“Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

Eucharistic Adoration is a continuation of the communal worship of the Mass. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is an opportunity to come before Jesus physically present in the consecrated Host.
 

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“We are overwhelmed by words, by superficial pleasures and by an increasing din, filled not by joy but rather by the discontent of those whose lives have lost meaning. How can we fail to realize the need to stop this rat race and to recover the personal space needed to carry on a heartfelt dialogue with God? Finding that space may prove painful but it is always fruitful. Sooner or later, we have to face our true selves and let the Lord enter.”

Pope Francis
Gaudete et Exsultate, 29
 

Our Lady's Chapel

Our Lady’s Chapel was originally a storage room located off the west side of the Kennedy Room in the basement of the Main Church. In the late 1960’s, this space was converted into a Science Lab for the upper grade students of St. John the Evangelist School. The energy crisis of the 1970’s was the motivation to find a smaller space to hold daily Mass. A group of parish volunteers helped transform the science lab into Our Lady’s Chapel. 

 

Parishioners and friends physically raised and built the structure and provided decorative finishing touches, including the altar, a niche for Our Lady’s statue along with a complimentary Holy Family statue, a Tabernacle on a separate pillar and the 14 stations for the Cross. The Chapel was completed in 1980 and provided a sacred space for daily Mass and special liturgical uses for small groups.

In 2006 then-pastor Msgr. William English initiated the availability of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Our Lady’s Chapel. Parishioners and other neighboring Catholic visitors have spent tens of thousands of hours visiting, praying and worshiping the Real Presence of Jesus in our humble parish chapel.  In recent years, the Chapel has been open for continuous 24-hour prayer and adoration. This ministry remains a beautiful channel of consolation, grace and inspiration for parishioners and visitors to spend quiet time with Our Lord under the guiding influence and gaze of Our Lady.

Adoration is a personal act of faith in this Presence, an act of love for the God who loved us even unto death on a cross. It is sitting before the Lord as the early disciples did, to listen to him, to learn his will for us, to allow our hearts to be transformed. It is placing ourselves and our loved ones before the radiance of his peaceful gaze to experience his healing, strengthening presence.

An hour spent in the presence of Jesus, praying directly before him, is truly a Holy Hour, a powerful means for advancing along the road to wholeness…to holiness. The more we allow him access to our hearts, the more he can transform our lives, no matter what our situations or circumstances.

The October 2016 edition of Our Parish Times contained an article on Eucharistic Adoration at SJE:  Part 1 of the article; Part 2 of the article.  

For Catechetical Sunday in 2011, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a beautiful meditation on "The Saints and Eucharistic Devotion."  It talks about the great love Eucharistic Adoration shared by many saints and tells us that "prayerful participation in the Mass needs the support of eucharistic devotional prayer to keep alive the continuing relationship with Christ."  

A Holy Hour with Jesus may be spent praying familiar prayers, saying the Rosary, reading Scripture or spiritual books. We may be too weary to do any of these, and simply want to sit in his Presence and receive his love and peace.

Some people experience painful memories of hurt or past sins when they have been in adoration for awhile. This is a sign that the Lord is doing some deep purifying and healing. As our sins are made known to us, Jesus invites us to come to him in the Sacrament of Penance to be reconciled with the Father through the Spirit of Love.

Finally, it is natural to become tired, distracted or even bored during an hour of prayer. Yet every time that we find ourselves distracted and then turn our attention back to him, we make an act of love. Remember the first three friends Jesus invited to come and spend an hour with him? They fell asleep! Yet he built the Church upon their response to his mystery and presence.