Why make a Holy Hour?
Catechism Meditation:
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us “to the end,” even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease. ―No. 1380
REFLECTION: Why make a Holy Hour? Here are ten reasons by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:
- It is time spent in the presence of Our Lord Himself. If faith is alive, no further reason is needed….
- In our busy lives, it takes considerable time to shake off the “noonday devils,” the worldly cares, that cling to our souls like dust….
- Our Lord asked for it. “Had you no strength, then, to watch with me even for an hour?”….
- The Holy Hour keeps a balance between the spiritual and the practical….
- The Holy Hour will make us practice what we preach….
- The Holy Hour helps us make reparation for the sins of the world and for our own sins. When the Sacred Heart appeared to St. Margaret Mary, it was His Heart, and not His head, that was crowned with thorns. It was Love that was hurt. Black Masses, sacrilegious communions, scandals, militant atheism—who will make up for them?….
- It reduces our liability to temptation and weakness. Presenting ourselves before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is like putting a tubercular patient in good air and sunlight. The virus of our sins cannot long exist in the face of the Light of the world….
- The Holy Hour is a personal prayer….
- Meditation keeps us from seeking an external escape from our worries and miseries….
- Finally, the Holy Hour is necessary for the Church…. To abide with Christ is spiritual fellowship, as He insisted on the solemn and sacred night of the Last Supper, the moment He chose to give us the Eucharist: “You have only to live on in me, and I will live on in you” (John 15:4). He wants us in His dwelling: “That you, too, may be where I am” (John 14:3).
PRAYER. Dear Jesus, I place my life in Your hands as I adore You in the Blessed Sacrament. Guide my steps and illuminate my path with Your light.
Timeless Wisdom Quote:
“I keep up the Holy Hour to grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: “We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendor to splendor.” We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain. Something happens to us similar to that which happened to the disciples at Emmaus. On Easter Sunday afternoon when the Lord met them, he asked why they were so gloomy. After spending some time in his presence, and hearing again the secret of spirituality – “The Son of Man must suffer to enter into his Glory” – their time with him ended and their “hearts were on fire.” ― Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen