It is no longer being done with exposition. As shown in the not-very-good phone photo above, we have a glass -fronted tabernacle which is locked, with the Host in a small chapel monstrance. The chapel is actually a re-purposed cry room. It is still used as a cry room during weekend Masses, with the Blessed Sacrament being reposed in the tabernacle in the main sanctuary. These changes mean that the devotion is more casual and user friendly (that's not quite the right phrase, but I can't think of another.)
Formerly one was not to leave the Blessed Sacrament unattended; one did not leave until the next person showed up. If we couldn't do our hour, we were supposed to find a sub or switch with someone. As might be imagined, this didn't always work out. With the present set-up not being considered exposition, we are still encouraged to get a sub, but if that doesn't happen, it's not a deal breaker. If the next person doesn't show up, the person who is leaving pulls the curtain across the tabernacle.
Now I get to the part of why I do adoration, and continue to do it for 19 years. For me it is first of all a spiritual discipline, with a great deal of freedom. There is no requirement, either with exposition or without it, as to how one is to pray or spend time with the Lord. One can pray a devotion such as the rosary, the Divine Mercy chaplet, or other personal prayers. One can read Scripture or other spiritual reading. Or one can just sit there and rest. I have done all of the above. I have fallen asleep. I have cried. From the way the box of kleenex gets used up, I'm not the only one. They speak of the "gift of tears" being a gift of the Holy Spirit. What I prefer to do is just to place myself in the presence of Jesus, and center on him. When my attention wanders, to gently bring it back. When it is time to move on from that, I do spiritual reading or the chaplet. It is very serene and peaceful. Except when it isn't. Sometimes the cleaning volunteers show up. Sometimes there is a rehearsal of some kind going on. And what absolutely drives me crazy is when someone else shows up to share my hour. Which of course they are supposed to, you don't need to have a scheduled time in order to participate sometimes. And it really bugs me if they whisper-pray or clear their throat a lot, or shuffle their feet. Which is my problem, not theirs. God loves them the same as me, and they have a need to be there or they wouldn't be. And of course the biggest disturber of my peace (myself) is always with me. Sometimes I am wrestling with some issue or other. Usually it is when I am reluctant to turn it over to God, or when I do turn it over, and pull it back. So I try to make my discomfort a prayer, and offer it up. It's all good.
One thing that adoration done in this way does is to foster a sense of connection with the rest of of the parish. Because it is something that a sizeable number of our members do, and can be considered a ministry because one of the purposes is to pray for the needs of all. By the sign-in book there are small sheets of note paper for people to write prayer requests on. They usually don't sign them, but there are intentions such as "please pray for my husband, his cancer has returned", or "please pray for my daughter who is having a difficult pregnancy". You become conscious that there are hurting people, anxious people in your midst. Maybe you are sitting beside them on Sunday and they don't give a clue that anything is wrong.
I have gotten to know the people who come in before me, and the ones directly after. Usually we exchange a little conversation and ask how our week has gone. And I am friends with the sacristan, who usually comes in to check the candles.
But I find that the biggest benefit of adoration is an increased love of Jesus and a consciousness of his great love for me. And a sense of connection with the Mass.
It is a "come as you are" devotion. You don't have to consider yourself a Catholic in good standing, or be Catholic at all. Interestingly there are non Catholics who do it. If you do decide to try adoration, my advice is to not look it up on the internet for how-to. There is a lot of overheated rhetoric and questionable theology out there. Just try it and see where the Spirit leads you.
"And what absolutely drives me crazy is when someone else shows up to share my hour. Which of course they are supposed to, you don't need to have a scheduled time in order to participate sometimes. And it really bugs me if they whisper-pray or clear their throat a lot, or shuffle their feet."
ReplyDeleteIs your feeling about unwanted sharers the prevailing one? Knowing that the official sitters may feel this way would certainly keep me from going to it.
If your hour is up and your replacement shows up and the unwanted sharers has not gone away, do you tell them they have to leave so you can pull the curtain?
What is the point of pulling the curtain if no one is there? Does it have some significance?
What is the point of perpetual adoration? Why would a parish want to do this, as opposed to limited adoration (don't know the term), where they set out the Host in a monstrance for a set period? I
My one adoration have me a migraine. The hindrance is shaped exactly like the aura I see before the inset, and just seeing the shiny shape set it off, so I probably would not want to go anyway. I have trouble with some of Hildegard of Bingen's mandelas for the same reason.
Grr, I changed "hindrance" to "monstrance." Twice. Auto correct seems to have a life of its own.
DeleteJean, my feeling about sharers is probably not the prevailing one. I'm rather introverted. I smile and try to act welcoming or at least not unwelcoming. I look at it as God telling me not to get too set in my ways.
ReplyDeleteThe sharer can stay as long as he or she wants to. It doesn't make any difference if they overlap hours. As far as pulling the curtain it's just a reverence thing if no one is going to be there.
Perpetual adoration isn't necessarily better than just having it for a set period. It's whatever works better for the parish. I actually think it's easier to keep it going if it is perpetual. People get used to it being all the time, it's the idea that we're keeping watch with Christ.
