Noise at Adoration

[Veronica97]

I attended Eucharistic Adoration last night from 10-11 p.m. There was a woman there with four children and the two younger ones were sleeping. One of the children was snoring loudly. I was trying to pray the Rosary but found it quite distracting. I eventually moved further away but could still hear the snoring since the church is so quiet during adoration. I found myself becoming annoyed, but I also kept praying to Jesus for love and patience. I know that Jesus welcomes the little children, and I felt badly that I was irritated by the snoring. I normally find it difficult to read anything, especially the Bible, while the television is on, and I wear earplugs at night because my husband’s snoring keeps me awake. I just kept thinking last night was God’s way of showing me that I need to be humble b/c I still have much spiritual growing to do if I was annoyed by a little child’s snoring. My question is, is this something I need to confess today at Confession? Was I totally out of line for feeling this way or hyper sensitive?

 

[acadian]

I don’t think you NEED to confess it, but you might want to. If for no other reason than to get a little feedback.

I have had similar “events”, Once I had gotten to Mass early because I just wanted to have some time to sort through some things in the presence of the Lord. But a group Rosary was in full swing. They finally finished that, but then they had to tack on 39 other prayers to the end. I was so irritated, but felt wrong for being irritated. My confessor reassured me…no sin.

More recently I happened upon a 45 minute homily/adult-Ed-in-the-middle-of-Mass on the new translation. I confessed impatience and gave that as an example. He didn’t totally dismiss it, but said not to feel too bad about that, because 45 minute homilies were a “burden”.

But do reflect -as you have done - on what God might be trying to say to you and teach you. I’m rather in awe of a mother who can attend adoration with four children and the biggest distraction is snoring… sometimes the things that bother us about other people are the things that we should look at in terms of our relationship with God. Sometimes.

 

[PeaceSerenity]

I have a similar problem sometimes, but with off-key singing not with children snoring It’s really hard to focus but I think it’s a really good exercise in humility. The way I would think about it is: God is accepting this child’s snoring as a more beautiful sound before Him than my prayer, because the child is asleep in innocence and I’m busy being annoyed. Then again, you can prove to yourself that you shouldn’t be annoyed on an intellectual, but it’s a bit harder getting your emotions to obey, in my experience.

Just my thoughts, hope they help somehow…

 

[willofgods]

If you are worried about whether you are lacking some virtue and thereby need to confess, consider this if you will:

Next time a little child distracts you, take the opportunity to switch your adoration’s focus: ask the Blessed Mother to see that child through Her eyes, and that through the grace of seeing this child through her eyes -eyes who perfectly adore her Son- that you may see the Holy Child through her eyes.

I once heard that we are blessed to have such distractions. In the “real” world we are constantly distracted by unholy things, but at the same time, the Holy Sanctifier is always present. These opportunities to worship Him despite the distractions of children coughing, people singing out of tune, priests not being in touch with what you find interesting, people’s snoring…amidst it all is a congregation of people who are giving up their heart and soul to Him. That we might be given the chance to practice on focusing only on what is Holy is a great blessing!

 

[m134e5]

I attended Eucharistic Adoration last night from 10-11 p.m. There was a woman there with four children and the two younger ones were sleeping. One of the children was snoring loudly. I was trying to pray the Rosary but found it quite distracting. I eventually moved further away but could still hear the snoring since the church is so quiet during adoration. I found myself becoming annoyed, but I also kept praying to Jesus for love and patience. I know that Jesus welcomes the little children, and I felt badly that I was irritated by the snoring. I normally find it difficult to read anything, especially the Bible, while the television is on, and I wear earplugs at night because my husband’s snoring keeps me awake. I just kept thinking last night was God’s way of showing me that I need to be humble b/c I still have much spiritual growing to do if I was annoyed by a little child’s snoring. My question is, is this something I need to confess today at Confession? Was I totally out of line for feeling this way or hyper sensitive?

It must have been very important for the woman to go to adoration if she was willing to bring four children at that hour- even if they were asleep.

Often, people (myself included) particularly enjoy going to pray during the night hours because they tend to get the church to themselves. I think there are technically supposed to be at least two people during adoration, but that doesn’t always happen. I’m not sure you were totally out of line, but it also sounds like you tend to get distracted way too easily. I suggest you work on improving your concentration. Purposely doing household tasks with music playing in the background can help with this.

 

[mdgspencer]

I know what you feel.
You could spend some time praying for the family that was there, and then not consider it wasted time.

 

[Blenderx]

St. Therese of Lisieux used to be particularly annoyed by a nun who would unknowingly clink the beads of her rosary together during thanksgiving prayers after Mass each day. Therese offered up the clinking and her annoyance as a prayer and a song of praise to God. God bless you! I don’t think you need to confess this.