Recently I’ve taken up going to Adoration. For those of you that do not know what that is, it is praying or meditating in silence in front of the Eucharist, which is on display in the center of the altar in a monstrance. This is quite a 360 spin from the way I normally pray. I usually do contemplative prayer out loud, or sometimes in my head, depending on where I am. Adoration typically involves silent prayer and reflection in full reverence of Jesus.
Sometimes I have a hard time with silence. For the longest time, I lived alone and coming from a loud, boisterous family, it was hard to get used to. I would turn on the TV or the radio for background noise around the house, so I didn’t feel so alone. Spending time with only my thoughts for company was hard, especially when I was single.
This last Wednesday, we went to a family friendly Adoration and there were quite a few families there, at least 20 young families with children and other people as well. We have a very large church, so there was plenty of room to be space out and maintain distance from other people. The pianist played music to accompany the Holy Hour, and two priests offered the chance to go to confession. It was different than when we had gone to adoration before. Most noticeably, the typical silence that somehow echoed through the church had been replaced by the calming piano music, as well as the sounds associated with the small children and babies in attendance. This truly was a different experience altogether. It struck me as I sat there: the beauty of seeing so many families in the church, full of life, together, praying together, albeit separate from one another, due to the current health situation. This is the way that I often feel that Mass should be: vibrant and full of life, a joyful mix of young and old alike.
Prayer wasn’t easy that night. There was a lot on my mind and although using the Echo Prayer app helped organize my thoughts, my mind kept coming back to joy. The joy of the church. For months now, we’ve been stuck in our homes, some of us unable to even go to Mass and here I was, near people other than my family or my spouse, and the palpable exuberance of feeling was that of joy. Joy of just being alive, being there in front of God and asking Him to help me in my prayers. It was a profound experience.
I suppose that’s the point of Eucharistic Adoration. In a time where we’ve all endured limited human contact, seeking a connection becomes a common goal. For those at Adoration, the one we seek to connect with is God. In those moments at the church, even though we all sat physically separate from each other, we’d gathered to spend our own private time with Him, and yet that act became the commonality of the community. It felt as if the whole group truly were in it together – sinners there to repent and beg forgiveness, saints there to praise and glorify the Lord – in their own individual ways, all at once.
It was a rejuvenating experience and one that I hope to repeat soon. If you’ve never been to adoration, try it, you may get out of it more than you expect.
