Adoration
What is Eucharistic Adoration?
Eucharistic Adoration is adoring or honoring the Eucharistic Presence of Christ. In a deeper sense, it involves the contemplation of the Mystery of Christ truly present before us. During Eucharistic Adoration we watch and wait, we remain silent in His Presence and open ourselves to His graces which flow from the Eucharist. By worshiping the Eucharistic Jesus, we become what God wants us to be! Like a magnet, the Lord draws us to Himself and gently transforms us. In its fullest essence…Eucharistic Adoration is God and Man reaching out for each other at the same time.
Perpetual Adoration
In practice, members of St Aloysius Parish (people from other parishes in the surrounding vicinity would also be welcome) volunteer to spend one hour adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration Chapel both during the day and throughout the night, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Adoration Chapel is located at 118 9th Avenue NE, a short walk across the street from the main St. Aloysius building.
To see Jesus visibly present under the appearance of the consecrated Host is much more conducive to intimacy than when it is hidden away in the tabernacle. Moreover, it adds extra responsibility on the adorers to be sure to be faithful to the hours they are scheduled, since the suggested norm for having Jesus exposed in the monstrance is that there should be at least two adorers present, and He must never be left alone. Could not these words of our Lord apply today: Indeed, this is the will of My Father, that anyone who looks upon the Son, and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. Him I will raise up on the last day.
- Fr. Bob Ferris
History of Perpetual Adoration
Although the Real Presence has been recognized since the time of the Apostles, evidence shows perpetual adoration may have begun in the sixth century in the Cathedral of Lugo, Spain. By the twelfth century, St. Thomas á Becket is known to have prayed for King Henry II before the “majesty of the Body of Christ,” and by the sixteenth century, the devotion known as Forty Hours had developed. In nineteenth-century France, perpetual adoration developed in communities of contemplative nuns. The devotion eventually spread to parishes throughout the world. – Our Sunday Visitor