Eucharistic Adoration is the adoration of Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist. In the many churches that have this adoration, the Eucharist is displayed in a special holder called a monstrance, and people come to pray and worship Jesus continually throughout the day and often the night.
Christ’s great love for us was shown when He was crucified on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and give us eternal life. He loves us without limit, and offers Himself to us in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
The worship and custody of the Holy Eucharist, independently of Mass and Holy Communion, can be traced to post-apostolic times. St. Justin, writing in his Apology around the year 150, says that deacons were appointed to carry the Blessed Sacrament to those who were absent from the liturgy. The young St. Tarsisius was taken captive and put to death while carrying the consecrated Species on his person. St. Eudocia, martyred under Trajan, was first permitted to visit her oratory and remove a particle of the Host which she took with her to prison. What appears to be the first explicit reference to a tabernacle occurs in the Apostolic Constitutions, compiled towards the end of the fourth century, which provided that “deacons should take the remaining particles of the Sacred Species and place them in the tabernacle.”
Implicit in these and similar provisions was the Church’s constant belief in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Thus, in the words of St. Augustine, “No one eats that flesh without first adoring it” (“Expositions on the Psalms,” 98:9). It was on this doctrinal basis that the cult of adoring the Eucharist was founded and gradually developed as something distinct from the Sacrifice of the Mass. At the Council of Trent, Protestants were condemned for denying that the Eucharist is at once a sacrifice and a sacrament; that it differs from other sacraments in not only producing grace “ex opere operato Christi” (deriving their power from Christ’s work), but containing in a permanent manner the Author of grace Himself.
In his 1965 encyclical “Mysterium Fidei,” Pope Paul VI wrote, “The Catholic Church has always devoutly guarded as a most precious treasure the mystery of faith, that is the ineffable gift of the Eucharist which she received from Christ her Spouse as a pledge of His immense love, and during the Second Vatican Council in a new and solemn demonstration she professed her faith and veneration for this mystery...
“No one can fail to understand that the Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people an incomparable dignity. Not only while the sacrifice is offered and the sacrament is received, but as long as the Eucharist is kept in our churches and oratories, Christ is truly the Emmanuel, that is, ‘God with us.’ Day and night He is in our midst, He dwells with us, full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes, virtues, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak. He proposes His own example to those who come to Him that all may learn to be, like Himself, meek and humble of heart and to seek not their own interests but those of God.”
Adoration means coming before the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. But what does that mean? What, or better who, is the reality of which we speak when we talk about the Real Presence?
This reality, as the Church has solemnly defined the truth for the faithful, is the “totus Christus,” the whole Christ: body and blood, soul and divinity. This is not a rhetorical expression nor a verse of poetry. It is an article of the undivided Roman Catholic faith.
There can be no doubt what the faithful are told when they are told to believe in this mystery. Once the words of consecration have been pronounced by a validly ordained priest, what used to be bread and wine are no longer bread and wine. Only the appearances or, rather, only the external physical properties of the former elements, remain. There is now on the altar Jesus Christ, true God and true man, full God and full man.
Does this mean that Jesus is present in the Eucharist? Yes. Is it Jesus in His divine nature? Yes. Is it Jesus in His human nature? Yes. But if Jesus in the Eucharist is really and truly present, is He there with all that makes Him not only man, but makes Him this man? Yes. After all, when God assumed human nature, He assumed this nature as a particular single human being. The divine Person of the Son of God did not merely in some abstract sense become human. He became a definite, historically specific human being.
Thus in the Eucharist is present the Jesus of history: the one who was conceived of His mother Mary at Nazareth; who was born in a stable at Bethlehem; who lived for 30 years in Palestine; and who walked and talked and wept and slept and ate and drank; who shed real red blood on the cross and who rose from the grave, and after His resurrection had the incredulous disciples put their fingers into His pierced side.
When, then, we speak of the Real Presence we imply that part of this reality, which is Christ, is the heart of flesh and blood that every human being has and also Christ has in the glorified body He now possesses since the resurrection.
Note what we are saying. We are affirming that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not only a historical memory, as recorded by St. John when he tells us that the sacred side of the Savior was pierced on Calvary. Nor are we saying merely that, rising from the dead, Christ is now at the right hand of His heavenly Father in body and soul and therefore also with His human heart. Nor are we saying simply that in the Eucharist is some sort of abstract memorial of the real Christ, who is actually in heaven and no longer on earth. No; we profess on faith that Jesus is now simultaneously both in heaven and on earth; that He truly ascended into heaven and is truly still on earth; that although He left us visibly He is with us really.
This means that the heart of Christ is in our midst, because Jesus is in our midst. He is the same Jesus in heaven and on earth. So He must be present here with His Sacred Heart of flesh, living and beating in the bosom of a living human being.
He is present with His Sacred Heart, at once human and divine: human because He has a genuine human nature, like ours in all things but sin, and a truly divine nature, like that of the Father, with whom He is one God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
But that is not all. We know that the heart of Christ is more than just a physical organ of His human body. It is also the symbol of God’s love for the human race, and, indeed, of the eternal love (that obtains) within the Blessed Trinity.
The important aspect of this is the fact that we have in the Holy Eucharist not only the physical Christ in His human and divine natures and therefore His heart of flesh substantially united to the Word of God. We have in the Eucharist the effective means by which we can show our love for God, since it is not just our own affections when we unite them with the heart of the Eucharistic Christ. It is His affections joined with ours. His love elevates ours, and ours as a consequence is raised to a participation in the divinity.
But more than that. By our use of the Eucharist, that is, by our celebrating the Eucharistic Liturgy and by our reception of the heart of Christ in Holy Communion, we receive an increase of the supernatural virtue of charity. We are thus empowered to love God more than we would ever be able to do otherwise, especially by loving the people whom He graciously – though often painfully – places into our lives.
Whatever else the heart symbolizes, it is the world’s most expressive sign of outgoing charity.
It is precisely here that the Holy Eucharist supplies what we could never do by ourselves: loving others with total self-sacrifice. We must be animated by the light and strength that comes from the heart of Jesus Christ. If, as He said, “without me you can do nothing,” it is certainly impossible to give ourselves to others, tirelessly and patiently and continually, in a word, heartily, unless His grace gives us the power to do so.
And where does His grace come from? From the depths of His divine heart, present in the Eucharist, offered daily for us on the altar and available to us always in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
— Jesuit Father John A. Hardon
At www.therealpresence.org: Read about the history and miracles associated with Eucharistic Adoration, get resources for introducing
children to Adoration, find lots of tips on how to pray a Holy Hour, and learn more about practices such as the Forty Hours Devotion and the First Friday Devotion
Spend time with Our Lord
The Diocese of Charlotte is blessed to have Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament offered in five locations. All of the faithful, of any age, are invited to participate! Stop by anytime or sign up for a regular Holy Hour:
BELMONT
Belmont Abbey College’s St. Joseph Perpetual Adoration Chapel, 100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Road
Margaret Fox 704-648-8947
Details: www.belmontabbeycollege.edu/about/community
CHARLOTTE
St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Road
Estelle Wisneski 704-364-9568
HICKORY
St. Aloysius Church’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Perpetual Adoration Chapel, 921 2nd St. N.E.
Karen Sadlowski 828-308-5454
Details: www.staloysiushickory.org/perpetual-adoration
HIGH POINT
Pennybyrn at Maryfield Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, 1315 Greensboro Road
Edna Corrigan 336-324-4366
Details: www.maryfieldeucharistic.org
HUNTERSVILLE
St. Mark Church’s Monsignor Bellow Perpetual Adoration Chapel (located in the Monsignor Joseph A. Kerin Family Center), 14740 Stumptown Road
Mary Sink 704-892-5107 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Details: www.stmarknc.org/adoration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Erin Bullock steps in front of the altar at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, she is there to sing parts of the liturgy and to guide members of the congregation through song.
