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The wonder of the adoration chapel

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Alyssa Bormes

Sometimes I can hear my grandmother in the back of my head.

For example, when I finally came home to the Church, I could hear her voice telling me to volunteer at the parish. The only problem was I didn’t want to — I might be expected to talk, or someone might talk to me.

But one Sunday, everything changed with a homily about our perpetual adoration chapel. This was it! Having always been a night owl, I volunteered for anything after midnight. It was wonderful. I arrived a few minutes before 12 a.m., signed a book, knelt down, and the person in the chapel before me left. Then a few minutes before 1 a.m., someone else came, and I left. This was the best sort of volunteering — I didn’t have to talk to anyone!

What is this eucharistic adoration? Let me put it in my terms: It’s a game changer!

Most noticeably, there is a peace that is unlike any other. I came to understand the true presence just by lingering in the silence; there was the beautiful sense of being surrounded in love.

What to do

Now, the first problem was what to do during adoration. Fortunately, my grandma came to mind again. When I was a child, while we played cards, she would teach me about the faith. I just liked playing cards and only gave partial attention to what she was saying. Years have passed, and the rules of the game are lost in my memory. But what she taught me about the Eucharist remains. “It is really Jesus. We should love him.” She taught me that prayer was to be a part of adoration.

What to pray

Now, what to pray? There was a tattered booklet in the chapel with a one-hour meditation; it became a favorite. It was providential to have found it, as it encompassed wounds — and my soul was littered with them. The line, “From the depth of my nothingness, I adore Thee,” was everything I felt. Having hit bottom, my soul lay in pieces around me. My hours in adoration were a time of allowing Christ to slowly put it all back together.

Another favorite line of the prayer was, “I thank Thee . . . for the privilege of visiting Thee in this church.”

Sometimes, it is said that 20 percent of the parishioners pay for 80 percent of the expenses of the parish. At that time when I started eucharistic adoration, I wasn’t even contributing a little; I didn’t put anything into the collection plate. But the rest of you, the 20 percent in particular, were so good to me. You allowed for the parish, and the adoration chapel to be open.

Your generosity allowed me to come in the middle of the night to find my soul. This is my thank-you.

There are so many more like me out there. Please continue your generosity. And, please volunteer for an adoration hour, especially the middle-of-the-night hours. This allows the chapel to remain open, because sometimes, a broken soul feels safer in the cover of night.

Bormes, a member of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, is the author of the book “The Catechism of Hockey.”