Eucharistic Adoration

[ConvertaKat]

I get a profound sense of peace either way.

But in the adoration chapel, I usually get more centered. There’s something about having him out front and center…

I remember the first time I ever walked into that chapel, I had no clue, none. All I saw was the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the stained glass window, the four candles and this beautiful gold sunbust thingee sitting in the middle of it all and seemingly humming with a satisfied glow.

I didn’t even know if I was allowed to be in that room, it gave off such a sense of holy peace; I wondered if it was “priest only” territory. Indeed, a priest in a white cassok was sitting in the room. But as he did not challenge my presence, I tripsied on in. I remember looking into the center of the gold sunburst and wondering what was that round white disc…whatever this was, I didn’t feel my usual panic as I normally did in a church setting.

As you can guess, I was not yet Catholic. Within a few weeks I would be convicted and slayed under in the knowledge that I needed to be right with God and to do so in the Catholic Church!
I am now a weekly regular adorer in that chapel. Wouldn’t miss my official hour for anything!

 

[joe_cool]

I am now a weekly regular adorer in that chapel. Wouldn’t miss my official hour for anything!

Good for you - and welcome home.

I’m the same way - my official hour is Friday, 1AM… though it’s never just an hour… Usually more like two, sometimes three. I lose track of time bad… =)

 

[Newbie2]

I try not to quibble about minutiae, and it is my hope that you do not see this post as such.
Meditation/contemplation are forms of silent prayer in which we listen to God speak to us. They are considered higher forms of prayer than vocal prayer.*** I would say, therefore, that it is not that meditation isn’t so much "not your form of spirituality,"but one you have not yet reached. Don’t be so hard on yourself.***I will go back to an oft repeated story that describes what contemplation is:
Everyday a man came into Church and sat in the back pew. He never spoke to anybody, but simply sat. One day, the priest wondering about this man asked what he was doing.
“I look at Jesus, and He looks at me.” The man’s contemplation was on the crucifix. He saw beyond the corpus to the Christ who is represented on the cross.

While some of us may hear God verbally speak to us, more often than not He “speaks” to our senses. We receive insight into a problem/situation that we would not have received trusting in our own intellect and abilities.
Western culture teaches us to rely on own own abilities, what we can physically see, touch, or discern using intellectual powers. With contemplation, we need to “let go and let God,” allow your senses to perceive Christ in the Eucharist.

I guess this is a bit off track, but please don’t get the idea that I’m uncomfortable with not “getting much” out of contemplative or meditative or whatever form we wish to call it type prayer.

In fact, it used to bother me that I didn’t get anything out of it until I happened to read an article in Catholic Connection about different “styles” of spirituality. I’m much more comfortable now accepting that such is not my style, or should I say the type of spirituality that suits me the best.

So I beg to differ…I don’t think that I’ve not reached it yet, I believe it just isn’t for me.

I guess that I “perceive Christ in the Eucharist” whether or not I actually ***see ***it. That’s why I’m interested in how others get more out of seeing than I might…not that I feel deficient…quite to the contrary, I get more out a more “intellectual pursuit” type of spirituality than I’d guess others do, as others get more out of contemplative sprirituality than I ever could.

But thanks all for the insights, I’m understanding a little better.

 

[DebChris]

I guess this is a bit off track, but please don’t get the idea that I’m uncomfortable with not “getting much” out of contemplative or meditative or whatever form we wish to call it type prayer.

In fact, it used to bother me that I didn’t get anything out of it until I happened to read an article in Catholic Connection about different “styles” of spirituality. I’m much more comfortable now accepting that such is not my style, or should I say the type of spirituality that suits me the best.

So I beg to differ…I don’t think that I’ve not reached it yet, I believe it just isn’t for me.

I guess that I “perceive Christ in the Eucharist” whether or not I actually ***see ***it. That’s why I’m interested in how others get more out of seeing than I might…not that I feel deficient…quite to the contrary, I get more out a more “intellectual pursuit” type of spirituality than I’d guess others do, as others get more out of contemplative sprirituality than I ever could.

But thanks all for the insights, I’m understanding a little better.

As we grow in our faith life, how we pray also changes. What is most is important is that we spend time with God in prayer regardless of the form our prayer may be taking at any particular moment in time.
Many experience God’s presence while surrounded by God’s creative beauty while mountain hiking or sitting by a lake. Even in the midst of a crowded bus station, a contemplative may center himself/herself and focus only on God’s presence in his/her life.
There are times in a person’s life when pious devotions such as the rosary bring more comfort than at other times and this is how that person’s predominantly prays. Another person may simply use ejaculations such as “Praise God” throughout the day.
For others it is reading the lives of the Saints or their writings. Life circumstances color how we best perceive and know Christ in our lives.
Not all have the time or inclination to pray the LOTH or spend time in adoration before the Eucharist.

 

[puzzleannie]

this website of the Real Presence mininistry based on and expanding on the teachings of Fr. John Hardon SJ therealpresence.org/eucharst/a.html
is the definitive library and resource for questions surrounding this topic and well worth browsing, especially for those seeking to deepen their experience of Adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament

 

[suzie9156]

I teach 2nd grade and I use the analogy of talking with someone on the phone compared to talking to someone face to face. The interaction is much more personal.

 

[Alexander_Roman]

In the Catholic Eastern Churches, Eucharistic Adoration does exist, but, in its Byzantine (i.e. non-Latin) form, there is no monstrance or exposition of the Host involved.

It is true that the monstrance has been adopted directly from the Latin Catholic Church in a number of instances, but this practice is slowly being abandoned.

The reason for this is that the Eastern Church devotional attitude toward the Most Holy Sacrament of the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ is such that laity should not, out of the deepest reverence, look upon the exposed Mysteries. They are in fact covered up to indicate the “Mysterium Tremendum” of Holy Communion.

This is also why Communion in the hand would be an impossibility in the Byzantine Catholic Churches and the question would never even come up, as it has in the Latin Catholic West.

This is not to say that there are not other ways by which to express Eucharistic devotion in the Eastern Churches.

First of all, there are the formal offices of preparation for Confession and Holy Communion - these are long prayers designed to deepen our compunction for our sins, our sense of unworthiness and our desire for union with our Lord in this tremendous Mystery. There is the Eucharistic fast which is also strict. In addition, one prepares for Communion for at least one week prior to receiving.

There are those who might say that such an approach will keep people away from frequent Communion. But Communion without adequate preparation can become routine and may bring harm to our spiritual lives instead.

Ideally, one should also hear the full Daily Office of Vespers, Compline, Nocturns, Matins and the Hours in church prior to the Divine Liturgy at which one will receive Holy Communion. One could also say them at home in one’s prayer/icon corner (a home chapel, in fact, which every Eastern Christian should strive to set up and maintain).

When we approach the Holy Chalice, we make a prostration to the floor which will be the last prostration we will do that day - after Communion, no prostrations are allowed for the remainder of the day.

Upon receiving Holy Communion, with our arms crossed in an X position over the chest (some extend the first two fingers of both hands and bring down the thumb and last two fingers in the form of the Christogram at this time as well), we receive the Holy Mysteries and then kiss the edge of the Chalice to venerate the Wounded Side and Heart of Christ from which we have just been spiritually nourished.

Then, ideally, we will have an opportunity to stand to the side and when the priest, upon completing the Communion of the faithful, moves to the side altar, he will touch the Chalice to the heads of the communicants as he goes.

He will then bless all the faithful in Church with the Chalice and the communicants will often receive blessed water and bread to wash down the Holy Elements.

After the Liturgy, the remaining unconsecrated Communion particles will be distributed to the people as they are being blessed by the priest, one by one.

These particles are taken home and are stored in an honourable place in the home chapel/icon corner.

Every morning during the week, upon arising, one says one’s morning prayers and ends them by partaking of some of the particles as a symbol of that communion with the Lord one experienced in Church (in the early days of the Church, Christians would keep the actual Holy Eucharist at home and partake of it daily, but this was put to an end at the time of St John Chrysostom). And one does this prior to breakfast. One can and should also partake of some Holy Water that one also stores at the home chapel, sipping it three times in honour of the Holy Trinity and then kiss the Cross and Bible that should be displayed there too.

Alex