Prayer for
the Spread of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
Heavenly Father, increase our faith in the Real Presence of
Your Son Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We are obliged to
adore Him, to give Him thanks and to make reparation for sins.
We need Your peace in our hearts and among nations. We need conversion
from our sins and the mercy of Your forgiveness. May we obtain
this through prayer and our union with Eucharistic Lord. Please
send down the Holy Spirit upon all peoples to give them the love,
courage, strength and willingness to respond to the invitation
to Perpetual Adoration. We beseech You to spread perpetual exposition
of the Most Blessed Sacrament in parishes around the world. We
ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Our Lady of the Most
Blessed Sacrament, help us to spread the glory of Your Son through
exposition of the Holy Eucharist.
Prayer to
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
O Virgin Mary, our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, glory of the
Christian people, joy of the universal Church , salvation of
the world; pray for us, and awaken in all the faithful devotion
to the Holy Eucharist in order that they render themselves worthy
to receive It daily.
The following advice is from Fr. Benedict Groeschel and his book,
Praying with the Saints in the Presence of
Our Lord:
This series of simple steps are based on a method of St. Teresa
of Avila, who said she was afraid to go into prayer with out
a book in her hands. If St. Teresa used a book, we can hardly
do better than to follow her lead.
Step I: Collect your thoughts in an act of remembrance and adoration
of the One you are about to speak to. We need to break the rapidly
flowing stream of consciousness that has accompanied us through
the day and brought us to the threshold of the chapel where Christ
awaits us in His mysterious sacramental presence. Simply put,
you have to stop and remind yourself that you are going to pray
--- you are going to speak with Jesus Christ, your Lord and Redeemer,
present in His body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, as He was at
Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and as He now is in eternal life
and glory. The first step of real devotion is to be deeply aware
that Christ is present to you, that He knows you and cares about
you.
To stop the flow of everyday thoughts, it is helpful to kneel
in adoration, and to take some deep breaths that help to calm
us down and to repeat inwardly, “I am here with my Savior
and my God,” or some similar expression of the awe we ought
to experience in His presence. After all, we are talking to God.
One should spend as much time as one needs to do this. To be
effective, it really takes several minutes. Frankly, I think
that those who minimize the importance of kneeling simply lack
the experience of awe.
At the end of this step, taking a couple of minutes of complete
silence is helpful, but this should be discontinued if the mind
begins to wander and be filled with distracting thoughts. The
end of the period of silence should be a fervent appeal to the
Holy Spirit to give us the grace to pray well and in union with
Christ.
Step II: Now find a prayer or meditation from scriptures or
some other book of devotions .Or better, keep your Bible with
you if it is marked with quotations that you like.
Take time to find the quotation that fits your need at the moment.
This should be a matter of what catches your attention and is
based on your need in the situation that you have been enduring
this day.
Read the quotation a few times, savor it, and let its meaning
fill your mind. Compare the truth or sentiment of the quotation
with your present mood or need or state of mind. For example,
if you are anxious about some specific thing in your life, many
quotations from the psalms will be helpful to you. For instance,
Psalm 107,from verse 4 to verse 9, gives us an image of
god feeding the troubled soul and satisfying the soul’s
hunger and thirst. This obviously can be related easily to the
experience of receiving Holy Communion.
Step III: Allow the meaning of the quotation or prayer to sink
into your mind and heart. This may not feel very elevating, and
it may be very silent. Let the quotation sink in quietly. Don’t
be afraid to take some time just allowing the words to enter
into your mind and heart.
Step IV: Then, in your own words and thoughts, speak to Our
Lord, recalling His presence with such sentiments as awe, joy,
gratitude, sorrow for sin, trust. Don’t be afraid to express
fear, disappointment, frustration, and confusion. This is part
of the purification we must sometimes enter into in the presence
of the Savior of the World. Sentiments can be best expressed
in very simple individual phrases like the following:
Jesus, I adore You, Son of God.
Jesus, I am so grateful to You.
Jesus, I am filled with joy that You are with me.
Jesus, I hurt very badly.
Jesus, what went wrong?
Jesus, why did I fall and fail?
Jesus, I am hurt and angry.
Jesus, I don’t understand.
Jesus, increase my faith.
Jesus, be with me in my troubles.
Jesus, keep me with Your cross.
