Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It is our responsibility and privilege to ensure that someone is always present in front of Our Lord. Adorers commit to spending one hour a week in the Adoration Chapel in prayer with the Lord.
We have introduced an online schedule for Perpetual Adoration! Adorers can create an account to set preferences (text, email, phone call) for notifications (such as weather concerns); request a substitute; and fill in for someone else. Guest accounts are available as well. You can access the schedule on this page, through QuickLinks on the Home Page, and the Adoration button on myParish app. However, for people who prefer, you can still be scheduled by calling our Coordinators, Patti or Denise, or the Parish Office at 616-842-0001.
We hope this feature will encourage new people to pray in our Adoration Chapel. During Lent, instead of giving something up, we invite you to prayerfully consider spending more time before Our Lord. Do you want to participate in Adoration but are not sure you can commit to a weekly time? Please consider being a substitute for any open hours. Please email Patti Grillo or Denise Babbitt if you can fill a spot.
What is the Eucharist?
The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The term “Eucharist” originates from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning thanksgiving.
In the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. The whole Christ is truly present — body, blood, soul, and divinity — under the appearances of bread and wine, the glorified Christ who rose from the dead. This is what the Church means when she speaks of the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Eucharist.
Where is the Eucharist mentioned in the Bible?
The Lord Jesus, on the night before he suffered on the cross, shared one last meal with his disciples. During this meal our Savior instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages and to entrust to the Church a memorial of his death and resurrection. The Institution of the Eucharist is written down in the four Gospels below:
Why does Jesus give himself to us as food and drink?
Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment because he loves us. By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we become united to the person of Christ through his humanity. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6:56). In being united to the humanity of Christ, we are at the same time united to his divinity. Our mortal and corruptible natures are transformed by being joined to the source of life.
Is the Eucharist a symbol?
The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols. When Christ said “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” the bread and wine are transubstantiated. Though the bread and wine appear the same to our human faculties, they are actually the real body and blood of Jesus.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
The Liturgy of the Eucharist begins with the preparation of the gifts and the altar. As the ministers prepare the altar, representatives of the people bring forward the bread and wine that will become the Body and Blood of Christ. The celebrant blesses and praises God for these gifts and places them on the altar, the place of the Eucharistic sacrifice. In addition to the bread and wine, monetary gifts for the support of the Church and the care of the poor may be brought forward. The Prayer over the Offerings concludes this preparation and disposes all for the Eucharistic Prayer.
The Eucharistic Prayer
The Eucharistic Prayer is the heart of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In this prayer, the celebrant acts in the person of Christ as head of his body, the Church. He gathers not only the bread and the wine, but the substance of our lives and joins them to Christ’s perfect sacrifice, offering them to the Father.
The introductory dialogue establishes that this prayer is the prayer of the baptized and ordained, is offered in the presence of God, and has thanksgiving as its central focus. Following this dialogue, the celebrant begins the Preface, which consists of four different Eucharistic Prayers. After these prayers, communion is then given.
The following timeline follows the traditional Liturgy of the Eucharist:
- Presentation of the Gifts and Preparation of the Altar
- Prayer over the Offering
- Eucharistic Prayer
- Preface
- Holy, Holy, Holy
- First half of prayer, including Consecration
- Mystery of Faith
- Second half of prayer, ending with Doxology
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Sign of Peace
- Lamb of God
- Communion
- Prayer after Communion
In the eventuality that there is no one to relieve you, if that means that an hour slot is not yet filled, or if there is an emergency and you are not able to stay for subsequent slots, a curtain has been installed around the adoration altar that can be used to “repose” the Blessed Sacrament before you leave.
There will be prayers provided to say when doing so. Once the prayer has been said, respectfully close the curtains and depart.
If you arrive, and the curtains are closed, please pray the exposition prayer provided, and then respectfully open the curtains before beginning your time in adoration.
The Importance of Eucharistic Adoration
The importance of Eucharistic Adoration is shown in the fact that the Church has a ritual that regulates it: the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction. This is an extension of the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament which occurs in every Mass: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament flows from the sacrifice of the Mass and serves to deepen our hunger for Communion with Christ and the rest of the Church. The Rite concludes with the ordained minister blessing the faithful with the Blessed Sacrament.
Some important prayers that are used during this rite include the Anima Christi (en español) and the Tantum Ergo.
Holy Hours
Holy hours are the Roman Catholic devotional tradition of spending an hour in Eucharistic Adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The bishops have created a variety of holy hours that focus our prayer to Jesus Christ on peace, life, vocations, and other topics that are at the heart of the life of the Church and the world.
- Holy Hour for Healing
- Holy Hour for Divine Mercy Sunday
- Holy Hour for Healing and Reparation for the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
- Holy Hour for Life | en español
- Holy Hour for Life and Liberty
- Holy Hour for Life: Extended Silent Prayer
- Holy Hour for Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty | en español
- Holy Hour for Peace | en español
- Holy Hour for Vocations
- Holy Hour for Vocations, with priest celebrant
- Holy Hour for Vocations, without priest celebrant
- Holy Hour in Honor of St. Paul | en español
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament flows from the sacrifice of the Mass and serves to deepen our hunger for Communion with Christ and the rest of the Church.
“The Eucharist is here to remind us who God is. It does not do so just in words, but in a concrete way, showing us God as bread broken, as love crucified and bestowed,” the pope said. “Today, as in the past, the cross is not fashionable or attractive,” he said. “Yet it heals us from within. Standing before the crucified Lord, we experience a fruitful interior struggle, a bitter conflict between ‘thinking as God does’ and ‘thinking as humans do.’ ”
Pope Francis