Adoration

[pio_s]

Is it ok to do homework during Adoration?

 

[Mordocai]

My friend once asked me this. MY reply (I emphasize this is my opinion) was that, if you’re going to do homework you might as well be in the Eucharistic Presence of Almighty God.
You might even do the homework better.
But as for “is it appropriate?” probably not, because after all, it IS Jesus, we should worship.
But we have obligations, and if we love Him and want to spend time with Him and do homework with Him, I see nothing wrong with it IN THE SENSE of being child-like. No it’s not very pious. But… shrug Ask Our Lord what He would have you do.
Please keep in mind, this is ONLY my opinion. I think it would be interesting to hear other responses.

God Bless, Mary Keep,
Mordocai

 

[water]

Is it ok to do homework during Adoration?

Absolutely not. It is just like a Mass, you don’t want to do any other things besides participating in the Mass.

If you have problem with school, then you can certainly ask Him to help you with, but don’t spend time doing something else while you should be praying and praising Him.

You are there to adore Him.

 

[pio_s]

Absolutely not. It is just like a Mass, you don’t want to do any other things besides participating in the Mass.

If you have problem with school, then you can certainly ask Him to help you with, but don’t spend time doing something else while you should be praying and praising Him.

You are there to adore Him.

So if this was the only way i could attend adoration, i probably should not until i can fully devote myself to adoring him?

 

[LilyM]

So if this was the only way i could attend adoration, i probably should not until i can fully devote myself to adoring him?

Spend what time you can in Adoration, but do it mindfully. After all, a quarter hour or so isn’t going to noticeably disrupt your study or sleep. Better a quarter hour with your full focus on Christ than an hour doing your homework, I think.

 

[water]

So if this was the only way i could attend adoration, i probably should not until i can fully devote myself to adoring him?

At school, teachers sometimes remind us saying “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”

With God, we can apply that by saying something like: Don’t put off Adoration if tomorrow is uncertain to you.

Like LilyM said a quarter hour isn’t that much to affect your study, but it means a lot to Jesus.

 

[MariaGorettiGrl]

I would actually disagree and say it is okay to do homework. Our daily lives are supposed to be offered as a prayer to God. Naturally not everything we do is fit for doing at adoration, but homework is something acceptable. I wouldn’t just do homework. You definitely should spend a little time before and after just focusing on God.

But God doesn’t want us to keep barriers between Him and us. When we go to adoration, we don’t have to even pray. We can just enjoy being in His presence. We can tell Him about our day like we would our parents. I once felt inspired to scribble some poetic verse at adoration. Sometimes people read the Bible. That’s not praising God, but it is helping us to grow spiritually. And it’s not like God brought about Eucharistic Adoration because He needs us to worship Him. We’re the ones who get any benefit out of it.

Everything we do at adoration, we can do by ourselves at home. You don’t have to be before the Blessed Sacrament to pray the rosary or read the Bible or simply talk to God. It’s just that much better if you get to be in His physical presence. Keep Him in mind while working on your homework. Don’t get so distracted that you tune him out. But let you and Him spend some time together, Father and son, best friends, Creator and created.

 

[LilyM]

I would actually disagree and say it is okay to do homework. Our daily lives are supposed to be offered as a prayer to God. Naturally not everything we do is fit for doing at adoration, but homework is something acceptable. I wouldn’t just do homework. You definitely should spend a little time before and after just focusing on God.

But God doesn’t want us to keep barriers between Him and us. When we go to adoration, we don’t have to even pray. We can just enjoy being in His presence. We can tell Him about our day like we would our parents. I once felt inspired to scribble some poetic verse at adoration. Sometimes people read the Bible. That’s not praising God, but it is helping us to grow spiritually. And it’s not like God brought about Eucharistic Adoration because He needs us to worship Him. We’re the ones who get any benefit out of it.

Everything we do at adoration, we can do by ourselves at home. You don’t have to be before the Blessed Sacrament to pray the rosary or read the Bible or simply talk to God. It’s just that much better if you get to be in His physical presence. Keep Him in mind while working on your homework. Don’t get so distracted that you tune him out. But let you and Him spend some time together, Father and son, best friends, Creator and created.

No, we can’t do everything we do in Adoration at home - we can’t be in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Now not everything we do is fit for adoration, as you correctly pointed out. And I feel homework is one of those things.

Homework is basically a student’s ‘job’ if you will - to me it’s too much like a lawyer or doctor holding consultations with clients or patients in the adoration chapel. Better concentrate 100% on your homework or your work when you’re doing it and 100% on* resting* from your daily worries in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament when you’re in Adoration.

You can’t help concentrating on your homework while you’re doing it, to the detriment of anything else you may be trying to concentrate on at the same time. I think both the homework and the quality of the time you give in Adoration would suffer too much if you adopted this practice.

 

[MariaGorettiGrl]

Listening to classical music, while taking some of your attention, can help you remember what you studied better. Maybe being in adoration would help, though this is a random comparison, I’ve never tried it, I have no scientific data, and I am not a scientist, so I have no actual basis for making that claim. Just throwing an idea out there.

Reading the Bible, you should pay attention to what’s gowing on as much as if you were reading your history book. But humans are capable of concentrating on more than one thing at a time. At times when I’m praying, I’ll realize I’ve been saying "Hail Mary"s, but I’ve been thinking about antelope. Why? I don’t know. But it happens! So when the wandery part of your mind is distracting you from your reading, focusing it on God can help you focus on two important things at once.

I think it also comes down to personal preferrence. If doing homework in adoration makes you uncomfortable, then it isn’t worth doing. If it makes you spend more time with Jesus and thinking about God, then it is a help spiritually and I see nothing wrong with it.

