Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In his recent Apostolic Exhortation Veneremur Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling, Bishop Olmsted wrote so beautifully about the powerful impact Adoration of Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament can have in a person’s life. I want to share some of his thoughts with you because I want you to fall deeper in love with Our Eucharistic King and to make Him the Lord of your life.
Bishop Olmsted addresses adoration by looking at friendship. He writes: “Friends deepen their love and affection by spending time together. The same is true of our relationship with Christ. Eucharistic adoration prolongs the mystery of Jesus’ self-offering in the Mass. To adore the Eucharistic Jesus is to lovingly savor and delight in His sacramental presence. It is not opposed to the Mass or a substitute to the Mass. Rather, Eucharistic adoration flows from the sacred liturgy and back to it again. As lovers’ eyes linger in a shared gaze ager and before their kiss, so adoration before the Eucharist shares a natural rhythm of the “kiss” of Holy Communion. Love survives on both contemplation and union, on the gaze and the kiss.”
In a time where the devil and his minions are finding creative ways to “divide and conquer”, Our Lord is patiently waiting for us to fall in love with Him and become one with Him. As Bishop Olmsted’s exhortation addresses, Our Lord calls us the most intimate holy communion with Himself through receiving Him in Holy Communion. As a person spends times in adoration of the Our Lord truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, they will find their heart grows in love for Our Lord and for one another and their desire to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion grows as well.
Before I continue with Bishop Olmsted exhortation, I feel the need to provide some concise answers to a few questions concerning adoration of Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. In the coming weeks, these Pastor’s Notes will expound on both Bishop Olmsted’s Exhortation on the Eucharist and some practical questions on adoration. The Franciscan Friars of Marytown offer the following questions and answers for your consideration. It is my hope that any hesitation you may have concerning adoration of Our Eucharistic King will be addressed here. Many of these questions are common to many lifelong Catholics and recent converts alike.
Perpetual Adoration is a Eucharistic devotion whereby members of a given parish (or other entity) unite in taking hours of adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament (in most cases, exposed), both during the day and throughout the night, seven days a week.
To see Jesus visibly present under the appearance of the small white host is much more conducive to intimacy than hidden away in the tabernacle. Moreover, it adds an 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 be applied today: "Indeed, this is the will of My heavenly Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son, and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. Him I will raise up on the last day."
To be continued next week…
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