Adoration with no end

[purplesunshine]

I find it very condesending

The adorers sit in silence before the wafer.

Some settle cross-legged on the floor by the altar. Others kneel in a favorite pew. They read, or say the rosary; they pray, or think, or just allow the mind to wander.

Hour after hour, day after day, they take part in an unusual Catholic ritual that appears to be making a modest comeback - a quest for silence in a noisy life, a desire to be part of a team, a hunger to feel closer to God.

The ritual, called perpetual adoration, is, at one level, strikingly simple: around-the-clock, people take turns sitting in a chapel in the presence of a consecrated wafer. But at another level, the ritual reflects an embrace of the teaching of Catholicism that many find hardest to understand: the belief that, during Mass, bread and wine are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus.

Later this week, in a Back Bay shrine, the Archdiocese of Boston will celebrate the return of perpetual adoration to Boston for the first time in decades. Volunteers at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine are signing up 336 people - two for every hour of the week except during Mass - who will agree that, starting Saturday and continuing indefinitely, they will spend an hour a week in the presence of the consecrated wafer, a practice they understand as spending an hour a week with God.

boston.com/yourtown/natick/articles/2009/08/10/st_clement_eucharistic_shrine_in_back_bay_starts_ritual_of_perpetual_adoration/

 

[purplesunshine]

O’Malley said he occasionally participates in the practice. He said that when he is sitting in front of the consecrated wafer, he prays, meditates, or reflects on his faith. He expresses gratitude to God, asks forgiveness for failings, prays for the sick, or asks for help.

“It’s a wonderful form of prayer,’’ he said. “The sacramental presence of Christ is right there, and that’s an encouragement. It strengthens our faith, and our connection with the Lord.’’

Preparing to have people in a church in the middle of the night in the middle of the city has required a few security precautions. The shrine has installed a key card system so only the adorers will be able to get in during the night, and each adorer will pass to the next a crucifix with a panic button that will send an alarm to the police station.

Those who have signed up offer a variety of reasons for agreeing to participate.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to renew my faith,’’ said Marie-Claude Tanny, 28, an immigrant from Ivory Coast, by way of France, who chose an hour on Friday nights so she could review her week.

Tanny is new to the practice but another St. Clement’s participant, 22-year-old Peter Syski, started it in high school in Maryland and continued at Harvard, in both instances at chapels run by Opus Dei, and in Cambridge also at St. Paul’s Parish.

Syski said he chooses shifts in the middle of the night because he likes the challenge of staying awake, given that the saint for whom he was named, Peter, famously fell asleep while awaiting Jesus in Gethsemane.

Syski doesn’t tend to tell his colleagues at State Street Bank about his practice - “I don’t come into work and say, ‘I’m so tired because last night I was up at 2 in the morning looking at a wafer’ - there’s no need for me to completely blow their mind.’’ But, he says, he believes he gains spiritually from the experience, and he believes the city does too.

“I think this is really going to work wonders in Boston, and the church in Boston really needs a lot of prayers,’’ he said.

 

[theistgal]

From a non-Catholic’s point of view, it is a wafer.

I actually thought the whole article was very well-written, balanced, and informative.

 

[purplesunshine]

a consecrated host, or even a “host” would of been much better than the passive-aggressive word “wafer” and continual referance to it as such. The author, Pulson, is a known anti-catholic and throught the whole thing made Catholics look like supersticious idiots.

AND he didn’t even bothor to get his facts straight. There has been perpetual adoration in Boston, (although they are “named” suburbs) for over 40 years. There are so many churches that do…4 or 5 atleast. And even more in the greater Boston area.

 

[theistgal]

a consecrated host, or even a “host” would of been much better than the passive-aggressive word “wafer” and continual referance to it as such. The author, Pulson, is a known anti-catholic and throught the whole thing made Catholics look like supersticious idiots.

AND he didn’t even bothor to get his facts straight. There has been perpetual adoration in Boston, (although they are “named” suburbs) for over 40 years. There are so many churches that do…4 or 5 atleast. And even more in the greater Boston area.

Did you post the whole article? Because other than the term “wafer”, I didn’t see anything even potentially offensive in what you posted.

 

[purplesunshine]

I did post the whole article and I said that it was condescending, which it IS.

The people quoted sounded uneducated and the whole tone indicated “crazy wafter worshipers”

 

[theistgal]

I did post the whole article and I said that it was condescending, which it IS.

The people quoted sounded uneducated and the whole tone indicated “crazy wafter worshipers”

What’s a “wafter”?

 

[purplesunshine]

wafter makes the host sound like some sort of cookie…like 'nilla wafters or those crispy chocolate wafters with frosting. Plus anyone who’s ever taken ANY english classes knows not to repeat the same word over and over and over

 

[theistgal]

wafter makes the host sound like some sort of cookie…like 'nilla wafters or those crispy chocolate wafters with frosting. Plus anyone who’s ever taken ANY english classes knows not to repeat the same word over and over and over

Do you by any chance mean “wafer”?

And FWIW, I used to help the nuns make communion wafers on a special oven made just for that purpose - and the nuns called them “wafers”, so I think it’s probably OK.

It all depends on the intent of the person using the word, don’t you agree?

 

[puzzleannie]

What’s a “wafter”?

that is a rather overweight lady in a leotard covered in a diaphanous synthetic drapery, who prances barefoot up the aisle in a church which has “embraced the spirit of Vatican 2”. She is often carrying a candle, joss stick, or pole with ribbons, in an exercise loosely called “litugical dance” as she is said to “waft” her way with strange movements which are anything but worshipful.

