My dear friends, the adoration of the Holy Eucharist is the most remarkable devotion in the life of a Catholic Christian. No other devotion comes close to its power to heal, restore, save, and bestow divine blessings and favor. Speaking to a gathering in Phoenix Park during a three-day visit to Ireland in 1979, Saint Pope John Paul II said, “The visit to the Blessed Sacrament is a great treasure of the Catholic faith. It nourishes social love and gives us opportunities for adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and supplication.” I genuinely believe that devotion to Eucharistic adoration is very pertinent to having a richfilled Lenten observance and, more significantly, needs to be part of our prayer routine.
The Sacred Congregation on Rites, in their statement on the “Instruction on Eucharistic Worship” on May 25th, 1967, stated: "The exposition of the Blessed Sacrament…stimulates the faithful to an awareness of the marvelous presence of Christ and is an invitation to spiritual communion with Him. It is, therefore, an excellent encouragement to offer Him that worship in spirit and truth which is His due.” In his encyclical, “Redeemer of Man,” Pope John Paul II said that our “communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration in order that our love may be complete." This is why The Council of Trent (the gathering of the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, priests, laity and theologians, to define and clarify Catholic doctrine) declared that “The onlybegotten Son of God is to be adored in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist… and that the Sacrament is to be publicly exposed for the people's adoration”. In an apparition to Catalina Rivas of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Jesus made some heart-felt promises among which are: “I will receive affectionately that soul that visits Me frequently in this Sacrament of Love and these visits will be written down in the Book of its Life” and “I will annul the power of Satan over its person and its loved ones” and “I will grant it special protection in case of earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters, relief of its loved ones from the pains of Purgatory, blessing on every good material and spiritual project undertaken, intercessions of My Mother, the Saints and Angels at the hour of death, and such a soul will not be condemned or die without the Sacraments of the Church.
It was customary for Catholics, young and old, to stop at the local Church to visit the Blessed Sacrament on their way home from school, work, grocery store, or sports practice. This makes sense when we realize that by worshipping the Eucharistic Jesus, we become what God wants us to be as He draws us to Himself and gently transforms us. No wonder Saint Pope John Paul II, in his exhortation “Dominicae Cenae,” said, “The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration”.
The best time we can ever spend in this world is the time we spend with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical “Mysterium Fide” said that “There is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness" than having a conversation with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. While it is true that we can pray to God anywhere and that God lives within us, there is something very powerful about adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament because, in the Eucharist, we have the full power inherent in the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have the possibility of receiving, in a very unique and mysterious way, the incredible spiritual strength and nourishment that are contained therein.
In our parish, we have Eucharistic adorations on the first Sunday and first Friday of every month at 7:00 pm and exposition of the Eucharist with devotion to our Blessed Mother every Wednesday at 7:30 pm. What an opportunity we have to encounter Christ one-on-one in these moments! May the grace of God draw us ever more closely to His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Blessed Eucharist!
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