Eucharistic Adoration



Dear Theophilus,

A few days ago my family and I attended Eucharistic adoration at our parish church. Outside of Holy Thursday, this was the first time any of us had participated in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. When we left, we wondered what had taken us so long to get there.

Regarding Eucharistic adoration, the Youcat tells us:

Because God is truly present in the consecrated species of bread and wine, we must preserve the sacred gifts with the greatest reverence and worship our Lord and Redeemer in the Most Blessed Sacrament. (#218 – CCC#1378-1381, 1418)

During our half-hour of Eucharistic adoration, we came to realize just how special time with our Lord can really be.

Although adoration has been available before the Wednesday evening Mass at our parish for some time now, we hadn’t attended for one reason or another – usually a lack of time. Over the summer, however, I had begun to feel a burning need to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Between my summer readings and some grave family illnesses (my father had a stroke in August), I felt compelled to leave my problems before the Lord, as well as to give Him glory in thanksgiving.

So, after dinner last Wednesday we made our way to church to spend some time in adoration. We didn’t intend to stay the full hour, knowing our 8-year-old son would need some physical stimulation after his second day of school; we set a goal of 15 minutes of adoration. Pulling into the church parking lot my son announced, “We’re going to be here for half an hour.” I didn’t say anything, but I doubted him in my mind.

We walked into the silent church, genuflected, knelt and prayed. Aside from our son, my wife and I were the youngest people in the Church, though that wasn’t difficult as we were only about half a dozen. I laid all my worried before the Lord, asking for guidance and courage. After a while I looked over to my son and was surprised to see him still in quiet prayer, once he began to fidget, though, I knew it was time to get him out.

When we got in the car I looked at the clock and realized Michael was right, we had been there for half an hour. My wife said it felt more like 30-seconds than 30-minutes. How quickly time flies with the Lord.