There are some things in life that we keep close to our hearts. Some things we just don’t want to forget because they become a part of us and change us for the better, like a gift from God. A gift that would be foolish to refuse or deny.
Newsroom (18/11/2022 12:44 PM, Gaudium Press) — “Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, Principles and Guidelines” is an important document, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2002. These instructions are permanently in effect and deserve all due respect. Let us look at Number 165, which pertains to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can be accomplished in various ways:
– a simple visit to the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacle: a brief encounter with Christ, motivated by Faith in His Presence, and characterized by silent prayer;
– Adoration before the exposed Blessed Sacrament: exposed, according to the liturgical norms, in the monstrance or the pyx, for either a prolonged or brief time;
– what is known as Perpetual or Forty Hour Adoration: involving a whole religious community, a Eucharistic Association, or a parish community, and which gives rise to numerous expressions of Eucharistic piety.
During these moments of Adoration, the faithful should be encouraged in using Sacred Scripture as an incomparable book of prayer; to employ hymns and appropriate prayers; to become familiar with simple models of the Liturgy of the Hours; to follow the rhythm of the liturgical year; to remain in silent prayer, and…. given the close bond uniting Mary to Christ, the recitation of the Rosary can give their prayers a profound Christological orientation, meditating therein on the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption.
Some examples of the benefits of Eucharistic Adoration
Fifty Years ago, Richard Auciello was cleaning the interior of St. Anthony’s Church before the Vigil Mass, he was not Catholic at the time. sometimes he would stop working and just sit and pray. Even though he had no desire to become a Catholic, he knew that he was in a holy place. He was searching for peace, guidance, and meaning. He was single, young, and confused about a few things “in life.” Most importantly he needed a closer connection with God without knowing how to achieve it.
At that time prayer consisted of either thanksgiving or petition or a combination of the two, but it was always a one-way street; where God did not communicate back. Much to his surprise, Jesus responded to my prayer that day.
However, during that first encounter with Christ, he had no idea what was going on; he was only aware that someone else was in that Church that day and Hee was reaching out to me. Richard would have been afraid had the message been delivered without interior peace and tranquillity. While he could hear the voice clearly, yet he could not discern the source, nor whether the speaker was near or far. But someone was talking to him in a calm, rational way; the message was received with understanding and delivered with peace and tranquillity.
This first encounter with Christ so impressed and startled him that he stopped praying, stood up, and looked around the Church for the “other person.” Finding no one, he began to search from the basement to the steeple. Richard even climbed the almost vertical stairway to the steeple. And from there, looking out and seeing the beauty of the small town he lived in with its colourful array of houses and buildings lightly covered with today’s snow on their rooftops, he realized that his search was complete and remained unresolved.
This was a turning point in his life, and the beginning of his journey to becoming a Catholic. For quite a few weeks after the first encounter, he would sit in the church and enjoy this two-way communication with the benevolent stranger who not only gave him great advice—counsel that he could use in my day-to-day life– but also gave him healing peace and tranquillity of soul.
In his own words Richard attests “Without a doubt, Adoration of the Eucharist, frequent holy hours, and constant prayer to Jesus in the blessed tabernacle continued during my instruction and has continued to this day, almost fifty years later. During prayer, I usually hear the “voice of God.” But now it is within, healing and guiding me, always delivered with peace, a joyful peace that lets me know that God is there, and for these gifts, I am truly grateful.”
A second example, amongst many, comes from Brazil. Rede Marajó, a chain of highway service stations in Brazil, has built seven chapels at its stations with the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle because “faith is the first value of our company.”
Janeth Vaz, director of Rede Marajó explains : “This oasis has already saved at least two truckers from suicide,” she recounted.
The first truck driver arrived at the Nova Olinda station at night “very desperate” and “with a gun” because he “wanted to take his own life.”
When he saw him, the night watchman took him to Our Lady of Graces chapel, and he stayed there for a while.
“When he left he was completely different and he no longer had the intention of committing suicide, and he said that he was even going to get rid of the weapon,” she recalled.
The other case occurred recently at the Belém station, in the chapel of Our Lady of Nazareth, when a truck driver who visited the chapel met a priest and decided not to commit suicide.
Vaz recounted that on that day, the visiting priest “thought the sanctuary lamp next to the tabernacle had gone out,” so he went into the chapel to light it and saw a man crying.
“The priest identified himself and asked if he could help. The man said that he had gone into the chapel with the idea of taking his own life, but he had told God: ‘If I find a priest here who hears my confession, I’ll change my mind.’ It was just then that the priest came in and the man talked, the priest prayed with him, and he changed his mind,” she related.
Conclusion
Sometimes the excuse for not going to the Blessed Sacrament is “lack of time,” …but oten we squander our time on things of relative unimportance. Let us spend, squander, “waste” our time with Him! it is an investment that can only result in personal, family and social benefits. And if we cannot go to the Lord in person due to the restrictions of the pandemic, let us fly with our imagination and soul to some Tabernacle and adore Him from a distance in His Sacrament of love!
– Raju Hasmukh with files from catholicstand.com
