Adoration

[Truth_Faith13]

Can someone explain to me what adoration is? Where it takes place? I’ve seen someone mention an adoration chapel?

Also are Catholic Churches open all day for people to go and sit and pray or are they only open during mass times? I ask because I’ve seen people mention going to sit etc, but when I visited the priest, it looked like the chapel was locked…the lights were off anyhow.

 

[dee_burk]

Adoration is the most beautiful thing you can do.

The blessed host is placed in a monstrance to be viewed and adored by anyone. It is Jesus as close as you can physically get. Many Catholic Churches offer perpetual (24 hour, except during Mass) Adoration usually in a small side chapel inside the church. Some offer at different times. You can contact the Church or the Diocese for times of Adoration for a particular Church. I love going although i usually dont have time to spend a full hour with our Lord.

What do you do in there? Some just sit and look at him, some pray, pray the rosary or Chaplet, read, whatever they feel inclined or lead to do in the physical presence of our Lord. Sometime i just sit and cry for no reason except the feeling of his love and mercy on me.

 

[Truth_Faith13]

Adoration is the most beautiful thing you can do.

The blessed host is placed in a monstrance to be viewed and adored by anyone. It is Jesus as close as you can physically get. Many Catholic Churches offer perpetual (24 hour, except during Mass) Adoration usually in a small side chapel inside the church. Some offer at different times. You can contact the Church or the Diocese for times of Adoration for a particular Church. I love going although i usually dont have time to spend a full hour with our Lord.

What do you do in there? Some just sit and look at him, some pray, pray the rosary or Chaplet, read, whatever they feel inclined or lead to do in the physical presence of our Lord. Sometime i just sit and cry for no reason except the feeling of his love and mercy on me.

Thank you

What’s the chaplet?

 

[RuthTherese]

Going to Adoration is truly wonderful. I wish that I had the opportunity to go far more often than I do, but my parish usually remains locked when Mass is not being said because of the neighborhood. Being able to just be in the presence of Christ… it just doesn’t get much better than that.

 

[wllmjoseph]

Can someone explain to me what adoration is? Where it takes place? I’ve seen someone mention an adoration chapel?

Also are Catholic Churches open all day for people to go and sit and pray or are they only open during mass times? I ask because I’ve seen people mention going to sit etc, but when I visited the priest, it looked like the chapel was locked…the lights were off anyhow.

 As Catholics we believe that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist.  Body & Blood; Soul & Divininity.  I attended a Catholic Men's Reflection.  The speaker was a conver to Catholicism.  He had orininally been an evangelical Christian.  He challenged those of us who were present that when we are before Jesus in adoration that in addition to praying a Rosary or Chalplet of Divine Mercy we also should have a conversation with our Lord.  
 This experience changed the way that I approached my time with Jesus in adoration.  I still pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy but not I try to have at least thirty minutes with Jesus where I am able to converse with Him on both an intimate and deep level.  I love being Catholic!  I don't know of any other Christian denomination where I am able to pray to Jesus on a more intimate or deeper level and this is all made posible through Jesus' presence in the Eucharist!

 

[mgn2010]

Hello Christian Friend,

Adoration is the external act of worship to the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. As you may understand in the Catholic faith’s teaching, the Holy Eucharist represents the source and summit of our Christian faith. Christ is truly present to us in body, blood, soul and divinity in this form of the Eucharist. Thus, displaying of the Holy Eucharist in various settings, such as your question inquires, is known as Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. There is a feast day in the church called, Feast of Corpus Christi in which the celebration of His holy presence is publicly worshiped by the faithful. Many times these are outside the church’s walls and these are known as processions. A priest in His priestly garments carries the Monstrance (a receptacle that holds and displays the Holy Eucharist) around a designated route (more commonly, just around the grounds of the church’s property, but in many countries, this takes place through towns or cities).
Outside of this feast day, Corpus Christi, Adoration is often held in churches. On a given day (most commonly, on first Friday’s of the month) the monstrance will be placed on the altar for a number of hours and people are free to come to church during that time to make private devotion to Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Also, some parishes have Adoration Chapels which are open 24 hours of the day. The chapel is a designated room or area within the church or somewhere on the grounds of the property of the church where Eucharistic Adoration is practiced. In these settings, persons volunteer to be there before the exposed Eucharist for an hour as to not leave the Holy Eucharist, Christ alone without someone there.

You know Jesus’ promise where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there also with them. In Catholic teaching, we are taught that He is truly present with us as well in the Holy Eucharist in the words He spoke to the disciples when He said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the body and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.” Is this hard to believe? Of course, it is. It is one the great mysteries of our faith. Scriptures tell us that many of His followers at that time left Him after this comment, saying. “This saying is hard to believe!” And Christ turned to his apostles and said, “Will you leave me also?” They did not, they believed His words and to this day the church continues to believe them.

