Do I have to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in order to fulfill visits to seven Churches on Holy Thursday?

[Tis_Bearself]

Mission accomplished, just barely.
Church #1 immediately threw a monkey wrench in my timeline by starting the Mass at 7:30 pm instead of the 7 pm listed on the website or bulletin or whatever a bunch of us read who showed up at 7 and found an almost empty church. Church #1 also has a cool Eucharistic procession after Mass up a busy road to a historic adoration chapel, which was facilitated by the local police and fire departments blocking off the intersection so the priest with the Blessed Sacrament and about 150 people following could cross, while impatient people stuck in the stopped traffic laid on the horns like that was really going to help. It was a nice procession anyway. However, the traffic was so snarled from the adoration crowds that I had to take a big detour to get to Church #2.

At Church #4, the whole plan almost failed because it was locked even though it was supposed to be open, but as I was disappointedly walking to my car, the Newman center priest who happens to reside at Church #4 pulled up with his big bus of college students that he takes around to 3 churches on this night, and he had the key. He further informed me that the Newman center which was my planned Church #5 was already locked for the night so I had to drive 15 miles to a last minute substitute church and then 10 miles back to the next church on the list. I was racing around like a Grand Prix driver, put about 60 miles on the car and had about 2 minutes to spend at each church, but I got to Church #7 about 10 minutes before they were supposed to close and then they stayed open past time (the pastor there apparently doesn’t like to chase people out on Holy Thursday) so I got about 25 minutes with the Lord there.

If I do this again here next year I’ll leave out the procession church and start at the other end of the county where there are a couple more churches, and make sure the Mass I attend starts at 7 pm.

 

[s.cono]

My mother took me one year when I was 8 or 9. We walked to 7 churches in Brooklyn. I remember I slept very well that night.

I wanted to do it this year with my wife but it just didn’t pan out. God willing, we’ll do it next year. It’ll be a real challenge as we’re in the extreme western part of the county where the population is sparse, and after hitting the nearest three, the rest are fairly far flung.

 

[irishcolleen45]

Gee, now I’m glad I’m not the only who has a problem visiting seven churches. Our parish listed various churches for the time after the 7 PM Mass. I’ll have to check with people here if anyone did it after the 7 PM Mass.

 

[irishcolleen45]

Same here.
Did you do it during the day as a child? It’s easier in the older cities with a large Catholic population.

 

[s.cono]

Yes, I was going to mention that I remember we began it in the late afternoon. We had to pass through a couple of “bad” neighborhoods, that were in shambles back in the early 1970s, so getting done before full dark was a necessity.

I assumed my wife and I could have gotten an earlier start yesterday, but upon checking the pamphlet, it seemed that we would not be able to get under way until after the 7 pm service concluded, and by that time my wife was at work. Hopefully next year she’ll request the whole day off.