Adoration following communion

[mainusch]

We have a new pastor in our parish, and he has introduced some new practices. Most notable is that once everything is cleaned up from communion, he keeps out one host, and places it in the monstrance on the altar, and we have a period of adoration. He also adds his own words during consecration such as, when he elevates the host he says something to the effect of “I invite you to gaze upon your God. This is God, not a symbol. The real presence. He is healing people here right now. He is healing a child. He just healed someone’s headache.” (etc)

I believe it is all very heart-felt, and well intended, but I can’t help thinking that his additions are simply inappropriate since they are not in uniformity with the rest of the church.

I don’t know if I should speak to him about it, speak to someone else about it, or just ignore it.

Any thoughts?

 

[CatholicCajun]

I do not know the correct answer but the GRIM may have the answer and there are a lot of really smart people on this site who will probably know the correct answer.

 

[Sr_Sally]

We used to have an Adoration period following the last daily Mass on Wednesdays. But this was not during Mass–it started after Mass was completely over and there were no special comments. Perhaps you can suggest to your priest that after the last Mass on a certain day that he institute an Adoration hour or hours. Make sure you find volunteers to commit to staying with Jesus during that time also!

 

[lizaanne]

My parish does this as well, although Father does not editorialize like that.

It is not part of the Mass, and therefore is not “changing” anything in the Mass.

It’s only about 15 minutes - and who can possibly complain about spending 15 minutes adoring Jesus? And we never have anyone racing for the parking lot either. I love that about our parish.

~Liza

 

[mainusch]

I think I should add that I don’t find it particularly offensive or anything. In fact I kind of like it. However, there’s just this little red flag in my head that goes up, thinking that it might not be “liturgically correct.”

I might also note that I play in the music ministry, and it gives us a little more time to use our talents in His service.

 

[japhy]

We have a new pastor in our parish, and he has introduced some new practices. Most notable is that once everything is cleaned up from communion, he keeps out one host, and places it in the monstrance on the altar, and we have a period of adoration.

Can you give some more details? How long is the adoration? Does it end with benediction? What else happens?

He also adds his own words during consecration such as, when he elevates the host he says something to the effect of “I invite you to gaze upon your God. This is God, not a symbol. The real presence. He is healing people here right now. He is healing a child. He just healed someone’s headache.” (etc)

He should not (and does not have permission to) add to the Mass like this; the homily is the time for catechesis on the Real Presence, not the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer (especially not during the consecration itself). Plus, he sounds a bit like the stereotypical fraudulent faith-healer who claims Jesus is healing people in the audience (audience, mind you!) right now! He is going about this the wrong way.

 

[benedictgal]

I think I should add that I don’t find it particularly offensive or anything. In fact I kind of like it. However, there’s just this little red flag in my head that goes up, thinking that it might not be “liturgically correct.”

I might also note that I play in the music ministry, and it gives us a little more time to use our talents in His service.

However, there is such a thing as sacred silence, and this is supposed to happen after communion. This is one of the items noted in Sacramentum Caritatis.

Furthermore, the OP indicated that the priest “adds” things to the Consecration. This is a reprobated abuse because he does not have the right to impose his own idiosyncracies within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, surely not during the Consecration. Such commentary is better suited for the homily.

There is also the matter of the adoration “ritual” that he places after Communion. In Sacramentum Caritatis, the Holy Father writes:

Receiving the Eucharist means adoring Him whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with Him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy. The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself. Indeed, “only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another.” (193

One can take this to mean that Jesus is already within the faithful who have worthily received Him in Holy Communion. There is no need to expose the Blessed Sacrament for adoration during the Mass. This act of adoration takes place outside the Mass, as the Holy Father explains. The priest has got the right idea, but, he is going about it the wrong way.

 

[lizaanne]

My parish does this as well, although Father does not editorialize like that.

It is not part of the Mass, and therefore is not “changing” anything in the Mass.

It’s only about 15 minutes - and who can possibly complain about spending 15 minutes adoring Jesus? And we never have anyone racing for the parking lot either. I love that about our parish.

~Liza

I need to clarify that our parish does this AFTER the Mass is concluded - NOT during the Mass as the OP has stated happens at his parish. I missed that detail in his post at first.

~Liza

 

[John_Lilburne]

… He also adds his own words during consecration such as, when he elevates the host he says something to the effect of “I invite you to gaze upon your God. This is God, not a symbol. The real presence. He is healing people here right now. He is healing a child. He just healed someone’s headache.” (etc)…

The 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum specifically condemns changes to the Eucharistic Prayer, which the consecration is part of:
“[51.] Only those Eucharistic Prayers are to be used which are found in the Roman Missal or are legitimately approved by the Apostolic See, and according to the manner and the terms set forth by it. “It is not to be tolerated that some Priests take upon themselves the right to compose their own Eucharistic Prayers”
[footnote 129: Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Vicesimus quintus annus, n. 13, AAS 81 (1989)]
or to change the same texts approved by the Church, or to introduce others composed by private individuals.
[footnote 130: S. Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Instruction, Inaestimabile donum, n. 5: AAS 72 (1980) pp. 335.]”