There is a church near where I used to work and I would stop in to make a visit after work. At that hour, the only other person I would see was the pastor. One day when he wasn’t around, I sat in “his seat” (closest to the door to the rectory) to see what he saw from that perspective. [What you see is different from every seat location - try it.] What I found was his mini-library ! He had stashed a collection of wonderfully spiritual books there for his own use. So I copied down the names and authors and bought them for my own use.
I find that each adoration “session” is different from the next one. I have seen people sit there and suddenly take out a piece of paper and a pen and start writing feverishly. Obviously, they had received some kind of very personal inspiration and were moved to put it down on paper. I have seen people fall asleep in the presence of “Jesus in the Monstrance”, but what better place than to rest in Jesus?
Bring some spiritual reading and just open to a page and read a few sentences. Sometimes priests come in and read their breviary. Some people have a three-inch thick collection of prayers and holy cards that they have over the years put together and they select from that.
One fellow kept staring at the monstrance, and moving his head from side to side. Finally, he got up and came over and asked me if the glass they used in the front of the monstrance was “magnifying glass”. I said I didn’t think so, that it was probably just plain glass. He returned to his seat and kept staring. Finally, before he left, he went up to the little altar and looked at the monstrance from all angles. I have no idea what he was seeing, but what if… in his mind, through his eyes, the Host appeared to him to be much larger than the way the Host appeared to the rest of us???
I have two favorite prayers. They are all I need because after saying them, my mind runs wild with “thoughts” (good ones).
One is “Dear Jesus, Hold me in Your arms, forgive me my sins and make me the way You want me to be.”
The other is following the “STOIC” model (more recent than ACTS). STOIC is "supplication, thanksgiving, offertory (I put myself in the collection basket), Infinity (meditation on HOW infinite God is), and contrition (how I have so screwed up, corrrupted and dirtied my relationship with God, and I am so sorry). ACTS is adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication.
Hope this is helpful.
