Putting off Adoration

Going to Eucharistic Adoration is something I always mean to get around to, but usually don’t. Part of it is logistics. I remember once calling the closest parish to get the PIN code to access to chapel. I think I was asked more questions than when I filled out my security clearance. Not belonging to that parish I think prevented that from coming to fruition.

Then I called another parish with perpetual adoration and I just needed someone to vouch for me, which my parish priest did. So I have been going there off and on, although the parish is not really close or usually on my route. One funny aspect is their keypad to gain entrance. The buttons for the four digits used are quite obvious because of the ware on the buttons. So even when I forgot the code, the digits needed were rather obvious.

Last week on the Feast of Corpus Christi my parish was having sign ups for Adoration before and after Mass. So I signed up for a weekly time slot at night. So this will get me to do regularly what I wanted to get into the habit of doing. So I went at the appointed time to the chapel I had never been to which is across from the main church and next to the historic church where I go to Latin Mass. The chapel is built into a center used by the parish and is a good sized circular room on the “corner” of the building.

I was happy to see about a dozen people there at night and that there was a beautiful monstrance. No security code to enter to gain access, but the chapel is not open 24/7. What surprised me the most is how fast an hour went by. There is something just so wonderful about praying and reading in His Eucharistic presence.

I’ve been going to this parish since my wife died and while I have been going to the historic church and the cemetary behind it, I had no idea the adjacent building contained a chapel. I though it was all parish offices. Doh!

Another thing I accidentally discovered was that the parish where I go to morning Mass at had Adoration before Morning Mass. Getting to Mass early in the morning was already difficult enough and I tended to arrive a minute or two before Mass started. Getting there earlier one day and seeing the Monstrance it finally dawned on me that they did this everyday. So now I wake up a little earlier to at least get in on tail end of Adoration and to sing the Tantum Ergo. That would be a whole ten minutes earlier I now wake up – proving I must really love Jesus if I am going to wake up a whole ten minutes earlier.