When the Holy Eucharist is not exposed in the monstrance for all to worship, it is still understood that His presence resides in the closed Tabernacle usually directly behind the altar in the church. Sometimes it is placed on the side of the altar area or in a separate side room. You will note that the Tabernacle is present by a hanging candle near it that is always lit to proclaim His presence. In this setting, the Holy Eucharist in the closed Tabernacle, it has always been taught that one can (and should) make visits to the Blessed Sacrament. It is recommended to stop into the church and make a devotional prayer to Our Lord in praise and thanksgiving for His life in our life. It is nourishment for our soul to perform such an act of adoration and prayer! Yes, churches are open most of the time in the day. Unfortunately, due to vandalism some churches must keep doors closed for that reason and that’s the only reason probably you will find a church closed. Sometimes, if no personnel will be on the premises, church doors may have to be locked as well. But, it is a good and wholesome effort to keep prayer in our life and His special presence in the Holy Eucharist is a gift to us all.

 

[7armyrugrats]

Some churches are open all day, but some are locked between Masses. My church remains open during daylight hours and locked after 8 pm, but all parishioners have access to the security code if they want it. We have perpetual adoration so someone is always there, 24/7, to open the door if someone wants to just come and sit with Jesus. My husband and I go every Sat. evening for Adoration. It’s our date night. Having 8 kids kind of makes free dates very appealing, especially to someplace quiet! Sometimes only one of us gets to go, but it is so refreshing and really recharges our batteries. At our parish, each hour is adopted by 1 or more people to make sure someone is always with Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before he was crucified, Jesus asked his apostles to stay awake and pray with Him. When we go to Adoration, it is our way of showing Jesus that we will stay awake with Him, we will not leave Him alone, especially in His agony, even if it is only for an hour. I can’t speak for everyone, but I have seen many graces bestowed upon our family and our parish as a whole because of Eucharistic Adoration. There is a true sense of peace and joy in our lives. I still find myself sad and struggling at times, but I no longer wonder if God is here with me. During horribly hard times (epecially DEPLOYMENTS!!!), when I have shed numerous tears at the Adoration chapel, there is peace and joy in my heart. If you have an opportunity to try an hour, or even a few minutes, please do. Pray, read the Bible, or even just sit quietly while you are there. Just let Jesus work on your heart. Open it up Him.

 

[robertkchacon]

Great question OP! Thanks for asking! God bless!
Beautiful responses people! God bless you all!

 

[EasterJoy]

Adoration is the most beautiful thing you can do.

The blessed host is placed in a monstrance to be viewed and adored by anyone. It is Jesus as close as you can physically get. Many Catholic Churches offer perpetual (24 hour, except during Mass) Adoration usually in a small side chapel inside the church. Some offer at different times. You can contact the Church or the Diocese for times of Adoration for a particular Church. I love going although i usually dont have time to spend a full hour with our Lord.

What do you do in there? Some just sit and look at him, some pray, pray the rosary or Chaplet, read, whatever they feel inclined or lead to do in the physical presence of our Lord. Sometime i just sit and cry for no reason except the feeling of his love and mercy on me.

If we were to get technical, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most beautiful thing we can do. Having our lives, opened to the Holy Spirit by the Word, offered to the Father within the folds of the Lord’s own life during the Liturgy of the Eucharist and then joined to him in love with our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ in Holy Communion is the closest we can get to God, whether spiritually or physically, but that is perhaps splitting hairs. Adoration outside of the Mass only increases our openness to the Lord’s True Presence within the Mass, too, and in every facet of our lives. It can only help our openness to the Lord’s presence at Mass.

 

[RuthTherese]

If we were to get technical, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most beautiful thing we can do. Having our lives, opened to the Holy Spirit by the Word, offered to the Father within the folds of the Lord’s own life during the Liturgy of the Eucharist and then joined to him in love with our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ in Holy Communion is the closest we can get to God, whether spiritually or physically, but that is perhaps splitting hairs. Adoration outside of the Mass only increases our openness to the Lord’s True Presence within the Mass, too, and in every facet of our lives. It can only help our openness to the Lord’s presence at Mass.

I agree, both Adoration and the Mass are very beneficial for our souls, and both should be done regularly, or as much so as possible. Going to Adoration helps open our hearts to the Mass, and going to Mass helps keep our souls hungering to be close to Christ, leading us back to Adoration. It can easily become an endless circle of holiness.

Thank you

What’s the chaplet?

The Divine Mercy Chaplet’s another prayer done on the rosary beads. Very beautiful, and highly recommended.

