Resources Talk

 Hello, I’m a member of the adoration committee here at SES. What I really wanted  to talk about is how wonderful adoration is—but they said NO!  Besides, if you are here today, then you probably already know the joys of adoration!

So instead I’m here to  tell you about some resources you can use to start or expand adoration in your parishes. You will be amazed at the myriad amount of literature available to help you spread Eucharistic Adoration. 

 The very best resource available to you is...YOU! Once you become well-versed in Perpetual Adoration, your enthusiasm can be the flame that lights countless candles of love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. When our committee first began meeting, we read and shared every pamphlet, prayer, book, encyclical, etc. we found on adoration & the Eucharist.  At the suggestion of our pastor, we started with the sections in the Catholic Catechism. We have provided a list of adoration websites on our resource table for you, as well as a book list, to get you started. We also have with us today some representatives from the Naperville Catholic Bookstore, owned by 2 of our parishioners. They have books available for purchase today, as well as a list of titles you may wish to order.

 Once we all felt well-versed in the subject & had a tentative start date for perpetual adoration, we, individually, spoke to every group in our parish: prayer groups, ministries, Religious Education teachers, Cursillo members, choirs, everyone. We explained what Adoration was and why we wanted to start it, and how it would work.

 Here are some of the things we used to help get our message across:

FIRST, prayer was the catalyst that brought everything else together. We prayed a decade of the rosary and a prayer of Mother Teresa’s before and after each of our meetings. We promised to pray the Mother Teresa prayer daily until the chapel opened. On our resource table, you will find a copy of Mother’s prayer which we used, as well as a novena to St. Peter Julian Eymard, (A-mard) , apostle of the Eucharist.

 SECOND, visuals—try to keep adoration on everyone’s mind as much as you can! We ran weekly bulletin articles with Eucharistic quotes, paragraphs from encyclicals & general information. Sample copies of some of these articles are on the resource table. We also purchased a few Adoration posters, which we displayed on easels in our church, a few weeks before adoration sign-up began. We also use these posters whenever we have an event going on for Adoration, as you hopefully noticed as you came in today!

 We try to keep adoration information on a bulletin board in our church as well, & on our bulletin board in our chapel entryway, and update them periodically. For instance, at Christmas time we put a large, wrapped present on the board, saying, “What are you giving Jesus for Christmas this year?” and suggesting an hour of adoration. You never know when someone who sees your notices will be prompted to take an hour. It is our job to give them as many opportunities as we can;  the Holy Spirit will do the rest.