Information below taken from this URL:
ewtn.com/faith/teachings/euchd3.htm
How should one go about establishing a Perpetual Adoration program in one’s parish?
Pray to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament to obtain this great grace for your parish.
Do everything with the knowledge and permission of the pastor, assuring that it will not involve more work for him. Remember it may be necessary to work alongside the parish council and other parish committees as the pastor advises.
Study the organizational procedures of other parishes with Perpetual Adoration programs. The Franciscan Friars of Marytown will continue in the future to have reports on such programs in their publication.
Interest existing organizations such as the parish council, parish prayer groups, the Holy Name Society, Saint Vincent de Paul Society-- to support the program by supplying leaders who will help organize and run the program.
Who is responsible for organizing a Perpetual Adoration program?
Vatican Council II had emphasized the importance of lay involvement in the Church’s mission. It is the team principle of laity doing the foot work, but always keeping the pastor informed that makes an adoration program work. It is important that from its very inception that pastors and parish clergy be assured that it does not mean their taking on extra work in an already busy schedule.
How is Perpetual Adoration organized in a parish?
The parish is divided into twenty-four groups or teams corresponding to the twenty-four hours of the day. Each member in a particular group is scheduled for a different day of the week. A captain or coordinator or contact person is chosen from each of the groups to make sure that each hour is covered throughout the week. If someone needs a substitute, they call their coordinator who calls someone else in the group who would be able to switch days with the person who needs the substitute. Some parishes have divided the responsibility of filling hours to seven day and seven night captains, the men taking the night hours and the women the day. Regardless of how this responsibility is filled, responsible group leaders are vital for a successful program.
What should be the immediate preparation in starting an adoration program?
First, sermons on the value of Eucharistic adoration at all the Sunday Masses. After the homily, a written invitation is passed out. Those wanting to participate fill out a form and place it in the collection basket at the offertory. People check which day and night period of time they would like to make their holy hour: morning, noon, evening, or night. There is also a space at the bottom of the invitation to be checked off for those who would be willing to help organize the Perpetual Adoration. A meeting is held during the week for these volunteers. During this meeting, the twenty-four or fourteen coordinators are chosen along with four people who would be responsible to make out the initial schedule. It generally takes from two to three weeks to organize Perpetual Adoration in a parish.
What is the best location for Perpetual Adoration?
The best location for Perpetual Adoration is a small chapel. A chapel can be kept warm economically in the winter. It creates a greater atmosphere for quiet intimacy with the Lord, and people generally feel more secure in a smaller place. If the church does not have a chapel, any small room can be converted into one such as an altar boys’ sacristy, a crying room, a room in the rectory, convent, or parish center, are all suitable locations for a Perpetual Adoration chapel with proper security measures taken into consideration.
How many people are needed to have parish Perpetual Adoration?
There are one hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. Technically, all that is needed is one hundred and sixty-eight people willing to make one holy hour on a weekly basis so that these hours can be coordinated in such a way that all hours are covered. Moreover, there is nothing to stop an adorer from making a daily holy hour. This is to be encouraged and is more common than one imagines. Realistically, however, it is better to have as many as two hundred in case of illnesses, vacations, and various situations where a person needs a substitute. There are several small parishes in the country with only one hundred and fifty to two hundred families that were able to have Perpetual Adoration. These small parishes are a wonderful example to larger ones. If they could do it, certainly others could. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, said that “our essential commitment in life is to persevere and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and piety and to grow spiritually in the climate of the Holy Eucharist.”
