ADORATION is one of the most beautiful ways to spend time in prayer. It refers to time spent with Jesus in the Eucharist. Usually the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, with the white Host visible within a golden or silver display case called a monstrance. Even when the Blessed Sacrament is not exposed, you can pray before Jesus’ presence in the tabernacle.
Often, the faithful spend an hour in Adoration. This is for practical purposes: Churches that have 24-hour adoration organize schedules so that the Blessed Sacrament is never left alone, and generally do so in one-hour increments.
But it’s also spiritual: Christ in Gethsemane asked, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”
First, remember that the Lord is spending this hour with you. Let Him look at you. Begin with adoration. How do we adore? On our knees, in our hearts rejoicing, is one way, but the interior method should mirror how we love others.
As a groom staring at his bride walking up the aisle, as a mother gazing at her newborn, as a son or daughter returning home after a long journey, these are the ways we should approach our Lord. Anyone who ever fell in love knows the feeling of staring into the eyes of the other, and wanting to just drink them up.
So also, we should seek that level of intimacy, silence of the self, and joy when we come to adoration. If we don’t feel it, know that the Lord does. He is far more delighted to be in our presence than we could ever be at being in His.
Why should we go to adoration? To learn how to sit at the feet of Jesus, to chose the better portion, and to help attune our ears to God’s words and our eyes to God’s gaze so we can do what we pray in the Our Father: “thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Sitting before the Eucharist is being granted an audience with the King of Heaven.
Don’t know what to do? Don’t know what to say? All relationships start with being willing to participate, to spend time. Go and if it’s your first time sitting, let yourself sit and contemplate, this is Christ. This is what love looks like.
Come. Let us adore Him.
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