You Can Make This Your Best Advent Ever!

 Make This Your Best Advent Ever!

Advent is that beautiful time of year that helps us focus on the spiritual preparation for Christmas and on the coming of Our Lord.  It’s that time of year when every Christian publication we subscribe to, every Christian radio station listened to, and perhaps every homily heard, will all be encouraging us to “prepare” for Jesus’ coming into the world and to remember the real meaning of Christmas.

One of the best ways to “prepare” is to pray.  And one of the best ways to pray is Eucharistic Adoration.  A popular definition of ‘prayer’ is ‘relationship with God’.  Have you ever been able to establish a relationship with someone, or improve upon a relationship, without spending time with them … of course not.  Same holds true with God.

Advent presents an opportunity to start or improve your ‘relationship’.  And our beautiful Adoration Chapel is the perfect place for more “face time” with God.

You don't need to be a scheduled adorer - you don't need an appointment - simply drop-in and spend time with God.  If you find the visit improved your relationship with Him why not schedule a weekly appointment to be together in a special way.  He would like that!

Why Visit The Chapel?

 Why Visit The Chapel?

There are as many reasons to visit the Adoration Chapel as there are people who visit.  One of the all encompassing reasons is to improve our relationship with God.  That may take the form of petition or thanksgiving; doesn’t matter, what does matter is that it is very difficult to improve a relationship if you are not experiencing the presence of the other.

To really make headway improving your God relationship you have to be in his presence.  I know … “God is everywhere”, so you may be thinking I’m in his presence when I’m walking down the street.  True.  However, if you have a ‘monkey mind’ like me, you spend most of your time during the day managing the monkeys and not thinking about God.  Being in God’s presence takes on a different dimension when you are in what the church teaches is his Eucharistic Presence.

In 1551, the Council of Trent declared the doctrine of transubstantiation a dogma of faith and stated "by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood of Christ.”

This dogma of faith clearly states that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist.  At this very moment, he patiently and humbly waits in the chapel to experience our company with him in that different dimension called the Eucharistic Presence. 

The Real Jesus

The Real Jesus!

“The simplest way to express what Christ asks us to believe about the Real Presence is that the Eucharist is really He. The Real Presence is the real Jesus. We are to believe that the Eucharist began in the womb of the Virgin Mary; that the flesh which the Son of God received from His Mother at the Incarnation is the same flesh into which He changed bread at the Last Supper; that the blood He received from His Mother is the same blood into which He changed wine at the Last Supper. Had she not given Him His flesh and blood there could not be a Eucharist.

We are to believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ - simply, without qualification. It is God become man in the fullness of His divine nature, in the fullness of His human nature, in the fullness of His body and soul, in the fullness of everything that makes Jesus Jesus. He is in the Eucharist with His human mind and will united with the Divinity, with His hands and feet, His face and features, with His eyes and lips and ears and nostrils, with His affections and emotions and, with emphasis, with His living, pulsating, physical Sacred Heart. That is what our Catholic Faith demands of us that we believe. If we believe this, we are Catholic. If we do not, we are not, no matter what people may think we are”
     (Father John A Hardon SJ)

Pray Until You Hear God

 If You Listen Closely You WILL Hear It! 

“Listen” … that’s the first word Jesus said as he began to preach to the crowd from the boat along the shore (Mk 4:3).  That very word is as important today as it was 2000 years ago.  He has something to say to each of us; and I’m afraid we might miss it if we don’t slow down, unclutter our lives, our minds and hearts, and just ‘Listen’.

Spiritual listening begins small, within intimacy and friendship.  Spending quiet time in the chapel is a good place to open our minds and hearts in an effort to just ‘listen’.  Visit our chapel, and place yourself in the presence of God, entreat him to inspire you by offering this simple prayer:  “Eternal Father I surrender to your presence and action within” - God will do the work - you just ‘listen’.