Adoration
I spend an hour in Adoration with Our Lord every week. It has become a very important part of my prayer life, my faith, or whatever term you feel like calling it. It’s interesting how intimidating the idea of spending an hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is at first. The silence, the time, the intensity, it’s all very intimidating. Yet, now, I want it more, I look forward to it. The hour isn’t enough, let alone just one hour a week.
Yet, the Adoration chapels are so empty. Why is this? We as Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, yet, why don’t we want to spend time with him? We’d rather sit in front of the TV and rot our brains (yes, TV, for the most part is a complete waste of time). There are some good shows and movies to watch, but when we get sucked into watching terrible shows like…(insert almost any prime time TV/Reality show here) we rot our brains.
I challenge you, start spending time with Jesus in Adoration. Make it a weekly habit. Bring a book, bring prayer books, bring a journal. We as Catholics have an amazing number of prayers at our disposal we can say that have been written and handed down to us. Start with those if you have difficulty praying from the heart. Jesus taught us that we are to say the Our Father. Routine prayer is good. Memorization is good, despite what some people may say.
The other challenge is that during Adoration, you don’t have to pray the entire time. By this, I mean you talking the entire time. The other form of prayer is listening. You need to listen to God as He penetrates through the silence and talks to you. Too often we think that in order to pray, we must be talking constantly. We must be attentive to see what God says to us. Rattling off all of our desires, needs and wants is not full prayer.
If you truly are Catholic and truly believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, and sender of the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, is present in the Eucharist, you would gladly spend time with Him in Adoration. You spend time with your family, you spend time with your friends. It’s time now to spend time with God.
Great point! What I’ve begun to realize in the last year is just how immersive and distracting technology has become in my own life. Just this last month, our family went from ATT Uverse to Dish network. Now not only can we access television in the living room, but anywhere in the country with a dish network app on google play and itunes right on my iphone. This isnt a bad thing in itself. In fact it is pretty sweet to be able to be in mcdonalds and asccess the DVR…(and then use up all your data and have verizon chasing after you for more money). But I think as a culture and on an individual level too much time is spent on this stuff.
What I have been trying to incorporate is putting down the computer and phone (be it working on my book, listening to praise and worship, reading the news or watching tv on my device), and picking up a book and reading. Its sooo much more uplifting for the mind, and there is suprisingly more silence in it. Im not sure if its how it stimulates the brain or what, but there is something about it that is more peaceful and less brain burning. This article just makes me want to continue to put this into practice, so thank you!