“This is my body.”
- Matthew 26: 26
Wednesday Adoration from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every week in the church.
(dates indicated on the calendar)
SIGN UP HERE IF YOU CAN COMMIT TO BEING A SCHEDULED ADORER FOR ONE HOUR EVERY WEDNESDAY
Walk-in Adorers are Welcome!
Eucharistic Adoration provides an opportunity to come to pray and worship Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist and exposed on the altar. To see Jesus visibly present under the appearance of the small white host is much more conducive to intimacy than when He is hidden away in the tabernacle.
Adoration begins with the Eucharistic Exposition ceremony in which the celebrant (priest or deacon) wearing a cope (cape) and humeral veil (scarf shaped hand covering) removes the Sacred Host from the tabernacle and places it in the lunette of the monstrance, or ostensorium, and places the monstrance on the altar for adorers to see the Blessed Sacrament. Incense may be used. O Salutaris Hostia or similar hymn is usually sung at the beginning of exposition.
Silent adoration usually follows Exposition, but on certain designated evenings there may be celebrant reflections, family ministry children’s instructions, adorers’ recitation of the rosary, prayers, meditations, or songs in adoration of the Lord. (See calendar.)
At the conclusion of Adoration, the Benediction ceremony, starts with the celebrant kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament and the Tantum Ergo hymn is chanted. The celebrant says, “You have given them the Bread from Heaven” and all respond “Having within it all Sweetness”. The celebrant says, “Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of Your suffering and death. May our worship of this Sacrament of Your Body and Blood help us to experience the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.” All respond “Amen”. After the prayer, the celebrant puts on the humeral veil covering his hands, genuflects and lifts the monstrance while a small bell may be rung. This is followed by a blessing of the people with the monstrance raised in the form of a cross in three directions. The Divine Praises are then sung or recited, and the Blessed Sacrament is reposed in the tabernacle. When the tabernacle is closed, all sing Holy God, We Praise thy Name.
You may spend time with Him in Eucharistic Adoration in your own way, reverent of the Lord and respectful of those around you. You may sit or kneel in quiet conversation with Jesus, bring your own prayer books, read the Bible, pray the rosary, or just sit and relax and enjoy the sweet peace that comes from simply being in the Presence of God.
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/eucharistic-devotion/