ASK A PRIEST

Before 2010, I had never heard of Eucharistic adoration. Where did it come from, and what is its purpose?

SPRING 2021

UNLIKE ALL THE OTHER SACRAMENTS, the Eucharist is “permanent”: When the Mass is offered, our Lord is present in the Holy Sacrament, and His Presence can be kept after the Mass.

As early as the second century AD, the liturgical practice of keeping the Eucharist reserved in the church so that it could be brought to the sick and dying was already in place. Over the centuries, people began to pray before and adore Christ in the reserved Blessed Sacrament – an organic expression of the faithful’s piety. We have journals from monks in the ancient Church that speak of praying before our Lord’s reserved Presence in their chapels.

Of course, this early practice was not adoration as we envision it today. The monstrance, a sacred device used to expose the Eucharist, was not introduced until around the 13th century. It was used in processions on the great feast of Corpus Christi. By the 17th century, the liturgical practice of benediction of the Blessed Sacrament during Sunday’s Evening Prayer developed. The faithful would be blessed by the Lord in the Holy Eucharist. It was not until 1973 that Eucharistic adoration became an official liturgical rite, with its own official instruction and authoritative guidelines from the Congregation of Divine Worship.

As an official practice, then, Eucharistic adoration as we know it is pretty new, but as an inspired movement from the Holy Spirit, it is ancient – the fruit of the faithful’s natural piety. Adoration is an example of how good things in the Church often begin on the local level and eventually become recognized on the universal level. Sometimes what’s best comes from the bottom up rather than the top down.

In the decades following Vatican II, there was a movement against Eucharistic adoration. Some clergy and laity believed that adoration was taking away from or missing the point of the Mass. In recent years, adoration overcame these objections. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI gave us many authoritative documents affirming this good practice. For them, adoration only increased devotion to the Mass by helping us receive our Lord with more devotion.  

In adoration, all of our senses are directed toward Him. Within this sacred space, you can pray the rosary, do a Divine Mercy chaplet, or perform any other kind of formal prayers. You can say the Our Father, St. Michael, or the Divine Praises. But you could also just sit there in peace and silence and know that He is God. The nature of prayer, simply put, is our gift of time to God, so that we can express by our very presence that we love Him, honor Him, and freely choose to worship Him.

In a world that has grown increasingly noisy, where silence is hard to find, Jesus provides a place where all of our anxieties, concerns, and regrets can come to the surface of our hearts and be passed on to Him. “Jesus, I believe you’re there. I love you. I hope and trust that you’re going to get me through whatever I might be experiencing. And I want to thank you.”

So, please come to adoration and empty yourself into Christ so that he can make you more alive by filling you with his divine life.