only way to truly find out is to experience it for yourself. For those of you that do, if you give it a decent try, I am confident that you will not only want to go more, but you will want to also stay longer. And I am even more confident that eventually you will be like me and will wonder how you ever got along in life without frequent, if not weekly and even daily, adoration, in the first place. Thank you so much for your generous response to Our Lord’s call to receive His infinite love in Eucharistic adoration. God Bless.