I can see how a sunburst monstrance might be a migraine trigger if you were prone to them. I used to get a migraine aura like zigzags of light. I never did know what the triggers were, except for stress.
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DeleteKatherine, what a marvelous reflection - thank you.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a pretty persuasive case for carving some time out of the busy-ness of our lives. A little more Mary, a little less Martha. I can see how having the discipline of having to show up one hour per week could actually help in that regard.
I'm a little confused, too, about your description of exposition. Is the host inside the monstrance behind the glass case? So is it considered exposition until the curtain is pulled?
Jim, yes, the host is in the small monstrance in the glass case which is locked. Which isn't considered exposition. It would be exposition if the monstrance with the host were left out. The stricter rules about it not being left unattended with exposition are because of concern about profanation of the host. Which you hope wouldn't happen, but you do hear about vandalism and such. I should add that during evening and night hours the church is kept locked (by insistance of the insurance carrier). There is a keypad on one of the doors. All the people who have hours during those times know the combination to get in. There is also a phone in the chapel in case of an emergency.
DeleteThe Benedictine retreat center near here has a similar set up with the see-through tabernacle. I think that's where we got the idea.
Yes, keypads. Before we got them, there were only two people in the parish who did NOT have a key to every building. One was me. The other was the pastor.
DeleteAre you supposed to kneel? Everyone did the time I went (well, didn't really go so much as it was announced that adoration would be after Friday mass at The Boy's school). The monstrance was placed on the altar, everyone knelt, I had no idea what was going on, but no one got up to leave. So assumed the position and left when others started drifting off. Left me confused and ashamed not to know what I was doing.
ReplyDeleteBut good to know about perpetual adoration so that, should I ever encounter it, I don't go blundering in there like a cow and messing up the vibe.
You don't have to kneel. I can't kneel because of a knee problem. There isn't a wrong way to do it (well, I suppose dancing like David did before the Ark of the Covenant would be a little out there!)
DeleteKatherine, Preach it! Preach "spiritual discipline with a great deal of freedom." It's a way into prayer. Those who know assume everybody else does. But everybody else doesn't. And nobody ever explains from the pulpit because the preacher has to homilize from the Gospel, which leaves so many literally going nowhere from what they just read.
ReplyDeleteSixteen years of Catholic education, and I knew nothing about it until we started Christ Renews His Parish retreats. The sacrament is exposed in the chapel during the retreat, and former CHRPers provide constant presence when the retreaters aren't there. I read Sirach when I started and found out there was more to the O.T. than Genesis. Whodda thought? Now -- at the agitation of one of my CRHP brothers, we have exposition from the end of the 8 a.m. until the start of the 5:30 p.m. Masses on Friday. From 11:30 to 12 and from 3 to 3:30 there is group prayer. During the rest of the time you are on your own. My agitating brother wrote a How-To for the nervous. It's last line: "There is no wrong way to be with the Lord."
I guess this is just gonna be one of those "Catholic things" I'm never gonna understand. I do like the idea of dedicating a specific time of day or week to an hour of silent "listening" to whatever God might say to you. Now that I am retired, this might be something that is easier to swing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the dedicated hour is a good thing. Otherwise "spending quality time with the Lord" would always be something I was planning to do later. Because I am a big procrastinator.
DeleteI don't procrastinate, but someone always needs something, and I am an "up and doer," not a good "sit and listener."
DeleteSometimes I think that busy-ness has been my substitute for spirituality. I'm doing, I'm helping, I raised a kid I had not planned on, I took care of my parents for the last 15 years when they were sick, I've tamped down the irritations of 35 years of marriage, I worked my fanny off at two jobs most of my work life. Most days I feel like, "I'm already doing enough work for you, Lord, and now I got the cancer. Get offa my back. "
Jean, are there any beautiful places in nature near where you live, where you can go and just be? Sometimes God feels closest in those places.
DeleteJean, I grew up Catholic. We didn't have perpetual adoration, but we did have Exposition and Benediction. When young, I paid almost no attention to it, except that I liked singing Tantum Ergo. Now, I have become so protestant that when I go to the local Catholic church to do my Centering Prayer, and it's the weekly day for Exposition, and I see the monstrance,it seems a bit "unusual". I can see how those who might stumble into a Catholic church when people are kneeling before a gold object with sun-rays projecting and something white and small in the middle might have a few questions about Catholics.
DeleteJean, I agree with Katherine that taking some time to sit in silence is worthwhile. That is why I do Centering Prayer. Sometimes alone in a quiet church, sometimes in a quiet house, sometimes in a beautiful, quiet place in nature. It's supposed to be 20 minutes, twice/day. I've never achieved that. If I can manage once/day I'm doing well, and I miss many days. But I find that when I can discipline myself to sit in silence for 20 minutes on a more ore less regular basis, it is a balm to my spirit.
ReplyDeleteOne of the members of our old Unitarian Fellowship used to bring in really simple flower arrangements. She was Nissei, and had learned it from her mother. Some Sundays before the service, she would give a short talk about the arrangement, put it on the altar for a few moments of quiet contemplation. I enjoyed that as a teenager. She also had a small table in her home where she would place objects for contemplation. Hmm. Maybe I should go back to that.
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