Why has Eucharistic devotion declined?

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mcliffor

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A group of elderly women in my parish thought it might be appropriate to have at least on Eucharistic adoration before the end of JPII’s year of the Eucharist. The pastor gave them the OK, but in advertising the event, he wrote a short letter in which he basically said the practice was a relic from the past, and is no longer important because we now understand that Christ is present in the congregation. We no longer need to adore him in the Blessed Sacrament, but he would let people do it anyway.

I’ve also been told that devotions outside of mass were how people compensated for an exclusive and remote liturgy, so now that we have active participation in the liturgy, people don’t need them. Do you think this is true?

I was wondering though why this devotion has practically disapeared. Could it be because this is what liturgical reforms implied and what seminarians were taught? Why have devotions become so unpopular in general? I can’t remember ever having seen a novena or adoration advertised before this one, and I was crushed to see the pastor talk about it the way he did.

Does anyone know of any articles or books which discuss the topic? Somehow I get the feeling that the explanations mentioned above are more of an attempt to justify the decline in devotions for ecumenical purposes than to actually find out the truth.
 
I don’t know where you live, but where I am, we have Adoration at least once a week-often more times than that. We also usually have at least one Benediction.
I’ve also been told that devotions outside of mass were how people compensated for an exclusive and remote liturgy, so now that we have active participation in the liturgy, people don’t need them. Do you think this is true?
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Nope, sounds like liberal propaganda to me. Devotions are still legitimate and very worthy of your attention. From wearing the Brown Scapular or Miraculous Medal, saying the Rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet or Novenas etc. all of them are good for your spiritual life if practiced with reverence and proper disposition (i.e. not being superstitious about it).
 
Where do you live??? I’ve always dreamed of being somewhere where the Church wasn’t locked all the time and I could go pray before the Blessed Sacrament on a weekday.
 
In my area, you can usually get into the Church up till around 9, though I’ve found ways in after that due to various activitiies in the parish center… And the Parish center and church are connected.

We also have Eucharistic adoration at all Church’s on Friday till about 5, and one place has daily adoration from noon till midnite
 
At the Synod of Bishops earlier this year many spoke about Eucharistic Adoration. From what was published it was nearly all very positive – this is something that should be encouraged.

A speaker who raised questions about possible problems with it was - H.E. Most. Rev. Jacques PERRIER, Bishop of Tarbes et Lourdes (FRANCE):

“3) Could Eucharistic Adoration pose a threat? Eucharistic Adoration risks being lived in an individualistic way and not very ecclesial. Second danger: the absence of words. Because young people need to hear the expression of faith and to express their faith. Third threat: neglecting the other ways of real presence, even if somewhat different, of the Risen Christ.”

(From vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_21_xi-ordinaria-2005/02_inglese/b09_02.html ).

A possible reason for a decline in Eucharistic adoration was given by Monsignor Peter Elliott:

“With reference to lnstrumentum Laboris, no. 66, like the Bishops of the United States, Episcopal Conferences or Ordinaries might publish adaptations of the Forty Hours Devotion, or the annual solemn exposition envisaged in the Code of Canon Law. Altar manuals for the rites of public adoration would also be welcomed by many priests.”

(From vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_21_xi-ordinaria-2005/02_inglese/b20_02.html )

In Proposition 6, the synod wrote that it “forcefully encourages that this form of prayer” and “In this connection, the renewal of Eucharistic adoration, also among young people, is manifested today as a promising characteristic of many communities. For this reason, in order to foster visits to the Blessed Sacrament, care must always be taken, insofar as possible, that churches in which the Blessed Sacrament is present stay open.” The proposition concluded:

“To promote adoration, it is appropriate to recognize especially institutes of consecrated life and associations of the faithful dedicated especially to it in different ways, and to help them so that Eucharistic devotion will be more biblical, liturgical and missionary.”

(From zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=78911 )
 
In my parish we have year round perpetual adoration in the chapel. I would hardly call it a relic.
 
If this has happened in your area, I think it is time you approached the relavent Bishop.
You could laso contact your local youth ministry to urge them to set up Holy Hours of adoration, Hymns, prayers and silence
In Melbourne we have Adoration twice a week at the Cathedral and many others scattered among the parishes especially where there a young Priests.
No relic, VERY much alive, he is with us …until the end of time
 
I’m in an area where 5 minutes from where I live, there is a Perpetual Adoration chapel at the nearby church. Also, my home parish does Eucharistic Adoration every Friday. It has been a wonderful bolster to my faith.

I would suggest that you contact your local Bishop, like CreosMary suggested. Or you may be able to find Eucharistic Adoration at another parish.
 
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mcliffor:
A group of elderly women in my parish thought it might be appropriate to have at least on Eucharistic adoration before the end of JPII’s year of the Eucharist. The pastor gave them the OK, but in advertising the event, he wrote a short letter in which he basically said the practice was a relic from the past, and is no longer important because we now understand that Christ is present in the congregation. We no longer need to adore him in the Blessed Sacrament, but he would let people do it anyway.

I’ve also been told that devotions outside of mass were how people compensated for an exclusive and remote liturgy, so now that we have active participation in the liturgy, people don’t need them. Do you think this is true?

I was wondering though why this devotion has practically disapeared. Could it be because this is what liturgical reforms implied and what seminarians were taught? Why have devotions become so unpopular in general? I can’t remember ever having seen a novena or adoration advertised before this one, and I was crushed to see the pastor talk about it the way he did.

Does anyone know of any articles or books which discuss the topic? Somehow I get the feeling that the explanations mentioned above are more of an attempt to justify the decline in devotions for ecumenical purposes than to actually find out the truth.
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That priest should be ashamed of himself…
 
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mcliffor:
. The pastor gave them the OK, but in advertising the event, he wrote a short letter in which he basically said the practice was a relic from the past, and is no longer important because we now understand that Christ is present in the congregation. We no longer need to adore him in the Blessed Sacrament, but he would let people do it anyway.
QUOTE]

A priest wrote a book a few years ago that your pastor should read:
The Spirit of the Liturgy, available from Ignatius Press. Ask him to pay attention to Chapter 4 for a very simple and direct discussion of this issue. “…Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by adoration.”

The writer’s name was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
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Tonks40:
I would suggest that you contact your local Bishop, like CreosMary suggested.
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Seconded. This priest needs stern correction because the worthiness of worshipping the Eucharist is de Fide dogma. I pains me to say it, but there is a concerted effort to eliminate Eucharistic adoration in the name of excessive ecumenicism or as a starting point to changing Church doctrine. (Impossible I know, but the effort can cause much damage). By obscuring the sacraficial aspect of the Mass in favor of the community aspect, the belief in the Real Presence is compromised, and it is hoped by dissenters that this compromised belief will lead to the idea that anyone (man, woman, Protestant, yogi, or trained monkey) can consecrate the host.

Scott
 
John Lilburne:
A speaker who raised questions about possible problems with it was - H.E. Most. Rev. Jacques PERRIER, Bishop of Tarbes et Lourdes (FRANCE):

“3) Could Eucharistic Adoration pose a threat? Eucharistic Adoration risks being lived in an individualistic way and not very ecclesial. Second danger: the absence of words. Because young people need to hear the expression of faith and to express their faith. Third threat: neglecting the other ways of real presence, even if somewhat different, of the Risen Christ.”
I don’t understand how this could be true. I don’t see why individualistic is necessarily bad. Youn people don’t need to HEAR the espression. With the right catechesis, the externals material symbols which surround the Blessed Sacrament during adoration are certainly enough. (The gold monstrance, candles, tabor etc.) Thirdly, and this is where I am confused, I thought there was only on Real Presence, in the Blessed Sacrament itself, not in the word or the congregation. Aren’t these all symbolic???

I know modern liturgists frown upon the medieval develpoments in the mass, but isn’t this precisely WHY the tabernacle was moved to the cnter of the altar, because Christ is only ACTUALLY present in the Blessed Sacrament and this is always more important than whatever “presence” he might have in the word or congregation?
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I haven’t seen a decline, but rather an increase. More and more parishes are having Eucharistic Adoration, some even Perpetual. Our own parish started a Benediction during Friday Adoration.

It’s a definate improvement from years past. 👍
 
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Brendan:
I haven’t seen a decline, but rather an increase. More and more parishes are having Eucharistic Adoration, some even Perpetual. Our own parish started a Benediction during Friday Adoration.

It’s a definate improvement from years past. 👍
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I meant from the pre-VII years, when it was something all parishes had end most people attended.
 
Bishop Sheen was quite clear when he preached at retreats for priests that 1] Adoration is not a devotion… it is truly worshop of God, and 2] all priests should spend at least an hour every day over and above all else, in Adoration.
 
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mcliffor:
Thirdly, and this is where I am confused, I thought there was only on Real Presence, in the Blessed Sacrament itself, not in the word or the congregation. Aren’t these all symbolic???
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MCliffor, you are absolutey correct to feel that something is amiss when someone uses the phrase “Real Presence” to describe the other modes of Christ’s presence apart from His Eucharistic Presence.

