Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Below is a testimony given by one of our parishioners about Adoration. We invite you to spend time with Our Lord in Adoration every Monday between 8:00 AM and 7:30 PM (excluding holidays). If you would like more information about Adoration at St. Patrick Parish, please contact Angela Eyre at reachmorestpatrick@gmail.com.

My name is Brian Raffety. I want to let you know that I am a novice adorer. I don’t remember ever going to Adoration as a child or teenager and I only started going semi-regularly in the past 5 years or so. There are many people in our parish that spend a lot more time in Eucharistic Adoration than I do and could probably do a much better job of explaining Adoration than I, but I’ll try to make a couple of unique points to help convince you to come spend time with Jesus.

That is what Adoration is: coming to church when the host is exposed to spend some quiet time alone with Jesus. During your time there you can pray, read a religious book, or just sit quietly and listen to Jesus. The point is just to spend time with Jesus as you would a friend. As Father has said in his homilies, bring your problems to Jesus and He will bring you solutions. Adoration is a great place to do that.

For my family there are three different versions of Adoration:

• The 1-5 minute stop with the 1 and the 3 year old to get them used to coming to Adoration and thinking about Jesus. It’s a short stop because the church is very quiet during Adoration and they are not, but we are training them to go, and I’m sure that Jesus appreciates the effort.
• The 15-20 minute visit with the older kids, ages 6-18. With 8 kids, we have some pretty busy nights, but Andrea and I try to get the kids there every week for at least 15-20 minutes. Sometimes we have to go in shifts but it is always worth the effort. The kids need to be there consistently to help build their relationship with Jesus, as do we.
• The 45-60 minute visit. This is awesome if you can do it. Some people pay $150 for an hour massage, but I think you walk out every bit as relaxed and revived after spending an hour with Jesus. I often walk into Adoration with my mind spinning from the busyness of the day, but walk out at peace and with things sorted out. It’s a sense of peace that I don’t think most people ever experience because they are always engaged in something.

For those of you that have not been to Adoration, or maybe it has been a long time since you were last there, give it a try. If you can come for an hour, great, if you can come for 10 minutes, start with that. If you can’t get to St. Pat’s because you work far away, look for a church near work and go during lunch. Most churches have Adoration at least once per week. I guarantee you will walk out with a different mindset than when you came in.

For those of you that are not novices and come every week, I encourage you to invite someone. Bring that same happiness that you get from Adoration to others. If you have young kids bring them, if you have older kids, invite them. If you don’t have children, or they live far away, invite someone from the parish or from your neighborhood. Wouldn’t it be great to see the pews filled when you come to adore Jesus?