I was really pleased this afternoon as I had a spare hour to myself and decided to give the hour to God in adoration at a chapel in a small town that I pass through on the way home from work. I was the only one in the chapel and it was most peaceful but in the background was the noise of the busy world outside. About half way through the hour I heard someone enter the chapel and soon became aware that an elderly blind man had entered the church as I could hear him tap his white stick on the way up the isle. He was not at all aware of me as I was in the second row from the front of the church praying quietly. I watched as he passed me and he genuflected at the front of the chapel and I saw him making his way to the right towards the statue of the Sacred Heart. He blessed himself first and then held the hand of Jesus in fervent prayer. He then blessed himself again. He carried coins in one hand and felt his way down the wall to find the donation box, then lit three [electric] candles before saying more prayers. He then proceeded to find his way across the front of the church on a carefully trodden path as he counted his steps before genuflecting at the right spot before the tabernacle. Beside me on my left was a little grotto to our Lady inset against the wall and he used his stick to find his way there. I noticed that he had more coins in his hands as he walked past me. He again blessed himself and held the hand of our Lady and again proceeded to pray fervently. After prayer he blessed himself again and found the donation box and put the coins in. He lit three more candles and said more prayers. Needless to say I was engrossed because I was amazed at this man's simple piety and his faith. He proceeded to walk across the front of the chapel and after genuflecting I noticed him counting four rows of seats before kneeling just behind me to pray. I continued my adoration inspired by the blind man's faith and I gave priase to God and felt that our Lord was so pleased by this man's faith. He arose and I noticed that he started the Stations of the Cross - the first station was exactly four seats back where he had been kneeling. And when he moved to the 2nd station he did not use a stick but counted the rows. This obvioulsy was a routine that the blind man had performed so may times before. And I left the chapel after an hour's adoration uplifted by the faith of an elderly blind man.
Ahhhhh though he was blind he could see better than anyone!! I think this is one of the great gifts from going to Churches is to meet the saints. what a delight. Sometimes I wonder if God does not keep all His very best saints hidden so He can keep them all to Himself!!! I am envious at you Garabandal for getting a whole hour to yourself in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I always seem to be rushing here and there and I haven't even an excuse of having a family. :roll: :roll: :roll: But I really love walking and praying with the dog morning and evening and during the day at breaks and praying away. Lately I have been relearning an old, old lesson I have been taught a million, million times before and thats to cast my worries unto the Lord, to keep my eyes set on Our Lay's face and pray, pray, pray those worries away!! I met a man the other night out walking and he remarked on how much he admired the dog. It turned out he was the brother of an old friend of mine who died a few months back, he told me how his death from cancer went. After he left I prayed for his soul, but just felt a deep sadness and emptiness, I fear he has gone to a place were no prayers of mine can help. It reminded me that life is given to us for a reason and we all have choices. May the good God grant us all salvation and save us from the death that never ends.
That was a lovely story Garabandal! I missed my hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament last week and I can't wait for tomorrow night! When I was there 2 weeks ago the sacristan came down to two ladies who had just arrived to do their hour and she asked them to "give me a hand in the Sacristy"-She kept them for the whole hour doing something or other!! Aarhhh! Siobhan
Yesterday, during a busy day at university, I took a break at 5pm and headed to a nearby adoration chapel, in the Poor Clares convent. This was my first proper adoration, and trudging through the rain, feet saturated, I wondered what was I to do with myself in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I had never been before for any significant length of time, and now I wanted to spend a bit of time there. In any case I went in, and the instant I closed the door behind me I could feel the peace and serenity of the chapel. An elderly man had just gone in before me, and took the last pew. I blessed myself with the holy water, shuffled up the aisle, took the bag off my back and knelt on the kneeler. The Blessed Sacrament was beautifully displayed. Set in a sort of white tabernacle without any door, adorned with curtains to each side and a beautifully lit golden monstrance, I was struck by its beauty. There was a lady in her 60s sitting across and a little up from me, and I noticed she was watching me out of the corner of her eye. I tried to watch what she was doing, but she gave nothing away; she simply sat there, her eyes transfixed on Our Blessed