 

[EasterJoy]

I agree, both Adoration and the Mass are very beneficial for our souls, and both should be done regularly, or as much so as possible. Going to Adoration helps open our hearts to the Mass, and going to Mass helps keep our souls hungering to be close to Christ, leading us back to Adoration. It can easily become an endless circle of holiness.

I meant only that the Eucharist, that is, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the source and summit of the Christian life. To expand on your idea, I’d offer these:

Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It. Thus both by reason of the offering and through Holy Communion all take part in this liturgical service, not indeed, all in the same way but each in that way which is proper to himself. Strengthened in Holy Communion by the Body of Christ, they then manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God which is suitably signified and wondrously brought about by this most august sacrament. –Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

There are a very few with the notion that Mass is “among” the best things we can do, when it in fact has no peer, but in my (admittedly limited) experience, those don’t tend to be those who devote themselves to eucharistic adoration. Ideally (and I would say usually), the goal of adoration is a more profound self-gift outside of adoration, both at Mass in love of neighbor.

In Dominicae Cenae, a letter he sent to the bishops and priests for Holy Thursday, 1980, Bl. Pope John Paul II wrote:

*This worship [of the Eucharistic Mystery], given therefore to the Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above all accompanies and permeates the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy. But it must fill our churches also outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the Eucharistic Mystery was instituted out of love, and makes Christ sacramentally present, it is worthy of thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, both when we visit our churches and when the sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to them.

Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of exposition-short, prolonged and annual (Forty Hours)-eucharistic benediction, eucharistic processions, eucharistic congresses.(13) A particular mention should be made at this point of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ as an act of public worship rendered to Christ present in the Eucharist, a feast instituted by my predecessor Urban IV in memory of the institution of this great Mystery.(14) All this therefore corresponds to the general principles and particular norms already long in existence but newly formulated during or after the Second Vatican Council.(15)

The encouragement and the deepening of eucharistic worship are proofs of that authentic renewal which the council set itself as an aim and of which they are the central point…The Church and the world have a great need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world by our adoration never cease.*

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta once wrote this:

*I make a Holy Hour each day in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All my sisters of the Missionaries of Charity make a daily Holy Hour as well, because we find that through our daily Holy Hour our love for Jesus becomes more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, and our love for the poor more compassionate. Our Holy Hour is our daily family prayer where we get together and pray the Rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament the first half hour, and the second half hour we pray in silence. Our adoration has doubled the number of our vocations. In 1963, we were making a weekly Holy Hour together, but it was not until 1973, when we began our daily Holy Hour, that our community started to grow and blossom.

That is why I encourage you to make your Holy Hour through Mary, the cause of our joy, and you may discover that no where on earth are you more welcomed, no where on earth are you more loved, than by Jesus, living and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make you soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth.

When you look at the crucifix you understand how much Jesus loved you. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you NOW. I beg the Blessed Mother to touch the hearts of all Parish priests that they may have Eucharistic Adoration in their parishes, and that it may spread throughout the entire world!*

 

[dee_burk]

If we were to get technical, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most beautiful thing we can do. Having our lives, opened to the Holy Spirit by the Word, offered to the Father within the folds of the Lord’s own life during the Liturgy of the Eucharist and then joined to him in love with our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ in Holy Communion is the closest we can get to God, whether spiritually or physically, but that is perhaps splitting hairs. Adoration outside of the Mass only increases our openness to the Lord’s True Presence within the Mass, too, and in every facet of our lives. It can only help our openness to the Lord’s presence at Mass.

Ok, ONE of the most beautiful things we can do…
I agree with you as well and was not trying to decrease the importance of this.

 

[EasterJoy]

Ok, ONE of the most beautiful things we can do…
I agree with you as well and was not trying to decrease the importance of this.

I love this line attributed to Mother Teresa’s, though:
When you look at the crucifix you understand how much Jesus loved you. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you NOW.

Wow. Just wow. That is what adoration accomplishes: it fosters the proper “amazement” due to the Holy Eucharist.

What amazement must the Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper! What wonder must the eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!–Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis

 

[RuthTherese]

I meant only that the Eucharist, that is, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the source and summit of the Christian life. To expand on your idea, I’d offer these:

Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It. Thus both by reason of the offering and through Holy Communion all take part in this liturgical service, not indeed, all in the same way but each in that way which is proper to himself. Strengthened in Holy Communion by the Body of Christ, they then manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God which is suitably signified and wondrously brought about by this most august sacrament. –Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

There are a very few with the notion that Mass is “among” the best things we can do, when it in fact has no peer, but in my (admittedly limited) experience, those don’t tend to be those who devote themselves to eucharistic adoration. Ideally (and I would say usually), the goal of adoration is a more profound self-gift outside of adoration, both at Mass in love of neighbor.

