Skip to main content

Adoration


Adoration: 

What exactly does the word adoration mean? If you look the term adoration up in the dictionary, the following are the definitions you will see: deep love and respect, worship and veneration. These are powerful words and emotions, yet their true power lies in the action of humility, for to adore, one recognizes that the object or person being adored is more important than themselves or anything in the world. What or whom do you adore and bestow upon adoration? Has the definition and meaning of adoration been misplaced in today’s society? I wonder...

In the Catholic Church, the term adoration is given to honor Jesus in the Holy Eucharistic—Eucharistic Adoration. I was born a cradle Catholic, but honestly I didn’t understand or appreciate the beauty and devotion Eucharistic Adoration expresses until I was in my early twenties. It was when I started sitting quietly before the Lord, present in the Holy Eucharist, on a weekly basis during graduate school, that I came to realize the beautiful gift we had been given. I’d always believed that Jesus was present in the Eucharist because that’s what I’d been taught by my parents, but I don’t think I truly felt what I believed until I sat and prayed in adoration. I remember a time not long after this realization, I was with my parents and siblings and we were hiking stone steps, in Northern Kentucky, that start at the bottom of a large hill and end at a church on the top of the hill. Every Good Friday, the rosary is said on these steps, and I thought about that as we climbed. When we reached the top and went into the church, there was Jesus on the altar, displayed in a monstrance for Eucharistic Adoration. It was surreal! It was like we had just competed a journey and there was Jesus waiting for us at the end!

Have you and your family ever attended adoration together? It’s a beautiful way to pray before the Lord and invite him into your hearts and family. I remember the night my husband proposed to me. He’d written me a letter and mailed it to me earlier in the week asking to take me out on a date Friday night. So on Friday, after dinner and before the Nutcracker ballet, he drove us to the “King of Kings” and we prayed together in Eucharistic Adoration. I will say the whole time we prayed all I kept thinking was,“Oh my goodness he’s going to ask me to marry him in front of my Father.” 

My husband ended up asking me to marry him at the end of our evening, but praying together in adoration before our engagement was a beautiful time we had with the Lord. Now married and with a young family, we’ve taken our children to adoration several times. Even if you have young children, try taking them to adoration, even if you only can spend five or ten minutes in prayer. Helping your children see the beauty of praying to the Lord in adoration is something you will not regret and a way to help foster their prayer life and build a firm faith foundation. 

I’ll leave you with these words below from a prayer I felt inspired to write during a time I spent in Eucharistic Adoration in 2011 on my continuing faith journey; and my hope that you and your family will try going to adoration and allow the Lord to speak to your heart in prayer too!

“Prayer for Unbelievers”

On my hands, on my knees, down before you God of peace. I implore you, hear me please, mercy for those with unbelief. Show them Lord, lead their lives. Guide their hearts into the light. Help them seek, help them find. Let them see though now they’re blind. Here we sit, here we know, in adoration hearts aglow. For those who are lost, let them be found. Fill their hearts with grace profound, that they may grow, that they may understand and know, that you are Lord of all around; that you are the one, the only one, the Lord of life and God of love. The God who is here, who will not leave, who saves us from sin and everything. Whose word alone can save our souls, whose word alone can save us from the grave. Who gave his son, who made the stars, who knows and calls us each by name. Cast out the doubts within their hearts, save them from unbelief. My God, My God, my Father, to you my heart does speak. On my hands, on my knees, down before you God of peace. I implore you, hear me please, mercy for those with unbelief.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner:

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner: Four months after moving into our new house, my husband and I decided to invite our parish priest over for dinner and to bless our new home. We still had piles of unpacked boxes, our toddlers were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and my husband and I were a little nervous. Was our home clean enough? Would we be able to engage in good conversations with our guest? When the doorbell rang, our children raced to the door, and began bouncing around, welcoming Father inside. During dinner, we found that the conversations flowed easily. We shared stories about where we grew up, our families, and various other details as we got to know one another outside of church. We laughed as our daughter spilled the beans that my husband and I were expecting our third child, and when we shared our due date, our priest began enthusiastically sharing all sorts of common, as well as some crazy sounding, saint names for days on and near our due date.  Afte...
1 comment
Read more

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer:  On the lawn outside of my family's parish, there is a stepping-stone Marian-Rosary garden. Often, after attending daily Mass, on warm or non rainy days, my children love to run around the rosary stones, encircling the statue of Mary, and sit upon the garden's benches. The days when they would run around, only able to exclaim the words, "Hail, Mary! Hail, Mary! Hail Mary!" for each stone, are precious treasured memories I hold within my heart. When we entered the pandemic shutdown, in the spring of 2020, I didn't realize just how much I missed the rosary garden tradition my children and I had after Mass. When my husband and I scheduled confession with our pastor, twelve days into the shutdown, we took turns waiting with our children and letting them play and pray in the rosary garden, while we participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I'd always desired to make a Mary/Rosary garden in our ba...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day: Nov. 17th  Saint Elizabeth of Hungary has always held a special place in my heart since she is my confirmation saint. If I'm being honest, when I was reading about saints back in the eighth grade, trying to choose which saint I wanted to take as my patron, my requirements were as follows: (1) She couldn't die a horrible death, (2) She was married with kids, (3) and her life was pretty good allowing her to serve God and others through the blessings she'd been given. In hindsight, my list of "requirements" was probably a little superficial, but now as an adult I focus more on the virtues and saintly qualities of Saint Elizabeth, and find inspiration in how she lived. She was humble, a kind and loving wife and mother, and very generous to the poor. She also made plenty of time to pray and grow in her relationship with the Lord. On her wedding day, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a princess, did not wear a crown. Instead she s...
Post a Comment
Read more