Seriously, attempting to give every benefit of doubt to a columnist with a dubious record of fairness and journalistic accuracy where the Church is concerned, the word “wafer” may have been chosen because a non-Catholic audience might not grasp the meaning of “host” in this context. Otherwise the article appeared to be as fair and balanced as anything in the Globe or a similar paper could be, but one has to laugh at the attempt to give this spiritual exercise credibility and respectability by giving it a new age gloss.

 

[theistgal]

How weird, I just tried to modify my post and it disappeared … into the wafters, perhaps?

Sorry for teasing you puzzleannie, it’s just been one of those days.

 

[purplesunshine]

Seriously, attempting to give every benefit of doubt to a columnist with a dubious record of fairness and journalistic accuracy where the Church is concerned, the word “wafer” may have been chosen because a non-Catholic audience might not grasp the meaning of “host” in this context. Otherwise the article appeared to be as fair and balanced as anything in the Globe or a similar paper could be, but one has to laugh at the attempt to give this spiritual exercise credibility and respectability by giving it a new age gloss.

Why should we give the journalist the benefit of the doubt? He’s never even given us any reason to. It has a definate non-catholic gloss and the redundant use of the word “wafer” when there are a dozen words just as good and as easy to comprehend is just beyond me. It is MENT to be cutting and passive aggressive so there’s no room to “complain” but plenty to really be disturbed if you read it as its written.

 

[purplesunshine]

sorry I’m dyslexic and was convinced for a moment wafer had a t in it.

 

[theistgal]

sorry I’m dyslexic and was convinced for a moment wafer had a t in it.

Maybe you were thinking you need a drink of water.

Anyway, to be honest, I didn’t see the article in the same way you saw it (obviously); but you know what? If you think it was offensive, why not write a letter to the editor? I’m sure the Globe has an online place to do this. Let your opinion be heard!

 

[purplesunshine]

if I can’t even get a catholic to see the article for what it really is what good is it going to do to tell the general public?

 

[Convert66]

This is that part that bothered me a little:

Some scholars have expressed concerns that the practice could distract from the centrality of the Mass in Catholic life, or that people might feel compelled to join in.

Hurry, let’s round up some protestants and make ‘em worship that thar’ wafter,

 

[Teelynn]

I didn’t think at first the article was at all consescending until I got to the last paragraph, where the person interviewed used the same terminology…“wafer”. Wonder what that’s all about? No Catholic that I know refers to the sacred host as a “wafer”. They either call it the Eucharistic Host, or the Sacred Host, or just maybe The Host or maybe even the Blessed Sacrament, but never a “wafer.”

At first it struck me like the reporter just didn’t know the proper term, but then again it was used several times almost like an emphasis on “wafer”. “Wafer” is a negative term, however, IMHO, as it reminds me of “cracker”. All in all, I guess I have seen worse. Condescending does not surprise me in the least, as that’s how the MSM has always treated and continues to treat Catholics and Catholicism in general. (they don’t seem to like us very much ya know):nope:

 

[Mark77]

This is a common misconception among our protestant brothers and sisters!

We as Catholics are failing in our mission to preach the Truth of Jesus Christ. We are failing to tell them that the “wafer” is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35).

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." (Jn 6:47-51).

**The protestant argument that Jesus was speaking figuratively is negated by the words " I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
**

if Jesus was speaking figuratively, then the atheist’s arguments that the Crucifixion and Resurrection was not real is true.

All of our protestant brothers and sisters truly love Jesus, and we must witness to them especially concerning the Most Holy Eucharist! They have been misled and deceived by ignorant (definition: Lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned) teachers.

imagine if you truly love Jesus, but no one ever told you that you could receive His Body and Blood, as Jesus wished to remain with us until His return, as a Catholic at Holy Mass.

We are failing miserably when these people call Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, a “wafer”, mere cracker, a scrap of bread.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[Sunflower15]

a consecrated host, or even a “host” would of been much better than the passive-aggressive word “wafer” and continual referance to it as such. The author, Pulson, is a known anti-catholic and throught the whole thing made Catholics look like supersticious idiots.

AND he didn’t even bothor to get his facts straight. There has been perpetual adoration in Boston, (although they are “named” suburbs) for over 40 years. There are so many churches that do…4 or 5 atleast. And even more in the greater Boston area.

He said ‘consecrated wafer’…which is what it is physically…he never used the word ‘wafer’ without ‘consecrated’ which is what makes it accurate in a descriptive manner. I don’t find it disrespectful, and I’m glad that someone [not Catholic] is covering it as ‘news’…because it IS Great News!

And, no, there hasn’t been Perpetual Adoration within Boston in 40 years, the news even reached us in FL…there was Adoration…for a few hours at different parishes…Perpetual means 24/7 non-stop except for the Tridium [3 days in Holy Week, when it is not allowed]. There even wasn’t Perpetual Adoration at the Eucharistic Shrine!!!

We have Perpetual Adoration at my parish in Orlando for 15 years now, only closing for extremely severe weather during the worst of hurricanes [for safety reasons]. We are the only ones in Central Florida and we are praying for more Perpetual Adoration parishes, which require over 300 faithful parishioners to keep vigil with the Blessed Sacrament throughout the year. It is wonderful!

Great things will come to Boston with this new incredible outpouring of grace from a 24/7 Adoration of the Eucharist! Enjoy!!!

 

[purplesunshine]

Please, and I do mean this. Ban me if you truly believe that this was a positive article, becuase if you do we have nothing in common, and there is no reason for me to be on this supposidly “catholic” board. I think anyone who thinks that this article is positive is nuts.

And I DO NOT APPROVE of the title change.