In Dominicae Cenae, a letter he sent to the bishops and priests for Holy Thursday, 1980, Bl. Pope John Paul II wrote:

*This worship [of the Eucharistic Mystery], given therefore to the Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above all accompanies and permeates the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy. But it must fill our churches also outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the Eucharistic Mystery was instituted out of love, and makes Christ sacramentally present, it is worthy of thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, both when we visit our churches and when the sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to them.

Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of exposition-short, prolonged and annual (Forty Hours)-eucharistic benediction, eucharistic processions, eucharistic congresses.(13) A particular mention should be made at this point of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ as an act of public worship rendered to Christ present in the Eucharist, a feast instituted by my predecessor Urban IV in memory of the institution of this great Mystery.(14) All this therefore corresponds to the general principles and particular norms already long in existence but newly formulated during or after the Second Vatican Council.(15)

The encouragement and the deepening of eucharistic worship are proofs of that authentic renewal which the council set itself as an aim and of which they are the central point…The Church and the world have a great need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world by our adoration never cease*.

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta once wrote this:

*I make a Holy Hour each day in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All my sisters of the Missionaries of Charity make a daily Holy Hour as well, because we find that through our daily Holy Hour our love for Jesus becomes more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, and our love for the poor more compassionate. Our Holy Hour is our daily family prayer where we get together and pray the Rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament the first half hour, and the second half hour we pray in silence. Our adoration has doubled the number of our vocations. In 1963, we were making a weekly Holy Hour together, but it was not until 1973, when we began our daily Holy Hour, that our community started to grow and blossom.

That is why I encourage you to make your Holy Hour through Mary, the cause of our joy, and you may discover that no where on earth are you more welcomed, no where on earth are you more loved, than by Jesus, living and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make you soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth.

When you look at the crucifix you understand how much Jesus loved you. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you NOW. I beg the Blessed Mother to touch the hearts of all Parish priests that they may have Eucharistic Adoration in their parishes, and that it may spread throughout the entire world!*

I guess my viewpoint’s a bit simplistic here…

 

[punisherthunder]

At my church, it’s a little different.

We have a separate adoration room. There is a small altar and the sacrament is exposed most of the day and part of the night. If someone is not around, a white sheet is placed over the sacrament and it remains on the altar until the priest/deacon, put it away at night.

I tend to think A LOT, and am capable of sitting the full hour and just talking with our Lord, or saying really long prayers. Other times I pray the Divine Mercy or Rosary.

There have been times when I go in, and there is no adorer, and the sacrament is covered. Once I washed my hands in the holy water, genuflected ( both knees ), and uncovered the Sacrament. I was, and still am, unsure if this is even proper. I’ve had no adoration training or anything. I will say this, that just being in there when this has happened, I feel COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED by the presence of our Lord and uncover the Sacrament. It’s like I cannot help it. I tell him, over and over, that I am there to watch over him in our little adoration room. That I will make sure his body is not taken, or harmed. I will spend that hour with him, keeping him company. That I am there, wanting to help him carry that cross…

 

[His_helpmeet]

I believe there is also an indulgence given for praying the Rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament exposed.

The important detail to always remember about Adoration is that He must NEVER be left alone when He is exposed. There must always be someone present. It’s a customary practice to spend time with Him for an hour in adoration, to make up for the fact that the Apostles could not stay awake one hour with Him. (You don’t necessarily have to be actively praying the entire time. Sometimes it is enough to just sit with Him. St. John Vianney described a man who came to the church every day, I think, to sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament. St. John asked the man what he said to Our Lord in this time, and the man replied, “Nothing. I look at Him, and He looks at me.”)

The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy was given to St. Faustina by Our Lord in the 20th century. It’s prayed on the Rosary beads. You initially pray an Our Father, a Hail Mary, a Glory Be, and the Apostles’ Creed. Then, on each Our Father bead, you say the following prayer:

“Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins, and those of the whole world.”

On each Hail Mary bead, you say:

“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

Once you’ve gone through five decades this way, you conclude by saying 3 times:

“Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

Our Lord promised that even the most hardened sinner, if he recited this chaplet even once, would receive grace from Our Lord’s infinite mercy. He promised that you would obtain everything you asked for in this chaplet, as long as what you asked was compatible with His Divine Will.

 

[AClaire11]

I’ve noticed that in the cities, most churches are locked between Masses, unless they are also a Cathedral/tourist attraction. In the suburbs, they tend to be open all day and then locked at night. It makes sense to me. If someone isn’t going to be there to make sure all is well, someone could come in and steal valuable and/or sacred items.