Busyness, Distraction, and Restlessness, Oh My!

Busyness, Distraction, and Restlessness, Oh My!

“Today, a number of historical circumstances are blindly flowing together and accidentally conspiring to produce a climate within which it is difficult not just to think about God or to pray, but simply to have any interior depth whatsoever ….

We, for every kind of reason, good and bad, are distracting ourselves into spiritual oblivion.

It is not that we have anything against God, depth, and spirit, we would like these, it is just that we are habitually too preoccupied to have any of these show up on our radar screens.  We are more busy than bad, more distracted than nonspiritual, and more interested in the movie theater, the sports stadium, and the shopping mall and the fantasy life they produce in us than we are in church.  Pathological busyness, distraction, and restlessness are major blocks today within our spiritual lives.”  (Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality)

During Lent wouldn’t it be a blessing if you could put your spiritual life back on the heavenly track?  You can.  Stop by a chapel or church and ask Him to help.  He will.

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

Jesus Invites You!

 Did You Get Your Invitation?

If in tomorrow’s mail you received an envelope addressed to you and postmarked from ‘Vatican City’ I bet like most of us you would be extremely excited?  Right?  When opened you find a letter from the Pope inviting you to spend an hour with him praying before the Real Presence in our chapel - would you move heaven and hell to meet him there?  I bet you would go to any length to make sure your schedule allowed you to meet the Pope and pray with him in our chapel.

Now expand your thinking and realize that it’s not the Pope inviting you; but Jesus Christ Himself.  Jesus is calling you by name to come and pray with him.  Contemplate that for a moment and let it sink in.  Would you agree, an invitation from Jesus would have a higher priority than one from the Pope?  Jesus offers you an ‘open’ invitation to meet Him for prayer in our adoration chapel.  Why do so many of us hide that invitation in the kitchen junk drawer?  Have we lost our sense of sacred?

We’re so fortunate because we still have the opportunity to improve our relationship with God, and take advantage of all the gifts and blessings he wants to give us.

Ask any soul in purgatory if they would have done anything different while on earth.  I bet they would say ‘Yes’, and their answers would revolve around the desire to have spent more time in the Real Presence of God.

To be honest I wouldn’t expect an invitation in the mail from the Pope.  But I can honestly tell you the invitation from Jesus is REAL and it’s extended to you at this very moment and never expires and automatically renews.

By the way, the answer to that first question is YES.

Who Is That Magnificent Spirit Next To You?

 Who Is That Magnificent Spirit Next To You?

We’ve all heard of, and many have participated in special days such as ‘Take your child to work day’, or perhaps ‘Take Grandma to bible camp Saturday’; but have you heard of this special day for all Catholics; ‘Take your Guardian Angel to Chapel Day?’

The Catechism states that “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by the watchful care and intercession of angels.  Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.  Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.”  (CCC336)

An angel is a created spiritual person without a body.  The Church teaches there’s nine choirs of angels; most commentators believe we get our Guardian Angel from the ninth choir simply called ‘Angels’.  The importance of the Guardian Angel is that God has seen fit, in his generosity and mercy, to assign each of us a being that is far more intelligent and higher on the created order than we are.  Their essential task is to see us home, so to speak, to get us home to heaven.

To take full advantage of this gift it’s important to establish a relationship with your angel.  To do so begins by acknowledging their existence, to pray to them regularly, and to become more habitually use to calling upon them in all needs, even very small needs, because angels are there for those as well.

Seeking guidance from our angel can only help and will never hurt.  Our angel knows more about us than we know about ourselves.  This understanding is what God has given the angel to properly support us in things of morality and vocation, even in areas of suffering.

So next time you have a feeling that there’s something watching you, you’re right.  Say a prayer of thanksgiving.  And consider showing your appreciation to your angel for all it does for you by taking your angel to the Adoration Chapel and know that that act has filled your angel with JOY!

                                                           www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

God Will Help You Change

Looking To Change?

“God provides for our transformation and growth; you give over your sufferings to the embrace of God and you will be given peace; you hand over your feelings of anguish and despair and you will find hope rising in your heart.”  Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

God is with us in many different ways but none more intimate than experiencing him face-to-face in adoration.  He is always ready to help; all we have to do is to ‘ask’.  So if you are ready to make a change in your life go ahead and ask the Lord to help, then visit him in the chapel and go ahead lean on him.

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

click on “Weekly Commitment”

 “I thirst”

“One day Our Blessed Lord said to the multitude: ‘If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink’ (Jn 7:37).  But on the cross, he, from whose fingertips toppled planets and worlds, he who filled the valleys with the song of a thousand fountains now cries, not to God, but to man: “I thirst” (Jn 19:28).  The physical pain of being nailed to a cross, lingering for hours without food or drink beneath an Oriental sun, the parched dryness that came from the loss of blood, now expresses itself not in peevish impatience but in a simple declaration of thirst.

There is nothing in the whole story of the Crucifixion which makes Our Lord seem so human as this one word.  And yet that thirst could not have been only physical, for the Gospel tells us that he said it in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.  It, therefore, was spiritual as well as physical.  God was on the quest for souls, trusting that one of the trivial ministrations of life, the offering of a cup in his name, might bring the offerer within the sweet radiance of his grace.  The Shepherd was still out after the sheep, at the moment when he was giving his life for the flock!” (Seven Words of Jesus and Mary - Fulton J. Sheen)

Have you this lent through your prayers and/or actions been able to quench the ‘thirst’ of Our Lord?  Even a little?

He waits patiently for each of us to come to him.  Why not visit him in the chapel?

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi 

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. 

In His Presence - As Real As If You Had A Seat At The Last Supper

 In His Presence

“The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’” (CCC 1324)  Our worship of our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus - fully and completely present under the consecrated species of bread and wine - continues outside of the celebration of the Mass when the sacred Host is exposed for veneration in our chapel.  “This exposition gives us the opportunity for a deep personal encounter with Christ.  The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to him, to hold converse with him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with him.”  (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

The Lenten Season is a good time to broaden our personal encounter with Christ.  Instead of giving something up … let’s do something positive like an hour a week in the Adoration Chapel praying for our shepherds, our Church and world peace.

Chapel Changes

Chapel Changes

The question has been asked as to why we made the recent changes in the Chapel?  The number one reason was security of the Eucharist.  We have no idea how many people over the years have been given the combo to enter the Chapel.  Many times during a normal day a person in the Chapel finds themselves alone.  Once someone enters there’s no additional security for the Monstrance, the Tabernacle, or most important the Real Presence of Our Lord.  We had no way to verify that every time the Tabernacle was opened, the person doing that had authority; and it simply got to a point where we needed to manage risk better.

The acrylic case provides greater security while at the same time giving us the ability to expand Adoration because of the ease to Expose and Repose the Holy Eucharist by either opening or closing the curtain.  Our overall goal as a Parish is to Adore Our Lord 24/5 has not changed.  We hope to have someone praying in the Chapel every hour of every day Monday through Friday.  At this time we’re quite short of that goal in the six hours between midnight and 6AM as only 40% of those hours has someone praying.  Before Covid we were covering 24/5, and I’m sure we can get there again.

If you would like to join the Adoration Ministry as a committed Adorer please visit:

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi and click on “Weekly Commitment” to sign up for a convenient hour to spend in the Real Presence of Our Lord.

Priceless - Don't Miss Out

 A Priceless Gift

“The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’” (CCC 1324)  Our worship of our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus - fully and completely present under the consecrated species of bread and wine - continues outside of the celebration of the Mass when the sacred Host is exposed for veneration in our chapel.  “This exposition gives us the opportunity for a deep personal encounter with Christ.  The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to him, to hold converse with him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with him.”  (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

Know that an hour with God in the chapel is a ‘gift’ directly from his heart to each one of us personally.  It’s not enough that he offers … you have to accept it.  

Accept his gift by going to:

https://adorationpro.org/schedule.php?org=ihmmi&languageMain=english

Angelic Prayer Partners

Did you know that Jesus brings with Him an entire flight of angels to keep you company every time you visit the Adoration Chapel?  This 'flight' fills the chapel from wall to wall - ceiling to floor. 

These angels become our prayer partners; so when you are in the chapel you never pray alone.  Next time you visit know that an angel will move over to make room.  Be sure to thank the angel.

Pray for Numbers

"I Am With You Always" (Mt 28:20).  With these words Jesus assures the disciples, and all of us, that He will walk with us throughout our life's journey.  Whether in triumph or tragedy, He is there.  Not only are we bathed in God's loving presence; as baptized we join the rest of the faithful to become the Body of Christ.  Together we pool our special gifts and unique talents to be present to one another and to fulfill the great commission.

Please pray during the month of March for an increase in the number of permanent Adorers to our chapel.  If you know of anyone interested please show them the scheduling page within www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi where they can see the hours where if they sign up can be of most help.

Gods' Merciful Love

Everybody needs God.  It's not a question of being worthy or not.  The issue is ... will you, come into the Chapel and sit down with the One who joins all of us?  It's that joint endeavor - that joint sharing of the human condition with its joys and sorrows, its ordinariness, its profane character, its endless waiting, its deprivations - and not just our suffering ... but the experience of Adoration prayer that gradually educates us in what this prayer type really is:  an education and union in undeserved mercy.

Join us as a regular Adorer!

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi