Learning to Pray: Eucharistic Adoration

When I was 14, my heart was touched in a totally new way by an encounter with Jesus. It was night two of the Steubenville Conference. There were 2,000 teens kneeling and in awe of Jesus at Eucharistic Adoration.  Despite the crowd and the music, I experienced his personal love for me. It was as though everything else around me fell away for a moment. I suddenly became aware that Jesus’ love for me was real. His presence, the freedom I experienced, the weight that lifted from my shoulders was real. It changed everything. I went home and saw the world with new eyes. I loved going to mass, I desired to pray, and I desired to know and do his will.

Today, Eucharistic Adoration is still one of my favorite places to pray. But before I get ahead of myself, I want to start at the beginning. 

What is Eucharistic Adoration?

Each and every mass, the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus. He is truly present to us there. In Eucharistic Adoration, it’s like we pause that moment  from mass. When the priest holds up the host, now transformed into Jesus, we have a brief moment to adore him before we go on to receive him bodily. But in Eucharistic Adoration, that host is placed into the monstrance, a gold vessel in which the Eucharist is displayed, and we can rest with Jesus there, praying and adoring him for as long as we desire. 

Adoration is about spending time with someone you love. Allowing him to rest with you and in you. It is a chance to step back from the craziness of life for some calm and stillness. It’s not about filling the time with words and verbal prayers, rather resting in the gaze of the One who loves us unto death.

 I love this beautiful story from St. John Vianney, also known as the Cure D’Ars: “Listen well to this, my children. When I first came to Ars, there was a man who never passed the church without going in. In the morning on his way to work, and in the evening on his way home, he left his spade and pick-axe in the porch, and he spent a long time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Oh! how I loved to see that! I asked him once what he said to Our Lord during the long visits he made Him. Do you know what he told me? ‘Eh, Monsieur le Curé I say nothing to Him, I look at Him and He looks at me!’ How beautiful, my children, how beautiful!”

Source: THE EUCHARISTIC MEDITATIONS OF THE CURÉ D’ARS

Why should I make a weekly Holy Hour?

In a world that’s so loud and busy all of the time, it almost seems counterintuitive to sign up for one more thing. But please, don’t look at Eucharistic Adoration as one more thing. Remember when I talked about “What’s Essential?” Rather, we should see Jesus in adoration as the one thing. He is essential to our lives. It is a time of singular importance to our relationship with Jesus. And because of how it impacts us, it is also so important to our spouses, children, friends, coworkers, or whatever countless relationships exist in our lives.  It transforms our hearts and minds, brings us peace and joy, gives us the opportunity to know the will of God and to become more united to him. Ultimately, it allows us to hear God’s voice.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen and St. Teresa of Kolkata are two modern day saints who had great devotions to Jesus in the Eucharist. Here are some of their reasons for holding it in such a high place of importance: 

• The only time our Lord asked the Apostles for anything was the night He went into agony. Not for activity did He plead but for an Hour of companionship. (Sheen)
• During a Holy Hour we grow more and more into His likeness.  (Sheen)
• Every Holy Hour we make so pleases the Heart of Jesus that it will be recorded in Heaven and retold for all eternity. (St. Teresa)
• It opens up the floodgates of God’s merciful Love upon the world. (St. Teresa)
• It will make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven. (St. Teresa)

Source: Archbishop Sheen and Mother Teresa on the Holy Hour

If you need more reasons, check out this post from the Catholic News Agency, which offers 24 Reasons for Spending a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament

How do I pray in Eucharistic Adoration?

First, it is important to realize there is no rule of how to pray during Eucharistic Adoration. I visited several different religious communities during my time in college and they all had different ways of praying depending on their charism. There was one community that didn’t use any sort of book or spiritual reading at all. It was complete silence. Another community strongly recommended using the “In Conversation with God” meditation books. A different community yet used Ignatian Prayer with the Sacred Scriptures.

Above all, you have to know how you like to pray best, and this might take time to figure out. Sometimes you have to work through some trial and error. I will offer some suggestions and share my routine for a Holy Hour but nothing is a hard and fast rule. It’s so important to have time and space for silence. Don’t put God in a box – be flexible. Ask the Holy Spirit to pray through you and try to let him lead. 

My general holy hour routine looks like this: 

• (5 minutes)I always begin by asking the Holy Spirit to come and pray through me.  I might express some things that are weighing heavily on my mind and bring and prayer intentions I have.
• (25-30 minutes)Next, I try to spend some time in silence then pray with the Sacred Scriptures. Frequently I will use the Gospel reading of the day, which can be found at the USCCB website. These days, I am doing Meg Kilmer’s bible in a year schedule, so I will use one of those passages. I will do Lectio Divina or Ignatian Prayer (usually if I’m reading a gospel story I’ll use Ignatian prayer).
• I will spend some of this time journaling any insights I may have received. Sometimes I only write a little, and that’s ok. Sometimes I don’t write anything, and sometimes it’s a page or two. It really varies day by day.
• (25 minutes)Finally, the rest of the Holy Hour I will spend praying a Rosary. I like to do the rosary last because I have a bad habit of falling asleep when I pray (honestly, it’s a problem for me!). So I’m less likely to doze off if I end with the Rosary rather than start with it.  

You can check this out as well, it’s a document from the Maronite Monks of Adoration and they offer 48 ideas of ways to spend your time in adoration. Many of them are really great!

Here are some other resources you could look into:

• A Beginner’s Guide to Eucharistic Adoration
• Beginner’s Guide to Adoration
• How to Spend an Hour in Adoration

If you have any questions, or good tips you’d like to offer, please comment below! 

Praying for you!