I. Whatever Happened to Perpetual Adoration?

This article was first published in the March-April, 1997, issue of Spirit & Life magazine.

If you are old enough, like me, you probably remember the days when we had practices and devotions such as Benediction, the Forty Hour's devotion, and the continuous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament known as perpetual adoration. The parish where I spent my childhood, Blessed Sacrament Church in Kansas City, Kansas, had just such a program of perpetual adoration and it was the pride of the parish. I remember as a child desiring to participate in the way that many of my fellow parishioners did. They committed themselves to half hours of adoration by day and/or an hour by night on a regular, weekly basis. As a child I longed to do that, but my family lived too far from our parish church, so I did what I could: I stopped in the church after school for short periods of prayer whenever possible. Thus, growing up in a parish with a tradition of perpetual adoration, when attendance at daily Mass was as much a part of the curriculum as reading, writing, and arithmetic, it seemed only natural that I would develop a dedication to the Eucharist--a dedication that many people my age and older still share today. It is no doubt why I found myself attracted to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and why I became a member. However, over the past ten to fifteen years many changes have occurred in our Church and in our community. These changes have resulted in different ways of living out and expressing dedication and devotion to the Eucharist, which had been expressed in the practice of perpetual adoration as continuous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Since the Second Vatican Council, my understanding of Eucharist and the presence of Christ has grown and broadened. While I continue to experience the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I experience the presence of Christ in the Word of God proclaimed during the liturgy, in the person of every member of the gathered assembly, and in the presider. The radiant and full presence of Christ in the host extends far beyond the limits and boundaries of the host. The presence of Christ, by virtue of the resurrection, fills the universe in all its parts.