Her role as cantor at the church is as visible as the priest's during an October Mass and much of the music she intones with her striking soprano -- along with the choir and people in the pews -- is the unadorned resonances of Gregorian chant.
The melodic sounds are unique and often called mysterious.
When performed by the choir, the chants are typically sung in unison without rhyme, meter or musical accompaniment, with the tones rising and falling in an unstructured fashion.
The tradition of sung prayer dates back to the first millennium, with Gregorian chant becoming the proper music of the mature Roman rite, said Timothy S. McDonnell, director of the Institute of Sacred Music at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Gregorian chant was standard in the Mass in the 1950s, but fell out of favor after the Second Vatican Council, when the traditional Latin Mass was changed to the dominant language of each country.
Though it has regained popularity in the past few decades, the chant is not the principal music in most U.S. Catholic parishes, McDonnell told Catholic News Service.
Categorically speaking, Gregorian chant is sacred music, but not all sacred music is Gregorian chant.
What distinguishes the chant is that the songs are actual prayers and text vital to the liturgy, said Elizabeth Black, assistant music director of St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia.
For instance, when the priest sings, "the Lord be with you," and the congregation responds in song, "and with your spirit," they are performing Gregorian chant, because those holy texts are an essential part of the Mass, Black told Catholic News Service during a recent interview.
Most Catholics have performed Gregorian chant, whether they know it or not, said David Lang, music director of Theological College, a national seminary at The Catholic University of America.
"If you are singing a part of the liturgy that is an essential part of the Mass, you are singing Gregorian chant," Lang said. "Even if you are singing a simple response, that's chant."
Though hymns -- often layered in rich harmonies -- may be liturgical in nature, those songs are meant to decorate the Mass with meditative spirituality and are not a crucial part of the liturgy, Black said.
It's one of the reasons the chant is traditionally sung a capella in plain, monophonic tones, McDonnell said, making the text the focal point of the music. However, there are exceptions to that unofficial chant rule, and some choirs add harmonies and occasionally insert musical accompaniment.
Singing has been a part of the liturgy since the early days of the Catholic Church, but Gregorian chant -- which began to take shape in the ninth century -- is the earliest form of liturgical music that was written and preserved for the historical record, he said.
Gregorian chant is named for St. Gregory the Great, who was pope from 590 to 604.
It's unlikely that Pope Gregory I had any direct involvement in developing Gregorian chant, but he was a building pope who helped reorder the liturgy in a more practical way, creating an artistic environment necessary to establish some form of plain chant, McDonnell said.
The music we identify today as Gregorian chant really began to develop several generations after St. Gregory the Great's death, "and in fact, most historians think it's Pope Gregory II (715-731), who reigned about 100 years later, who was the Pope Gregory who actually had more of a hand in formulating this body of chants that we call Gregorian chant," he said.
"You might call it poetry in music, it's very simple in some ways," said Thomas Stehle, director of music ministries at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, "and yet complex at times."
Throughout the centuries, the chant became a natural part of the liturgy, because of the simplicity of the sung recitation from the priest and response of chanted text by the congregation, with the choir handling the more complex music, said James Senson, music director of St. John the Beloved.
"Gregorian chant can be incredibly advanced, complicated, involved and with a high level of artistic value," McDonnell said. "At the same time, so much of its beauty resides in its simplicity and the fact that much of it can also be accessible to the congregation and by children.
"Anybody can learn to sing some amount of Gregorian chant," he said, "and the church over the years has categorized the chants according to their accessibility. So, there are many chants that are expected to be sung as part of the liturgy by the faithful and those chants really are every bit as much Gregorian chant as the more florid and elaborate ones."
The music was seen as enhancing the sacred texts with an art form.