 

[LilyM]

Having your attention naturally and unintentionally wander from a prayer or anything else you may be doing is a totally different thing to deliberately doing homework and attempting to pray or raise your mind to the Lord in adoration - which are two very distinct tasks - at the same time.

The latter behaviour seems to indicate that you think neither homework nor adoration is important enough to deserve your utmost attention. Doesn’t mean 100%, because being human our mind does wander, but it means that at least we should give as much as possible to each task and not deliberately create a situation where we can’t give sufficient attention to anything.

Then again, it’s a matter of simple courtesy. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone bringing homework along to do when they visited me, would you? Or would you think it better that they gave you their full attention, even if they could only spare a few minutes to talk to you, and not try to do their homework at the same time.

What would it say about how important someone thought you were if they did homework while trying to talk to you? Why should you be any less courteous to Our Lord when you choose to visit him?

 

[MariaGorettiGrl]

What would it say about how important someone thought you were if they did homework while trying to talk to you?

Actually, my friends and I usually are doing other things when we talk, especially on the phone, but in person, too. Sometimes we sit and just talk, but sometimes we work on homework, eat dinner, play computer games, all sorts of stuff.

Mother Theresa said “Prayer is in all things, in all gestures”. I’m in no means saying everytime you talk to God you should be doing other things. I’m saying that every prayer doesn’t have to be on your knees staring at Him or an image of Him. I certainly spend prayer time every day with nothing else but God and me. But I also pray when I’m walking to class, when I read the paper, when I hear someone saying somthing blasphemous, when I’m having trouble focusing in a lecture, when I get stuck on a test question, when I’m eating lunch and I see that hot guy I really like, when I’m in a movie and it gets rude, etc. Those aren’t always the most well-thought out, centered prayers, but they are me reconnecting with God during my day.

I can totally see if I was signed up to do an hour at adoration, I might bring some homework to do. Not that I’m saying “Hang tight a minute, God, while I get this out of the way.” I’m just spending time with Him in an informal, familiar way.

Think of a boyfriend and girlfriend. They do all sorts of different activities together. They spend time going to movies, dinner, talking, emailing, dancing, studying together, meeting each other’s friends, etc. All these things are time spent sharing pieces of themselves with each other.

Time with God can be spent in different ways, too. Personally, I feel like seperating God time and homework time is telling God “Wait over there a minute”. But that’s just how I feel.

 

[LilyM]

Actually, my friends and I usually are doing other things when we talk, especially on the phone, but in person, too. Sometimes we sit and just talk, but sometimes we work on homework, eat dinner, play computer games, all sorts of stuff.

Mother Theresa said “Prayer is in all things, in all gestures”. I’m in no means saying everytime you talk to God you should be doing other things. I’m saying that every prayer doesn’t have to be on your knees staring at Him or an image of Him. I certainly spend prayer time every day with nothing else but God and me. But I also pray when I’m walking to class, when I read the paper, when I hear someone saying somthing blasphemous, when I’m having trouble focusing in a lecture, when I get stuck on a test question, when I’m eating lunch and I see that hot guy I really like, when I’m in a movie and it gets rude, etc. Those aren’t always the most well-thought out, centered prayers, but they are me reconnecting with God during my day.

I can totally see if I was signed up to do an hour at adoration, I might bring some homework to do. Not that I’m saying “Hang tight a minute, God, while I get this out of the way.” I’m just spending time with Him in an informal, familiar way.

Think of a boyfriend and girlfriend. They do all sorts of different activities together. They spend time going to movies, dinner, talking, emailing, dancing, studying together, meeting each other’s friends, etc. All these things are time spent sharing pieces of themselves with each other.

Of course we all pray to God in all sorts of situations. And interact with him in all sorts of ways.

Adoration, like Mass, ISN’T the time for that degree of informality. You’re in a church, God’s house, and it should be respected as such. It isn’t a library or a loungeroom. Those are the appropriate venues for your other activities - eating, watching movies, long and loud conversations - and homework!

Time with God can be spent in different ways, too. Personally, I feel like seperating God time and homework time is telling God “Wait over there a minute”. But that’s just how I feel.

Leaving homework outside the Adoration chapel to me has the totally opposite significance to that which you appear to attach to it. In such a case isn’t it really the homework that you’re putting aside in order to devote your attention to God? And not the other way around?

It’s saying to God ‘while I’m in this place where you are in a special way physically present, which you aren’t anywhere else, I recognise that nothing else matters as much as you - not my homework, not my other mundane tasks and concerns. You come first and foremost and so I give this time to you and you alone, as much as my natural human distractedness will permit’.

That’s how Adoration should be, to me - differentiated from the other prayer you may do in the midst of your daily tasks - something distinct and special precisely BECAUSE you’re 100%, or nearly 100%, present to God with nothing else distracting you.

 

[Mannyfit75]

Is it ok to do homework during Adoration?

No. Adoration focuses on the worship of Jesus Christ. You go home to do your homework. Adoration remains in the Church, and since the Church is the Household of God, a place of worship. So no, do not do homework.

 

[pio_s]

Thanks for your replies, i will not be doing homework while in adoration.

What would you say to someone who did do this?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

What would you say to someone who did do this?

Well, if you’ve been convinced of the need to focus specially on God in adoration, you could talk to the person (and not while he’s at adoration, please! ) and say, “You know, I used to do my homework during adoration because I thought it was treating God like a friend and all, but I decided that, this being His House, and Him being extra special, that I would totally focus on Him and nothing else, even things that are okay with me and my buds when we get together. It’s something I feel strongly about so I just wanted to share it with you.”

And let him think about it. You’re not criticizing him, you’re sharing your thoughts and how you got them. It’s like planting a seed; once you’ve planted it and given it soil and water, it does the germinating itself.