Perpetual Adoration

Our goal is to have "two adorers" for each hour.

We invite you to come and spend any hour with our Lord. If you would like to commit to a specific time/day, please call Loretta Winn at 602-332-2520 or email at lwinn1@cox.net for more information.

"During a Holy Hour we grow more and more into His likeness".
Bishop Fulton Sheen

Eucharistic Miracles

What is Eucharistic Adoration?

Catholics believe that during the Mass which we attend each week (for some of us daily), the priest (during the consecration) speaks these words as he holds the communion host, "...He took bread and gave you thanks. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take this all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you". When the priest says "this my body", it is at that instant when, through the miracle of transubstantiation, the bread and wine which we offer as the bloodless sacrifice to our Lord truly become the Body, Blood , Soul and Divinity of Jesus. It is His true Presence in the form of bread and wine. It is Christ.

Perpetual Adoration is when the priest takes a consecrated host, such as the one described above, and places it in a monstrance. (monstrance comes from the Latin "monstrare" to show, to expose to view.) The monstrance is then placed in front of the tabernacle (an ornate box which holds the monstrance and any consecrated hosts) or on the altar of the church or chapel for adoration.

What do you actually do during adoration?

You may sign up to be an "adorer" which allows you to schedule yourself for one or more hours per week to pray before the very presence of Our Lord, exposed in the monstrance. It means that you can have some time alone with Jesus to recite your favorite prayers, read the bible, contemplate acts of faith, hope, charity, thanksgiving, reparation, pray a rosary or do whatever type of prayerful devotion that suits you before Our Lord. You can just sit and say nothing simply keeping Him company, just as you would with a dear friend.

Promoting Authentic Eucharistic Adoration

In the Eucharist we experience the fundamental transformation of violence into love, of death into life; the Body and Blood of Christ are offered so that we ourselves may in turn be transformed. Benedict XVI reiterated this in his speech to the participants of the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Divine Worship, during which he also emphasized the importance of being vigilant against the dangers of deviating from a correct use of the liturgy.The Pope requested that Eucharist adoration be intensified through a greater awareness of this mystery, in complete fidelity to Sacred Tradition, and through the enrichment of our communities liturgical life.

As Saint Augustine put it: ..."no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it." In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the eucharistic celebration, which is itself the Church's supreme act of adoration. Receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy. The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself. Indeed, "only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strenghtens the social mission contained in the Eucharst, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another."

- Sacramentum Caritatis no. 66, Pope Benedict XVI

Why Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration?

1. You are greatly needed!
   "The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic Adoration." (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae)
2. This is a personal invitation to you from Jesus.
   "Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love." (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Canae)
3. Jesus is counting on you because the Eucharist is the center of life.
   "Every member of the Church must be vigilant in seeing that the sacrament of Love shall be at the center of the life of the people of God so that through all the manifestations of worship due Him shall be given back "love for love" and truly become the life of our souls." (Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)
4. Your hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament will repair for evils of the world and bring about peace on earth.
   "Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Jesus and ready to make reparation for the great evils of the world. Let your adoration never cease." (Pope John Paul II, Dominicai Cenae)
5. Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament because you are the most important person in the world to Him!
   "Christ is reserved in our churches as the spiritual center of the heart of the community, the universal Church and all humanity, since within the veil of the species, Christ is contained, the Invisible Heart of the Church, the Redeemer of the world, the center of all hearts, by Him all things are and of whom we exist." (Pope Paul IV, Mysterium Fidei)
6. Jesus wants you to do more than to go to Mass on Sunday.
   "Our communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in Eucharistic adoration in order that our love may be complete." (Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)
7. You grow spiritually with each moment you spend with Jesus!
   "Our essential commitment in life is to preserve and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to grow spiritually in the climate of the Holy Eucharist." (Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)
8. The best time you spend on earth is with Jesus, your Best Friend, in the Blessed Sacrament!
   "How great is the value of conversation with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness!" (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)
9. Just as you can't be exposed to the sun without receiving its rays, neither can you come to Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament without receiving the Divine Rays of His Grace, His Love, His Peace.
   "Christ is truly the Emmanuel, that is, God with us, day and night, His is in our midst. He dwells with us full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes virtue, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak." (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)
10. If Jesus were actually visible in church, everyone would run to welcome Him, but He remains hidden in the Sacred Host under the appearance of Bread, because He is calling us to faith, that we many come to Him in humility.
    "The Blessed Sacrament is the "Living Heart" of each of our churches and it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore the Blessed Host, which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word, Whom they cannon see." (Pope Paul VI, Credo of the People of God)
11. With transforming mercy, Jesus makes our heart one with His.
    "He proposes His own example to those who come to Him, that all may learn to be like Himself, gentle and humble of heart, and to seek not their own interest but those of God." (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)
12. If the Pope himself would give you a special invitation to visit him in the Vatican, this honor would be nothing in comparison to the honor and dignity that Jesus Himself bestows upon you with the Invitation of spending one hour with Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
    "The Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people the incomparable dignity." (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)

The Catechism says:

"1378. Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession."

"1379. The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent, outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament."