Returning to Perpetual Adoration

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has existed at Nativity of Our Lord since the middle part of the 1990’s. 

Begun during the fabled pastorate of Father Lannan, it was described by that beloved spiritual father himself as one of his proudest and most important contributions to the history of our parish.  

He was not ashamed or afraid to tout its importance from the pulpit, nor to call for its active support from parishioners by asking them to sacrifice their valuable time by making sure Jesus was not alone in the little chapel so beautifully adorned and watched over maternally by the eyes of the Madonna, our Lady of Tenderness.  

Thirty years after it began at Nativity, Adoration continues to be a mainstay in our parish, though like so many other things, it now looks quite different than it did prior to COVID-19 restrictions.  

But thanks to the remarkable efforts of Fr. Nick Hagen, Fr. Bill Duffert, and a handful of committed parishioners, Adoration is now available every day of the week, and we even have one day with all night Adoration. This is cause for rejoicing.  

But I don’t think it’s enough. It is my belief that adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is an essential piece of our identity as a parish, right up there with our well-loved parochial school, and if we are to be the strong Catholic parish I believe Our Lord desires us to be, we must strive to get back to Perpetual (24/7) Adoration. 

To do this, we will need many to step forward and volunteer their time to “come and see.”  

Our situation is, of course, different than it was when our Adoration chapel opened 30 years ago. We live in a post-COVID world (with all of what that means). There are also now many parishes nearby which offer a similar place of quiet prayer that was quite unique to Nativity three decades ago.  

But is it not the case that we need such a place more than ever, perhaps even more now than when Father Lannan inaugurated the chapel? Our world of calcified divisions; our world of deafening, frenetic activity; our world of despair and hopelessness — Jesus alone is the answer to the deepest troubles of the human heart that manifest themselves in all our modern ills, and it is Jesus who waits for us in the chapel. 

Come and see.    

For 30% of our parish’s 100-year history, our Adoration chapel has occupied a privileged place of grace. For our heritage and identity; to honor the past and to secure the future; to bring sanity back to our lives and to our families  — let us seek to find time for the one who waits, silently, in our little chapel off to the side, where tears are shed, prayers are said, and we wait for him to answer.  

And he sees us. And he loves us.  

Please join me in entrusting the effort to bring 24/7 Adoration back to Nativity to St. Teresa of Kolkata, a saint for which the aforementioned Fr. Lannan had a rather special fondness. 

Fr. Lannan saw in this great woman a compelling combination of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the poor — a combination, let it be said, that is rather natural. We’ll never be able to see Jesus in the poor if we cannot see him in the little host. Come and see.  

Mama T — pray for us!
Father Lannan — you too.  
 
In Christ,
Fr. John Paul Erickson, Parochial Vicar