Adoration Etiquette

[PacoG]

Every Friday, I do a Holy Hour. I spend an hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I pray, read scripture and writings on the Blessed Sacrament. I have found the silence and contemplation refreshing, especially after a grueling week.

There are three places that I rotate:

1. The Adoration Chapel of my parish. A nice, simple room with a tabernacle.
2. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Basilica of the Shrine of Nuestra Senora de San Juan del Valle. The Basilica has exposition in the Chapel ever Friday.
3. A perpetual adoration chapel at a convent of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in a neighboring city.

Option 1 is convenient. It’s about a mile away. It’s near my office and my home. It’s quiet and solitary. This has been my parish since childhood.

Option 3 is amazing. The people who go there are serious about adoring Our Lord. They genuflect on both knees. Some prostate themselves in prayer. (One time, a lady who was seated near me handed me a prayer book when she noticed I was nodding off.) The atmosphere is extraordinarily reverent. This is how adoration was meant to be. It is truly moving.

Option 2 is problematic. There are some very devote people who adore at the Basilca. (It’s there that I learned that you never turn your back on Our Lord when he is enthroned in the Monstrance and walk backward when leaving the chapel.) However, there are a lot of people who don’t know how to behave in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. People routinely walk behind the altar, turn their back on the monstrance and fondle and kiss the tabernacle. One man leaned the monstrance forward and planted a smooch on Our Lord. Another lady rubbed her fingers on the luna of the monstrance and kissed her fingers.

I have always been taught the following:

1. Only priests, deacons and the sacred ministers are allowed in the sanctuary. The area between the altar and the tabernacle is off limits to us unless we are deputed to serve an extraordinary purpose in the sanctuary.
2. No one is allowed to touch the monstrance or the luna when our Lord is enthroned and exposed to us. The level of reverence should be so great that priests only touch the monstrance while wearing a humeral veil over their hands.

So what I have seen at the Basilica is troubling and distracting. It’s chaotic and irreverent. I am overcome with both anger and pity for these people who don’t know any better.

What am I supposed to do? Do I correct these people? Do I just ignore it and pray my way through it?

The pastor at my parish is the vicar general of the Diocese. Should I bring it to his attention?

 

[Chuy]

Every Friday, I do a Holy Hour. I spend an hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I pray, read scripture and writings on the Blessed Sacrament. I have found the silence and contemplation refreshing, especially after a grueling week.

There are three places that I rotate:

1. The Adoration Chapel of my parish. A nice, simple room with a tabernacle.
2. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Basilica of the Shrine of Nuestra Senora de San Juan del Valle. The Basilica has exposition in the Chapel ever Friday.
3. A perpetual adoration chapel at a convent of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in a neighboring city.

Option 1 is convenient. It’s about a mile away. It’s near my office and my home. It’s quiet and solitary. This has been my parish since childhood.

Option 3 is amazing. The people who go there are serious about adoring Our Lord. They genuflect on both knees. Some prostate themselves in prayer. (One time, a lady who was seated near me handed me a prayer book when she noticed I was nodding off.) The atmosphere is extraordinarily reverent. This is how adoration was meant to be. It is truly moving.

Option 2 is problematic. There are some very devote people who adore at the Basilca. (It’s there that I learned that you never turn your back on Our Lord when he is enthroned in the Monstrance and walk backward when leaving the chapel.) However, there are a lot of people who don’t know how to behave in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. People routinely walk behind the altar, turn their back on the monstrance and fondle and kiss the tabernacle. One man leaned the monstrance forward and planted a smooch on Our Lord. Another lady rubbed her fingers on the luna of the monstrance and kissed her fingers.

I have always been taught the following:

1. Only priests, deacons and the sacred ministers are allowed in the sanctuary. The area between the altar and the tabernacle is off limits to us unless we are deputed to serve an extraordinary purpose in the sanctuary.
2. No one is allowed to touch the monstrance or the luna when our Lord is enthroned and exposed to us. The level of reverence should be so great that priests only touch the monstrance while wearing a humeral veil over their hands.

So what I have seen at the Basilica is troubling and distracting. It’s chaotic and irreverent. I am overcome with both anger and pity for these people who don’t know any better.

What am I supposed to do? Do I correct these people? Do I just ignore it and pray my way through it?

The pastor at my parish is the vicar general of the Diocese. Should I bring it to his attention?

[Edited]

2.) Go that that venue which best facilitates you to achieve #1.

3.) Pray that you achieve #1.

 

[puzzleannie]

Option 2 is problematic. There are some very devote people who adore at the Basilca. (It’s there that I learned that you never turn your back on Our Lord when he is enthroned in the Monstrance and walk backward when leaving the chapel.) However, there are a lot of people who don’t know how to behave in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. People routinely walk behind the altar, turn their back on the monstrance and fondle and kiss the tabernacle. One man leaned the monstrance forward and planted a smooch on Our Lord. Another lady rubbed her fingers on the luna of the monstrance and kissed her fingers.

I So what I have seen at the Basilica is troubling and distracting. It’s chaotic and irreverent. I am overcome with both anger and pity for these people who don’t know any better.

What am I supposed to do? Do I correct these people? Do I just ignore it and pray my way through it?

The pastor at my parish is the vicar general of the Diocese. Should I bring it to his attention?

in the first place the adoration chapel at the Basilica is not the sanctuary which is opposite so there is theoretically no reason people may not walk in any part of the chapel. Second, a layperson who has been deputed, should be an EMHS, may if necessary repose and exose the Blessed Sacrament, by removing the host (in the luna) from the tabernacle and placing it in the monstrance. At the basilica this is done by deacons or priest on duty, and the Blessed Sacrament is usually not reposed, but the doors to the chapel are locked during Mass and and other times when the main body of the church is in use.

Secondly, the rector of the basilica is well aware of practices of popular piety, usually from among those Mexicans of a very deep, simple faith who make this a place of pilgrimage, which do border on abuse and superstition, and does what can be done to correct them when they are seen, and the ushers and other staff do this regularly.

Thirdly besides being a place of pilgrimage, this is also a bona fide tourist site, attracting tourists incapable of discerning the difference between a sacred space and a theme park or any other attraction. Again, the rector and staff are aware of and on the watch for inappropriate behavior, and stop it when they can, but logistics are difficult. I for one would settle for people not wandering in front of the altar during Mass as if they were in the zoo.

You may call the rector of the basilica, or simply stop in the office when you are there, and tell him when and where, what time, you observe genuine abuse, or even tell a security guard–they are all over–if there is a real urgent problem. However be sure not to confuse popular piety and customs that are not familiar to us with real abuse, since it is not always the case.

I was taught many years ago by the good sisters that the proper way to react when people misbehave during Mass, esp. at the consecration, or during adoration, is to return my own attention to the Mystery and focus entirely in devotion on Christ and teach by example.

I agree, if you can get to Alamo to the Poor Clares, that would be my preferred place,