eucharistfolo

There are matters of interest when it comes to the Eucharist and we are now seeing a number of these matters shake down. They have to do with the Mass, as well as Adoration.

Last week, we discussed Exposition of the Host and how it's important to have someone there for both protection and reverence -- at the same time that we warned over-regulating it (for example, by demanding that two or more people be there) will greatly limit this devotion (at least as far as Perpetual Adoration).

Two people an hour is 168 people a week, many of whom would be assigned to duty in the middle of the night. It is a part of a movement toward reverence -- controversial in that different people have different things to say about what is reverent.

Clearly, the American bishops are looking toward more communal readings and prayer during Exposition, as well as during the liturgy. The concept: that we must unite not only with Christ but also with each other, as the mystical body.

Will this lead to more holiness? More singing is encouraged by the latest General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which bishops have been implementing.

Extraordinary ministers are no longer supposed to help break the bread or pour the cups for distribution. Communion under both species of bread and wine is strongly encouraged. All communicants are now supposed to make a bow of the head as a sign of reverence before receiving the Body and the Blood of Christ. In the past, our bishops decided that no special act of reverence would be used at the reception of Communion.

"Those who have been kneeling, genuflecting, or making the Sign of the Cross should now join the rest of the assembly in expressing reverence in the same way," notes one priest, Father Lawrence E. Mick, an expert on the Missal.

Local dioceses can use their discretion as to whether congregants stand together when Communion starts and remain standing until the last person receives, or whether, upon receiving, a congregant can kneel -- nixing the widespread practice, in many areas, of kneeling immediately. Does this limit private prayer time?

For the most part, kneeling after Communion seems to be maintained in most parishes, allowing for more private prayer.

Can we legislate holiness? Or must we rather work harder at exposing the congregation to tangible feelings of the Spirit?

Whatever the answer, the new instructions may end up rubbing up against Benedict XVI and the trend toward inserting more Latin -- which is associated more with the old pre-Vatican II private and devotional way of worshipping -- into the liturgy.

Are we to put aside all our personal preferences for the sake of "union with other members of the worshipping assembly," as the priest put it?

It is going to be hard to strike the proper balance. The danger: that forcing congregants out of private prayer will lesson the ambience of prayerfulness, as may also occur if audible readings and prayers are mandated when adorers shift posts during Adoration.

We are concerned about Adoration because many parishes are discontinuing the practice due precisely to the same kind of legislating.

What we know is that Adoration is crucial. If you don't believe that, there are testimonies on how Satan tries to attack such chapels (like the one, above, left, in Chicago, where a falling ceiling this week threatened worshippers).

"Our holy hour is our daily family prayer where we get together and pray the Rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament the first half hour, and the second half hour we pray in silence," she once wrote. "Our Adoration has doubled the number of our vocations. In 1963 we were making a weekly holy hour together, but it was not until 1973, when we began our daily holy hour, that our community started to grow and blossom."

That's in an anointed little book we recommend called The Rosary is the Answer (give this to some of the bishops, give it to priests), by Father Herbert Burke, who graduated from St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland (where devotion is still allowed), and who notes, "Many people are now coming up to an hour earlier before Mass to join Eucharistic Adoration and the Rosary before Mass. And, the number of converts has increased since we have started this practice." The church is full. This is the Spirit.

We can know this much: There is grace with Exposition. It is not just a ritual. As such, it should not be trifled with. Folks want a God Who is alive here and now, not an historical artifact (or a theological discourse). Many are those who feel they receive "guidance."

"It was eight in the evening of the 20th of August of this year," we hear from a viewer named Maria. " I was on my way home from doing adoration at a church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, when well to my surprise on the drive home I noticed the sun so immense and bright orange-red.

"I have never seen the sun so huge or this color that it scared me, and I mentioned it to my mom and she too thought it was strange, too.

"My first thought God is more powerful than this world. It was scary to see the sun this size because it almost looked liked two suns. It was strange. That same day I got home and checked my e-mail and received one from a lady in Montreal who receives [alleged] messages from our Blessed Mother and this one is from our Lord. It was a beautiful message and speaks of the times we are living."

We don't despise private revelation here, and so let's quote the alleged "message" (by the Lord to a "Carmelite of the Immaculate Heart of Mary" in Montreal on August 13):

"During the fifth decade of the Rosary, the Lord Jesus appeared to this Carmelite. He was dressed in white. In a firm voice, the Lord spoke: 'Dear children, children of My Father, I am in the Church, I am in the Eucharist, and I am in you. I come today to tell you once again: I am the Son of God, I am the Bread of Life. I also come to tell you again that My return is near, and I appeal to the whole world, and I do mean the whole world, to come back to Me, to also love each other, to love Me, and not to lose faith despite all you see coming in this world, for the Scriptures are being accomplished.

"Return to Me, do not reject Me from your lives, for I do not reject you from My Life. How I suffer when you suffer; I, too, cry when you cry, and let me assure you, My dear children, that I am with you every moment."

It was the first time that this seer, who has been getting message from the Blessed Mother, heard from Jesus.

We will hold that in discernment.

"I am writing because on World Youth Day of this past year I was viewing it on EWTN... when the camera panned in on the monstrance at Adoration, and I could not believe what I saw... a Boy in the Eucharist," wrote Paulette Lawrence of Upton, Massachusetts.

We heard this from others: that an image appeared in the Host. And we hear it from other places around the world.

It is certainly a Eucharistic moment.

"I'm producing a documentary on Eucharistic Adoration, and can verify exactly what you articulated so well," writes Mark Kolter of Kolter Creative Counsel north of Michigan [see article].

"Parishes committed to Adoration exude an almost palpable sense of Providential serenity. I've seen and felt that in rural parishes in Chilton, Wisconsin, and Iron Mountain, Michigan.... in cathedrals such as Christ the King in Atlanta and St. Cecilia in Omaha... and most tellingly in inner city parishes such as St. Bridget in north Minneapolis, or Queen of Martyrs in Milwaukee.

"Moreover, those are parishes that consequently seem to be making mature and dynamic outreaches to their immediate neighborhoods. They are literally in some cases stabilizing the vicinity.

"So I invite anyone who thinks that Adoration is an irrelevant and quaintly pious devotion to consider the tangible results. I hope my documentary changes some Bishops' minds. Whatever relatively few problems arise due to Adoration are more than counterbalanced by the graces.