What do I do at Eucharistic Adoration?

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dizzy_dave

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What do I do at Eucharistic adoration? I’ve never gone before, I think it would be a huge help to me. Our church has it once a month, after the first Thursday 8 am Mass through the first Friday. I want to go but what do I do, I don’t want to act dumb but I honestly don’t know what I do while I’m there. I heard your to pray but not ask for anything, I need Graces and lots of them, should I then not ask for them? What prayers should I say? Should I say them silent or a loud?
 
At first it will be difficult to calm your mind. So don’t worry about it. You may want to start with only fifteen minutes. Learn to pray the Rosary which wil focus you mind away from the distractions. Eventually you will be able to sit in God’s presence and do nothing except listen to him.
 
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dizzy_dave:
I heard your to pray but not ask for anything, I need Graces and lots of them, should I then not ask for them? What prayers should I say? Should I say them silent or a loud?
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Dave, when you pray, there are four things that should happen: Adoration of God, Contrition or sorrow for sin, Thanksgiving for all He has given you and Supplication, or asking for things. You can remember these by the acronym ACTS.

When you first go to Adoration, you can certainly pray this way, in your own words or with written prayers that you like. You should pray silently, so that others are not disturbed.

When you get a little more comfortable, you may find that you simply want to sit or kneel in God’s presence and look at Him. That may not happen in the beginning, so don’t worry about using your time asking for things. He wants you to ask for what you need - He won’t be offended if you do that at Adoration. Just looking at God and praying without words is a gift that usually comes much later on in your spiritual life, and is sometimes called Contemplation. Don’t worry about it, and let God lead you.

Betsy
 
I remember being nervous on my first visit to Eucharistic Adoration too! (I am a convert.) Here’s a couple things you might want to know for your first time:

Though not required, people traditionally genuflect on both knees when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed (rather than the usual genuflection on one knee toward the Tabernacle). When you enter the pew, if the host is already in the monstrance, go down on both knees, bow at the waist, and make the sign of the cross. This is to show special reverence.

As others have noted, people do a variety of devotions and prayers during Adoration. You can pray the rosary, meditate on the Stations of the Cross, do spiritual reading, pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, etc. I would suggest that even if it’s hard to concentrate, spend at least a few minutes just gazing on the Blessed Sacrament without saying particular prayers. Just look at Christ in the Host and recognize that He is there.

Another suggestion–at the beginning of my Adoration time, I always ask the Blessed Mother to protect my mind from any useless distrations so I can focus on her Son.

Eucharistic Adoration is such a blessing–may you receive many graces from this devotion!
 
Most Eucharistic Chapels have material in them for aiding in adoration.

You may want to journal, read the Bible, the Catechism --especially the parts about the Blessed Sacrament and prayer. You can also take a prayer book that is helpful for you to help you start praying.

Personally, I start with general petitions and just thanking Jesus for being so humble as to be present in the Sacrament and for welcoming me to this wonderful visit. I am very talkative and may spend half an hour. There are times when I am talked out and just try to listen.

Sometimes I like to visualize the way it feels to bask in the sun and then substitute the grace that is radiating from Jesus rather like “Son-bathing”. Don’t know if it works for anyone, but I like it.

I have had some wonderful moments during adoration. A religious sister that I am fond of said she takes part in her community prayers, but once just her and Jesus – they spend an hour together to work things out.

I can just imagine this sister whose very being lights up when she says “I love you, Jesus!” when she has some real questions or struggles and she takes them to Jesus.

If you ever visit www.realpresence.org you will be able to find a plethora of material to aid you.

May Christ reward you for visiting Him. It is a wonderful time for me to be with my God.

AMDG,
Mamamull
 
When I come to Adoration, I greet our Lord with a kneeling genuflection with a profound bow. Then getting in the pew, I kneel for a bit and pray Psalm 51, say an act of Contrition and pray psam 32. And then pour my heart out to Jesus. Then I sit for a bit meditating on Jesus’s last discourse in John 13:34 to 16:15. I read short segments in sequence and dwell on it. Here, Jesus is before you and in His Word, speaking to you. The Graces flow from His Presence and this Presence can actually be sensed. You can also meditate on the Sermon on the Mount in Mathew as an alternate. Then, I say a Rosary, and dwell a bit in His Presence. Then I close with the Canticle of the the three young men in Daniel 3:52-88. I either leave in about an hour or stay until I feel satisfied. I really don,t want to leave at all. I leave the same way I came in, using a kneeling genuflection and a profound bow.

