In the Presence of the Lord: Meeting Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration

Eucharistic adoration offers not only a place for quiet rejuvenation but also a path to transformation. An article by Mary DeTurris Poust via OSV Newsweekly.

If you talk to those who frequent Eucharistic adoration, sign up for holy hours or even make just occasional church visits to pray privately in front of the Blessed Sacrament, you’ll likely hear about the healing, transformative power of this particular prayer practice. But for many other Catholics, adoration can be a little intimidating. What do we do while we sit in the quiet? Are there special prayers? How did this practice start, and what is its purpose?

Truth be told, no matter how much we define and explain Eucharistic adoration, some sense of mystery will always be at its core because of the very nature of the Eucharist, and that’s a good thing. So often in our world today, we are caught up in wanting, needing to know every last detail and explanation of everything we do, everything we see, everything we eat. Adoration requires us to approach prayer not from that intellectualized place but from the place of deep mystery and faith where God is waiting for us.

Despite the mystery — or maybe precisely because of it — adoration is growing in popularity and practice among American Catholics. Perhaps that’s because daily life, for so many, has become chaotic that there is a desperate search for a place and practice that can become the calm amid the storm: Eucharistic adoration can become that place.

Read the rest – including the personal experiences of Father Rocky, Elizabeth Scalia, Patrick Novecosky, Allison Gingras, and my own… inspired by Mother Teresa of Calcutta – by clicking on this link to the original article at Our Sunday Visitor: In the Presence of the Lord