"As St. Augustine noted, when we pray in song, it's almost as if we're praying twice," Stehle said. "In some ways, it helps carry the emotion of the chant more effectively."
Though Gregorian chant eventually became the music of the church, it's use has had periods of intense popularity throughout the centuries and eras when it receded, McDonnell said.
The causes of these waves are variable, he said.
"In many cases it simply was things like the fall of cities and the fall of Rome," McDonnell said.
"In the 15th century, when the popes came back from Avignon (a period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven popes resided in Avignon, France, rather than in Rome), the city was in absolute ruins, so the culture of Rome had to be rebuilt," he said. "Whenever you take time to invest clergy, to invest resources in the cultivation of sacred things, the art grows again. So, we saw Gregorian chant flourish again."
However, in the 16th century, after culture was put back together, Renaissance polyphony -- with its elaborate texturized harmonies -- became the dominant music in the church and eclipsed Gregorian chant for a time, McDonnell said.
The chant underwent another revival in the early 20th century with liturgical reforms in Pope Pius X's "Tra Le Sollecitudini" ("Among the Concerns") in 1903.
Then in 1947 Pope Pius XII issued his encyclical "Mediator Dei" ("On the Sacred Liturgy"), encouraging active participation by the laity in the liturgy, further reinforcing Gregorian chant, Black said.
"He has a very specific paragraph on Gregorian chant," she said, "where out of the blue he actually says Gregorian chant enables people to participate actively and that this is the people's music and they should be singing it."
While documents issued during Vatican II in the 1960s supported the use of Gregorian chant, the switch from the Latin Mass to the vernacular prompted most parishes to favor musical forms similar to popular culture, such as praise and worship and folk genres, McDonnell said.
The philosophy was, if you are celebrating Mass in the language of the culture, you should be singing in musical genres popular in local societies, he said.
Then, in the 1990s, an enormously popular album recorded by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain, titled "Chant" was released, once again renewing interest in the practice, he said.
Though Gregorian chant isn't the principal force in parish life that it once was, McDonnell said that if history repeats itself, it's in the recovery stage and could once again become a church music staple.
— Chaz Muth, Catholic News Service
Popularity of Gregorian chant has flourished in recent years
WASHINGTON, D.C. — James Senson grew up in the Virginia Beach, Virginia, area in the 1980s and his exposure to music in his home parish sounded remarkably similar to the tunes played on popular radio stations in the region.
"You know, there was nothing really special about the music, nor did it really say something about the church to me in it," said Senson, a Filippino-American who's had a passion for music since he was a child.
Senson had drifted away from religion by the time he was a college-age adult, but his love of music flourished.
When he discovered Gregorian chant near the turn of the century, he was inspired to reconnect with the church.
"This music was so different and mysterious to me," Senson told Catholic News Service during a recent interview. "It was telling me something. It was leading me somewhere."
It eventually led him to Catholic music ministry and the 33-year-old is now music director at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, a parish community where Gregorian chant is the principal sound.
This church community is unique in that the ancient sounds of Gregorian chant are deeply woven into its fabric, interlaced in every Mass, every choir and the education of the students in the parish school.
Church leaders at St. John the Beloved made the bold decision in 2005 to switch its music from the praise and worship genre to sacred music featuring Gregorian chant, decades after the practice fell out of favor following the Second Vatican Council.
It turns out that parish is part of a growing trend in American Catholic culture in which Gregorian chant is slowly being re-embraced.
That movement began following the success of a 1990s album titled "Chant," recorded by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain, said Timothy S. McDonnell, director of the Institute of Sacred Music at The Catholic University of America.
"People became interested in it," McDonnell told CNS. "Then you would start to hear Gregorian chant as samples in popular music. You'd start to hear it in soundtracks, things like that. So, Gregorian chant became popular with all kinds of people with all kinds of belief systems."