Hope this helps you, some.
 
All the preceding suggestions are excellent. 👍

The stations of the cross are in the chapel in which adoration is conducted. I’m there alone from 3-4 in the morning, so I sometimes do the stations.

Other things I do:

Rosary

Read the Bible

Read inspirational literature

Sit and think.

Contemplate a problem I ran into that day or week, and ask for God’s help.

Pray for others.

Fall asleep. Yes, it is from 3-4 in the morning. On several occasions I’ve been awakened by a loud THUMP as my Bible dropped from my hands and hit the floor. :o
 
When I first started going to Adoration it was hard to be there for 5 minutes. I really had no prayer life. Now I feel like I could stay all day!
To start out with I had to read prayers and read spiritual books or the bible, to just sit and pray was hard, my mind would wonder immediately. I got a Scriptural Rosary booklet which helped me immensly to really get into the rosary. Now I don’t need the booklet, the verses are imbedded in me :gopray2:
The Blessed Sacrament led me to confession, our Blessed Mother, and a hunger to learn EVERYTHING I could about our Faith.
Dawn
 
Talk to God of course! Better yet, as others have said…just listen. I agree that spiritual reading is a good start, but after a few visits, I’ll bet you are content to just sit and visit with no agenda.
 
Just a note about saying the Stations before the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

The custom in the past has always been to turn to the Blessed Sacrament and genuflect on both knees as you say the pray: " We adore Thee Oh Christ and we bless Thee because by Thy Holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world." Then say all your prayers facing the Blessed Sacrament, For there He is right in your presence. Continue to each station similarly.
 
The Barrister:
Fall asleep. Yes, it is from 3-4 in the morning. On several occasions I’ve been awakened by a loud THUMP as my Bible dropped from my hands and hit the floor. :o
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Hey… if you can’t fall asleep at home, where can you?

Talk about being at home with the Lord!

😃
 
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Lurch104:
Talk to God of course! Better yet, as others have said…just listen. I agree that spiritual reading is a good start, but after a few visits, I’ll bet you are content to just sit and visit with no agenda.
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I tend to start babbling on, reporting to Jesus what was on my mind, whatever I was thinking, before I walked into the Adoration Chapel.

yep, I sound pretty chatty much of the time. Then, after about 17 hours (only kidding!) it occurs to me that now that I’ve gotten all that schtuff off my chest, it would probably be a good idea to shut up. If for no other reason so that I can listen… or at least pay attention to God’s speaking to me… He’s right here!! In a mystical way that He isn’t elsewhere… :eek: 😃

MAN! That’s the hardest thing at all in the world for me to ever do… I’m such an extreme extrovert!

:tiphat: :whistle:

So… for me to switch gears to low gear, sometimes I just start saying the Lord’s Prayer… as slow as I possibly can.

I’ve been known to take 45 minutes to say just ONE Our Father (Lord’s prayer). At each phrase, I rephrase and repeat it.

Like this…

Our Father… (now, what does the word “father” mean to me, anyway? And why is it that Jesus said to say “Our Father?” And why did he start it out that way? Hey… God is MY Father… not just theirs… hmm… hey… okay…)

I’ll sit at that thought, mulling it over, like it’s the last piece of a caramel in my mouth that I’d been chewing on, and now that the caramel was soft and warm, I just sucked on the caramel “juice” and moving it around in my mouth. (this is an analogy of mulling over whatever I’m contemplating in my heart and mind)

Then, I return to the Lord’s Prayer, with thinking about the next phrase (“Who art in heaven”). Heaven… where hopefully I’m headed… Jesus, thanks for suffering like that and dying for me… ME! Heaven… the Kingdom… the now and the not yet. God is there… and here… are you here yet in my heart, God? Jesus… Real Presence right in front of me! Hey… is Mass a window to Heaven?

See what I mean?

Hope that helps?

:rolleyes:
 
These have all been excellent suggestions. I have one more: try meditating on the Passion of Our Lord. I sometimes keep my eyes on the Blessed Sacrament while I consider the Passion and Death of Jesus.
 
Lectio Divina, practiced in the presence of Our Eucharistic Lord, has by God’s grace proved to be a fruitful spiritual exercise for me.

To learn more about Lectio you might like to read the following essay . . .

The Practice of Lectio Divina .

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
 
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