Mass Times

A REFLECTION ABOUT COMING TO ADORATION

Why am I here? Why have I made Adoration part of my weekly prayer?

I come to be near Jesus, to be present to His presence, to sit quietly in the glow of His glory.

I come weary and burdened, to lean against His gentle and humble heart, and find the rest He promised, and so generously provides.

I come to wonder, to see what is usually hidden, to ask those crucial questions I’m often too busy or lazy to ponder.

Sometimes I come for the sheer joy of giving form to my longing for God.

Other times I come in boredom, and remain bored, or bring along messy distractions, and remain distracted. Nonetheless, I’ve learned that not coming leaves a deeper void than when the devotion felt empty, and that when I do come the time before the Blessed Sacrament lingers with me long afterwards, whether the prayer was diligent or disjointed.

I come to Adoration because usually nothing happens, but occasionally everything happens. The Franciscan writer Richard Rohr explains that we need to offer prayers of reverence to “de-centre” ourselves. Schedules, worries, desires, fears, wants, hurts, and priorities tend to heighten our self-focus, leaving God on the margins. To venerate weekly, to bow our precious time before our maker, redeemer, and animator, helps reset all those other pressing variables into their proper context. Paradoxically, veneration is liberating – freeing us to trust the One who loves us so much.

Although structured as a prayer of stillness, Adoration is, for me, the most participative of prayers. The invitation of Christ present among us is for communion. While at mass we receive the body and blood of Christ to make it our own, in Adoration we offer ourselves – with our unique talents, hopes, possibilities, and limits – as Eucharistic gift to the Lord. On Sundays we celebrate Easter-like the indispensability of Jesus to us; at Adoration we acknowledge Gethsemane-like our indispensability as companions to Jesus.

I come to Adoration for other reasons, including many still to be known, but always, to say thank you, thank you, thank you.