Lord. She continued to peek at me every now and then, though she never moved. Every few minutes, I could hear someone behind me come or go. I could hear the distant bustle of the busy college street, which now seemed like a million miles away. A street which I had just stepped off a moment ago. I could hear the nuns chanting prayers somewhere else in the convent, perhaps in a nearby room. After my few prayers I sat back onto the seat. My feet were soaked from the rainwater and the remnant of a previous day's headache still nagged away, fuelled by busy college work during the day. As long and all as I have been practicing my faith, this was the first real time I had devoted to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and I felt like a rookie, like the new kid at school. I knew the older people (only two or three others, including herself eyeing me) were watching; of all the thousands of college students that pass by every day, barely any enter. I began gingerly by simply pouring out my cares and worries to Jesus, as I gazed at the Blessed Sacrament. Of my major plan for the year, hoping that it would work out, hoping that it would be God's will. And hoping that people's reactions would be positive when they heard the news when the life-changing decision might be announced. Please God. I then continued to pray internally, which felt unusual, as I was sitting quietly in a chair, my lips not moving. I hope Jesus heard me, anyway! I relaxed in the silence, I felt comfortable, despite my physical naggings, comfortable to be in the presence of God Himself. I mainly kept my eyes transfixed on the Blessed Sacrament, in a sort of silent adoration. Then the nuns arrived. They opened up a side window, beside the altar, so as they were seated in the next room, they could also see the Blessed Sacrament. They began to sing the 'O Sacrament Most Holy' hymn with an organ, very beautifully. I remained with the Blessed Sacrament for a half an hour, and despite the rest of the work I got done that day or the people I met, that half hour was by far the most beautiful. I look forward to going again next week, if I can. Then it was time for the woman nearby to go. She got up slowly, genuflected, and headed back down the aisle. As she passed she took a good look at me, a look neither friendly or reproachful, but a look of mild surprise. Then again, I was the youngest person there times three. I often notice that. Whenever I go into a church outside of my own parish, either to Mellary Abbey for Confession or like yesterday, into the Poor Clares convent, the older folk react with a sort of surprise, and are careful to say hello to me, as if I needed to feel a welcome. It is a very nice thing to witness, but given my age, and current religious trends, I suppose I am one of those few lucky salmon swimming against the tide. When I whip out the Rosary beads I confound them altogether!!! Anyway, I hope I got the adoration right. Whether I did or not, I sure was grateful for the priviledge to spend a precious half hour with Our Lord. Seán
Shane, Saint Augustine says that when the priest holds the host towards us and says, 'The body of Christ' he is referring not only to the Real Presence in the host but to the fact that we are all the Body of Christ, the Church. I think more and more when we pray we enter into prayer, especially in a Sacramental devotion we enter more fully into the Body of Christ and so become more aware of each other an awareness born not of the senses but of the eyes of the heart, of love. Perhaps when you saw the lady and the nuns you were experienceing this a little. When I love at the picture on the forum at the minute of Our Lady holding up the child Jesus with her eyes lowered and Jesus looking directly at us it reminds me of the priest holding up the Monstrance to the congregation a little. True Marian spirituality is a little like this Mary decreasing as Christ increases ..as Saint John the Baptists said, 'I must decrease as He must increase'. Or as Mary said at the Wedding Feast of Capernaum , 'Do as He tells you'. Many years ago I asked a young monk at Mount Mellary how he ended up in the monastery. He said when he went to College his mother handed him a set of rosary beads. He took a notion and started to pray them now and end. But in the end he got so hooked he found himself saying them even as he cycled round the campus . In the end it was the rosary beads , which his mother gave him that drew him into the monastery. I think at the end of day going to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament is a bit like a poor tired thirsty traveller who crosses a very dry , hot dusty desert and comes at last to a rich oasis. He sits down and drinks the water and eats the figs and gazes into the clear deep waters for a while, resting in the cool and the shade. John 4:4-42 (New International Version) 4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." 11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." 17"I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." 19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." 26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." The Disciples Rejoin Jesus 27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" 28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." Many Samaritans Believe 39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers. 42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." We are a bit like the Samaritan woman and say to Jesus, 'Give me that water that I may drink. But in the end the water from the sacramental presense reaches into all our days. The oasis spreads until it becomes a great lake then a great clear crystal sea deluging all the desert of our hearts so that prayer becomes our life and our life becomes our prayer. I pray all the time now and when I am alone I often let even my lips move in constant prayer. A while ago an Indian lady who has been asking to pray for her child in the womb [her last and first child had dies during a miscarriage] came across me in the filing aisles and noticed me praying like this. 'What are you doing...you're praying she !!' she said. I said i was that I never stopped praying. Just a few weeks ago Her baby girl Nandanda jane was born and going to the statue of Saint Gerald Majella at the back of the Clonard Maonastry I found a large pink wreath sent from India thanking God for the birth of this little girl, at the feet of St Gerald patron saint of Pregnant mothers . Last spring my boss at work told me her husband was dying of a rare form of leukeamia. She also asked me pray and I did so and advised her to take her husband to Lourdes. She did so in August and from September to now her husbands blood tests have been normal. She too at work when it is quiet has seen me staring out the window and has aksed me if I am praying.. I say this because when we go to the oasis we go as the Body of Christ and take the whole world with us and eventually we do not leave the oasis but stay there for all eternity bringing so much of the world there with us for healing and help. Our hearts become a little pool of life giving water which we pour out for the healing of others. As to those who do not pray, they walk in a very dry and dusty alien land. They are so much in need of the waters which we by our prayer can pour for them .We begin the healing of the world by healing ourselves. We pour waters for the healing of the world.
Sean, I am one of those people when I see a young person praying in church or at adoration. It isan encouragement to everyone. Padraig, What kind of prayers do you say as you pray all day? I have my heart set on the Lord and I have a continous conciousness of Him but I dont really say prayers except for the rosary and some chaplets I pray in the evening and of course Mass. Mary
You're very insprirational Padraig- even if it does'nt look as if i'm contributing a lot to this forum I love to read other peoples stories and be insprired by them. Lately I was feeling a bit low and kind of thinking to myself "is this real" (meaning God) and feeling that dry dessert emotion as if to say "hello, where have you gone" Anyway I was down at the Blessed Sacrament tonight and it was a lovely hour (Sean this one's for you)- I too wondered when I started going -what was I supposed to do for the hour? There is usually reading material available like the life of Pope John Paul 11 and Padre Pio-Lovely inspirational stories! Sorry computer problem-have to log off for a mo! Siobhan
I'm back! Well tonight I was wondering the same as yourself Sean. How could I get more out of it and what exactly am I supposed to be doing. I'm the type of person who needs pointers or a proper outline in what the rules are. Well I picked up this leaflet which was all about the hour and an outline as to how you should spend it... 1. Contrition -repentance for our sins 2. Adoration -praising God 3. Thanksgiving -for all the many gifts that God has given us, the sacraments, gift of faith etc. 4.Supplication -praying for others, The Church, the Pope, Bishops, Vocations, Government and so on You can add to that by saying the Rosary or readin the previous week's gospel. Of course you can always do what you feel is best for you, God speaks to us in so many ways! You can also look at this website-www.eucharisticadoration.ie I laughed out loud about you whipping out your Rosary Beads-very funny!! Siobhan
Thanks for that list, Siobhan, looking back on it now I think I covered most of them! But I will say that simply gazing quietly at the Blessed Sacrament, in a sort of quiet reflective contemplation, is what I am finding most beautiful about adoration. I have often heard it said that Jesus often makes known things to us as we contemplate in silence, especially during adoration, through the Holy Spirit. If we rattle out a long list of prayers, we might miss what Our Lord might like to say to us.
So true! I'm terrible at rattling out prayers at the Blessed Sacrament. Thats why I like to read, it's funny how my questions are always answered when I'm reading-I was fasting one wednesday and I love to go to the Blessed Sacrament on that evening and I was a bit tetchy because I was starving! I was reading about Pope John Paul 11 who in his younger day's would have to Q for black bread because there was no food in the shop because of the war-we'll it put my "starving" into prospective! There are loads of books about saints and other various religious books put out on a table at my local church for people who are spending the hour with Christ. I often get a "wow" moment "I never knew that" while I'm reading! Siobhan
