Oasis of Power and Love

Matthew Kelly is an Australian born and bred man who is passionate about his Catholic Faith. He is an author, a motivational speaker, and an evangelist, who wants to bring as many people as possible into the Catholic Church. He has written the widely acclaimed book 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory, an easy-to-follow guide  to help Catholics to prepare in consecrating themselves to Jesus Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist. In the Introduction to this work, he entitled one section “The Eucharist is the Answer,” in which he reflected:
     
From my earliest days on the road, I recognized a pattern, a phenomenon—an observable fact—that demonstrated new life could be breathed into parishes and explained how it was happening. That phenomenon was Perpetual Adoration Chapels. It wasn't just an idea. It was living and breathing. It had been implemented in lots of communities and was bearing abundant fruit.
     
There is something powerful about giving people a quiet place to spend time with God. These peaceful places of refuge from the busyness of life and noise of the world were a soothing balm for parishioners’ souls. They (Adoration Chapels) provided a place to reestablish priorities. It was somewhere to focus on what matters most in a world driven mad with distractions. A place simply to be with Jesus.
           
I completely agree with Matthew Kelly on this point concerning Adoaration Chapels. I personally experienced that myself at St. Patrick Parish in Carlisle in the Diocese of Harrisburg, where I served as pastor for a number of years. When I arrived, the Adoration Chapel was already established and being maintained by the faithful of St. Patrick’s without any outside help. The parishioners responsible for keeping the Adoration Chapel running smoothly were dedicated to their ministry as a true labor of love, arranging for adorers to show up 24 hours a day, seven days a week to spend time before the Eucharistic Lord.
           
Throughout the years, I have heard people from many parishes recount the same experience. Some parishioners on having the occasion to spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament had a profound conversion. Their lives changed because they encountered Jesus in a way they had never experienced before. So much did this affect them, that they wanted others to have the same profound encounter with the Eucharistic Lord. At the same time, they desired for their own encounter with the Eucharistic Lord to continue. So they set about organizing an Adoration Chapel in their own parish, or close to them. Not only did individuals have deep conversions and a renewed relationship with the Lord Jesus but also the parish community was renewed and revitalized. The parish was given hope and was enabled to face the challenges that lay ahead and become a place of welcome from which people went out to meet people and bring them to Christ. These Adoration Chapels are truly “oases of power and love”!
           
I think of the words of Matthew Kelly practically every day, “The Eucharist is the Answer.” Sometimes I hear people criticize devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Adoration Chapels and Eucharistic Processions, saying, “We don’t need to do all this devotional activity; we just need to have the liturgy.” To this I respond that the adoration we offer Jesus in Adoration Chapels, at Benediction, and during Eucharistic processions we should also be offering to Him in the Sacrament of the Altar at Mass. But, do we realize that?  Many people have a very poor understanding of the Mass as the Sacrifice of Jesus made present, the Mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection. This can lead to a lack of faith in His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. The adoration of Jesus truly present as His Body and Blood are elevated at the altar at Mass will be deepened and more clearly understood by the adoration of Jesus on the altar where He is exposed in the monstrance. The activity of members of the body of Christ gathered at Mass will be supported and enlivened by the activity of the members of the Body of Christ gathered before the exposed Eucharistic Lord. These activities of the people of God are not opposed to one another, because they gather the faithful as members of the Body of Christ before and in union with Christ the Head whose Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity are Presence in the same Eucharist.
           
The Church has promoted devotion to Christ in the Holy Eucharist since apostolic times, and in the particular way that we know it, since the 12th century. Every pope in the 20th and 21st centuries has encouraged and promoted devotion to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist outside of Mass, seeing it as no opposition to the Mass. They have constantly taught, rather, that adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside of the Mass is embraced by the Sacred Liturgy, and it promotes a deeper participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the Mass itself.
           
We must see the centrality and the importance of adoration of Jesus in Adoration Chapels, during Holy Hours, and through Eucharistic Processions. We should participate in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament even daily, if possible. Why? As the Second Vatican Council taught in Lumen Gentium #11, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church #1324). If we want to renew and strengthen the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, we must come in adoration before the Eucharistic Body of the Lord. True reform of the Body of Christ, the Church, will begin before the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
           
As we welcome the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage into the diocese of Pittsburgh beginning June 12, I encourage all to come to participate in the Holy Masses, Holy Hours and Procession with the Blessed Sacrament over the next week. May Jesus who is really and substantially present in our midst in the holy Eucharist pour out His grace upon us and renew the Church of Pittsburgh!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh