Amid mounting national and worldwide catastrophes, more and more Catholics are turning to God by spending time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. While eucharistic adoration is nothing new, there seems to be a renewed appreciation for the practice during recent decades.
For centuries, parishes held what was known as “Forty Hours Devotion” during which the Blessed Sacrament was exposed continuously for 40 hours so that parishioners could venerate Jesus in the Eucharist where the host was visible rather than behind the closed doors of the tabernacle.
When I was a child, the annual event was bookended by opening and closing services, which usually included processions with children dressed in first Communion finery and altar servers who accompanied the priest while hymns were being sung by the faithful. At the time, I didn’t understand the importance of the devotion, but it obviously made an impression that remains with me.
A recent Google search dates the practice of Forty Hours Devotion to medieval times, but even during the earliest years of Christianity, the sacred species of Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament was reverenced. However, the practice of sitting in the presence of the Lord can be traced to the Hebrew Scripture where “King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?’” (1 Chr 17:16).
Although times have changed, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament remains strong. Today many parishes have weekly adoration or even perpetual adoration. But even in churches where the Blessed Sacrament is not exposed, the invitation to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament remains constant.
Spending time with our Lord in quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is time well spent. We may never know how our prayer has helped others, but commending them to the Lord is the best help we can give to those we love and especially for those whose faith is either too weak or perhaps nonexistent to come to the Lord on their own.
It’s been said that prayer changes the one who prays, and when, like David, we come and sit before the Lord, we are placing ourselves, our thoughts, concerns and, yes, even our questions and doubts in God’s hands. We may not always come away feeling as if God has spoken directly to us, but that’s what faith is all about.
Faith calls us to believe that Jesus is present in the consecrated bread, whether the host is exposed on the altar or remains in the tabernacle. Faith is also about believing that every visit is an encounter with Christ whether we feel the closeness of God or not.
Faith has never been a matter of feelings because feelings come and go. Although God may allow his presence to be felt through a sense of warmth and consolation, we can neither expect nor depend on feelings to determine whether we will remain faithful to prayer.
Like emotions, our thoughts and judgment are equally unreliable indicators of where we or others are in relation to God. We know that God sees things and people very differently than we do. But the more we spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the more we will come to see as God sees.
No human criteria, no earthly calculation, no system or theory, no opinion, power or desire can vindicate a person. For that we need the mercy of God. And so, the real question we need to ask our self is: How does God see me when I sit before the Lord in prayer?
The biblical meaning of “sitting” represents permanency, stability, security and certainty. It means that two of us are here together. God is touching me just as I am touching God. Thus, I might ask: Do I believe that God speaks to me in the silence of my heart? The answer should be a resounding, “Of course!” Why would the Word exist if not to speak and if not to be heard?
Our task is to develop ears to hear, and that can only happen when we sit before the Lord on a regular basis. When it seems that God remains silent, we might consider that even silence conveys a message, for nothing can be more profound than the sound of silence.
This we learn from Mary, who after the birth of Jesus and again after Simeon prophesized that a sword would piece her heart Scripture says, “She pondered these things in the silence of her heart” (Lk 2:19).