Jesus, don’t leave me.
Jesus, be with those I love and care about.
These are just a few of the sentiments we might express. Obviously,
there are hundreds of different ones. Remember that you can say
anything to Jesus Christ in such an intimate moment.
As you come to an end of such expressions, see if you can put
all your feelings and experiences into a simple prayer, even
a prayer without words. Then, if there is time left, begin Step
II again. This time, perhaps you should seek another scripture
quotation, perhaps a psalm of praise like 149 or 150; or if it
is a difficult time, perhaps a psalm of repentance like Psalm
51. You can also seek for another prayer in this manual or some
similar devotional book.
Step V: Ending a Holy Hour: As loyal disciples of Christ, we
always ought to end our prayer with some resolution of charity,
some decision to let Christ operate in our lives, so that each
day it may be more and more true that “it is no longer
I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
We should think of some realistic action that we should take
to show our love for Jesus by serving His brothers and sisters
for whom He died. What we do to others we do to Him.
To act in a way that is realistically united with His life of
grace, we must proceed from a Christian motive and do things
in a way that reflects His Gospel example and teaching. We never
do this perfectly, but we can pray and struggle to do it better.
I came long ago to suspect any Christian prayer or experience
that does not lead to Christlike action. “If you love me,
keep my commandments…. As you did it to one of the least
of these my brethren, you did it to me . ..I was hungry and you
gave me food”(Jn 14:15;Mt25:40;Mt 25:35). The honesty of
prayer can be judged by the actions and struggles of grace as
we surrender to the call of the Holy Spirit sent into our souls
by our Blessed Master to teach us all that we need to know.
I always spend the last few moments of this time with Christ,
asking the help and protection of His Mother and our Mother.
I also address a few saintly friends already in the Kingdom of
God and ask them to pray for me. And, finally, I greet my guardian
angel, that mysterious celestial citizen whom God gave me when
I started out on this brief human experience. I almost always
leave the presence of Our Lord refreshed or at least better prepared
for whatever the day may bring.
Great Quotes
“Give me the Eucharist or Let me die.”
Peter Julian Eymard
“The church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic
Adoration. Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of love. May
our adoration never cease.”
Pope John Paul II
“I know I wouldn’t be able to work one week if it
were not for the continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. In our society we begin our day with Mass and Holy
Communion and we end it with one full hour of Adoration. We have
permission from the different bishops to expose the Blessed Sacrament.
All of us know that unless we believe and can see Jesus in the
appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see
Him in the distressing disguise of the poor. Therefore, these
two loves are but one in Jesus.”
Mother Theresa
“The greatest thing in the world that you can do is to
encourage others and yourself to participate in perpetual adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament. It is the real presence of Jesus on
earth. The blessings that come upon you and your family will
be phenomenal.”
Mother Angelica
“ If in this world there be any knowledge of this mystery
keener than that of faith, I wish now to affirm that I believe
in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in this Sacrament, truly
God and truly man, the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin Mary.
This I believe and hold true and certain.”
St Thomas Aquinas
“How can anyone be lonely, with Our Lord in the Blessed
Sacrament?”
Ven. Matt Talbot
“When you pass before a chapel and do not have time to
stop for a while, tell your Guardian Angel to carry out your
errand to Our Lord in the tabernacle. He will accomplish it and
then still have time to catch up with you."
St. Bernadette Soubirous
“When I go to the chapel, I put myself before the good
God and say to Him, “Lord, here I am, give me what You
wish.” If He gives me something, I am happy and I thank
Him. If He gives me nothing, I thank Him still, because I do
not deserve anything more. Then I tell Him all that comes into
my mind. I tell Him my sorrows and my joys – and I listen.”
St. Catherine Laboure
“Do you want the Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him
often. Do you want Him to give you few graces? Visit Him rarely.
Do you want the devil to attack you? Visit Jesus rarely in the
Blessed Sacrament. Do you wan him to flee from you? Visit Jesus
often. Do you want to conquer the devil? Take refuge often at
the feet of Jesus. Do you want to be conquered by the devil?
Forget about visiting Jesus. My dear ones, the Visit to the Blessed
Sacrament is an extremely necessary way to conquer the devil.
Therefore, go often to visit Jesus and the devil will not come
out victorious against you"
St. John Bosco