That phrase, “Real Presence”, should be reserved only for the Sacramental Presence of Christ in the the Eucharist.

The Catechism states:
1373 “Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us,” is present in many ways to his Church:in his word, in his Church’s prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name,“in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned,in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But "he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species.”

1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.”"**This presence is called ‘real’ - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a *substantial ***presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."
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We would go to far if we were to say that Christ’s other modes of presence (in the other sacraments, in the person of the Priest, in the congregation) were merely symbolic, or not real. However, the title “Real Presence” communicates to us the absolute and substantial presence of Christ.

This doctrine must be protected at all costs. Calling the other modes of presence the “real presence” is a type of *verbicide, ***an emptying out and destruction of the true meaning of the words.

Let me be clear, however, that I am *not *ascribing to the Bishop this misuse. First, we are dealing with a translation. Second, the Bishop was addressing a unique audience. The point I am making is that we must resist this phraseology among the laity.

In fact, I would posit that it would be this misunderstanding and misuse of words, coupled with a lack of awareness of the above Catechism passages among the laity that has contributed, to a great extent, to the loss of devotion to Christ in His Real Presence.

What do you think?

God Bless,
VC
 
I was told it was because we can always pray in front of the tabernacle. Any thoughts on how to compare this to Eucharistic Adoration? Does it matter?
 
For those who absolutely believe that Jesus was truthful in saying “This IS…”, yes there is a difference…or an “added dimention” in Adoration. It is as if that moment of consecration, when the priest elevates the Host for all to adore, now continues in adoration for as long as you wish to adore. No need to finish the Mass, no need to get on with our lives… rather, an opportunity to continue that moment of consecration.

It is not idolatry to worship the host when you believe it is Jesus. True, Jesus is everywhere. But I won’t go outside, fall down and worship a tree.
 
I think that it declined for several reasons. One was a general growing of disbelief in the real presence. A lot of people apparently believed that when you received Holy Communion it was the actual body and blood, but stopped being so if not consumed. Others accepted the Lutheran belief that it is your belief that changes the bread and wine into the body and blood upon consumption, not anything else. Still others assumed Communion was only symbolic. These views were probably the result of the extremely poor or non existant catechisis that has existed in the past forty years or so. Another culprit is a general lack of reverence and respect towards the sacred that has existed since the 60’s at least and maybe longer, Another was pointed out in this forum, that since Christ exists in the congregation there was no need to have adoration, benediction etc. I actually think the last one is particularly important.

The reason, OK, if Christ exists in the congregation, and I’m in the congregation, then Christ is in me, and if he’s in me, we are the same, so I, in essence, am Christ, and so is my neighbor ,so we can worship each other and ourselves. :eek:

Now before all my liberal friends start in, sit back and think. I have been accused often of illogical thinking and of making incredible leaps in some of my arguments. Maybe so, but if I could think up something like this, how many others could as well? I doubt that I am the only one. And I bet you dime to a dollar, a lot of people actually feel that way.

Pure and simple. Respect adore and worship each other. 👍

Now recently, say in the past ten years or so, there has been significant growth in the practices of adoration, benediction, public rosaries and devotions etc. Why? Simply put, people are beginning to realize the humanist model that we have been following has serious flaws in it. People are starting to realize that mistakes were made, misinterpretations were made and things need to change to put us back on the right track.

No doubt there are those who view these rituals and practices as being old fashioned and not necessary in todays enlightened times. I’ll also bet you that they are also vehemently opposed to tradition in most respects and generally feel that new is better and old is bad.

Just my opinion.
 
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Elzee:
I was told it was because we can always pray in front of the tabernacle. Any thoughts on how to compare this to Eucharistic Adoration? Does it matter?
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Yes, this is a form of Eucharistic Adoration, directed to the Eucharist in the tabernacle.

Another form of Eucharistic Adoration is “exposition of the blessed sacrament in the ciborium” where the ciborium with the consecrated hosts is removed from the tabernacle. For this “at least two candles should be lighted, and incense may be used.”

A third form of Eucharistic Adoration is “exposition of the blessed sacrament in the monstrance” for which there are 4 or 6 candles and “incense is used”.

I am quoting from the liturgical book Holy Communion and the Worship of the Eucharist Outside of Mass, n. 85 (E.J. Dwyer, Sydney, 1975, ISBN 0-85574-401-4, page 66).
 
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