Growing Movement Promotes Eucharistic Adoration:
An Invitation to All
by Edwin Benson April 21, 2025 tfp.org/growing-movement-promotes-eucharistic-adoration
“If you don’t give up 15 minutes a day to foster this friendship with the Lord, how are you going to spend eternity in heaven with him?”
Alfredo Janson spoke this magnificent bit of simple wisdom. Mr. Janson is not a priest or a member of a religious order. He is a communications engineer and a regular adorer in the perpetual adoration chapel at Saint Benedict’s Catholic Church in Hialeah, Florida. The Associated Press article quoted him in an article about what the AP called “a growing Catholic trend.”
The AP article also describes the simple chapel that Mr. Janson visits every morning from six to seven a.m. “Ten chairs face a sunburst-shaped monstrance—the vessel where an unusually large consecrated host is displayed.” Adoration is a quintessentially Catholic practice. It builds upon the doctrine of transubstantiation—the belief that the bread and wine offered in the Holy Mass actually become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Catholic author Mike Aquilina calls Eucharistic adoration “an ancient devotion in modern times.” He also sees connections between this devotion and Our Lord’s transfiguration. Consider this passage from Matthew 17:1-9:
Echoes of the Transfiguration
“And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, Arise, and fear not. And they lifting up their eyes saw no one but only Jesus.”
Compare the experience of the three disciples with that of a Eucharistic adorer. Our Lord calls the adorers from their regular lives to a place apart. There, in the monstrance Our Lord shines, golden rays emanating from His presence. Like Peter, the adorers know that they are receiving a special grace. The first impulse may be fear or bewilderment, but in the end, there is only His consoling presence imparting strength for the path ahead. And, like the disciples, the adorers are changed in ways they do not entirely understand.
An Initially Uncomfortable Act Becomes a Habit
At first, the extreme serenity of an adoration chapel can be uncomfortable for those unaccustomed to it. Modern life is so full of noise and distraction that even a few moments of stillness can be disconcerting.
Suddenly deprived of excitement, busy minds often dash about in a frenzied search. Bringing a list of those for whom they wish to pray, a rosary, or a half dozen prayer cards can assist the new adorer in entering Our Lord’s company more smoothly. Another appropriate practice is to bring a Bible or Missal and silently read a Psalm or the readings for the day. Soon, by contemplating the readings, neophytes find depth in them that cannot be attained by hearing them read quickly at Holy Mass.
At the same time, newcomers to the practice should not be daunted by the hours that some spend in adoration. Even a few minutes at a time are often enough to plant a lifelong thirst for adoration. A friend of this author’s began when he realized he could alter his route to work and spend a few minutes each day praying. Another common piece of advice is not to watch the clock. Just go in, be quiet for a few seconds, tell Our Lord what seems essential at that moment, and then leave if necessary. No one is paying the slightest attention to the duration of anyone else’s visit.
Also, there is no prescribed ritual for the prayers one offers. Some adorers simply sit quietly in Our Lord’s presence. Others use one of the readily available Holy Hour manuals. Simply bringing an appropriate book like the life of a saint or any topic that will help deepen the reader’s faith is helpful, especially if there is a stack of such books next to a chair at home waiting to be read.
A Glorious “Accident”
Viewed in purely human terms, the first perpetual adoration chapel can be said to have happened accidentally. On September 11, 1226, King Louis VIII1 of France (father of King Saint Louis IX) went into the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Avignon. Two days before, the city—until that time a stronghold of Albigensian heretics—surrendered to the King’s army after a siege of several months. When the King arrived, he asked the priest in charge of the chapel to expose the Holy Eucharist as a public act of thanksgiving. Up to this point, there was nothing unusual.
However, when the chapel was opened, a throng of adorers filled the space. As some adorers completed their prayers and left, others entered. At the end of the day, the sun went down, but the adorers stayed—and stayed—and stayed. Shortly, this act of adoration assumed the adjective perpetual.
It continued for 556 years until Revolutionary soldiers interrupted it by closing the chapel in 1792 at the time of the French Revoluiton. A group calling themselves Confrérie de Penitents-Gris (Brotherhood of Grey Penitents) resumed the adoration in 1829, and it continues today.
Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Perhaps the best-known act of adoration is also in France, at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the Montmartre section of Paris. There, the perpetual adoration chain began on August 1, 1885.
It continues today.
The National Catholic Register quoted Sister Cécile-Marie, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of the Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre, which is responsible for the nights of adoration at the Basilica. “The adoration hasn’t stopped even for a minute, including during the two world wars. Even during the 1944 bombing, when some fragments fell right next to the Basilica, the adorers never left.”
During the COVID pandemic, the Basilica—like all places of public worship—was quarantined. During the two months that the public was not admitted, the fourteen nuns in the community were forced to arrange their daily lives so that at least one of them was present with Our Lord. This act of faithfulness required each of the nuns to spend an hour in the Basilica twice a day.
The growing movement to adoration is an encouraging sign of how Our Lord attracts souls in their times of need. Although the times were difficult, the spirit that motivated the Sacré-Coeur adorers is common to the many perpetual adoration chapels worldwide.
“We never leave the Lord alone.”