That was a turning point for some church officials who recognized the music had intrinsic value, he said. "That this is our proper music for our liturgy. That movement of recovery of this material I think started at that point when it was recognized more broadly as a tremendous treasure."
Though still not the core music in most American Catholic parishes, Gregorian chant continues to gain popularity among the youth, said Scott Turkington, director of sacred music at Holy Family Catholic Church and the parish school, Holy Family Academy, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Young Catholics -- intrigued by the chant famous for its long melodic lines where several notes are sung on one syllable -- began asking questions about the music, its history and how it enhances the liturgy, Turkington told CNS.
Catholic Church music directors throughout the country recognized "that we should give young people what they want," he said. "They want a sense of beauty. They want a sense of mystery."
Turkington discovered that Gregorian chant was an effective tool in teaching children the importance of sacred music in the church.
"If you give Gregorian chant to kids, they love it," Turkington said.
With the help of the leaders of his parish, Turkington opened a summer camp in 2014 at the church dedicated to introducing youngsters to Gregorian chant.
Additionally, Turkington hosts a weeklong session for high schoolers, teaching them how to read chant notation and perform a concert at the end of the educational program at Holy Family.
He and other members of the Church Music Association of America continue to uphold the value of traditional music by actively teaching it to others.
Every year the association hosts a symposium that invites priests, musicians and choristers to immerse themselves in Gregorian chant.
Turkington was among the workshop leaders in St. Paul, Minnesota, last June.
The 250 conference attendees learned ways to teach Gregorian chant in their parishes. Turkington believes it is important for the those participants to "go home and improve the liturgies of their own parishes.
"Not to go home to be in an ivory tower and meditate upon these things," he said. "To go home and put them into practice and teach their own choir, teach their congregations and teach their pastors."
The growing number of conferences and camps throughout the U.S. dedicated to Gregorian chant leads McDonnell to believe there is a bright future for the music in American Catholic church communities.
Though documents from Vatican II are supportive of the use of Gregorian chant, church leaders in the 1970s faced difficulties in incorporating the music -- all written in Latin -- in a Mass that was now celebrated in the dominant language of the culture, he said.
The natural response was to adopt music in the native language, McDonnell said, much of which came in the form of genres popular in the culture.
Gregorian chant also was seen as something that was old at a time when liturgical reforms from Vatican II were transforming the Mass into something new, he said.
Senson said he understands the reasoning for implementing new musical styles in the Mass that fit that particular generation of Catholics.
However, in his view, what these parishes accomplished was generating music that sounded dated a decade later and wasn't uniquely Catholic.
"You could walk into any Protestant church and hear the same kind of music," Senson said. "When you hear Gregorian chant, you know you are hearing something connected to the ancient church and it's timeless. It's not dated, because it's the music of the Catholic Church."
Gregorian chant today isn't just limited to Latin. During the course of the past few decades, composers have scored English arrangements and compositions in other languages, McDonnell said.
"There's been a flowering of publication of English-language version of Gregorian melodies and changes that have emerged over the years," McDonnell said. "Even if you are not using the original Gregorian chant in Latin, there is some sense of the chant style and the sacred nature of chant is being recaptured."
Catholics now are used to hearing the Mass celebrated in their native tongue, Turkington said.
"Latin is not in the ears of (today's) average man and woman who go to Mass on Sunday," he said. "If you're from France, you want to hear Mass in French. If you are from Colombia, you want to probably hear Mass in Spanish."
The increased popularity of the chant in recent years has extended beyond the Catholic Church, McDonnell said. "There are people who don't really have a connection to the institutional church, but who find Gregorian chant as attractive."
The appreciation of the chant's beauty is more than just the resonances of the music, but resides in the text, which are prayers, scripture and liturgy essential to the Mass, Turkington said.
"If the music in the church is really appropriate and mysterious," he said, "the texts of the Gregorian chant … are really substantial."
— Chaz Muth and Jose Montoya, Catholic News Service