SJB Eucharistic Adoration

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our parish mission statement we say that St. John the Baptist parish “centers its life on the worship and celebration of the Eucharist”. Certainly we regularly experience the celebration of the Eucharist in our renovated church with 25 Masses every week. In addition, we have our holy hours of adoration Monday through Friday and our monthly day of adoration.

Since we are a Eucharistic people, our plans for the renovation of our church included a Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The chapel has been duly inaugurated and blessed by the presence of our Lord. As you know, we had some difficulties recently with the disappearance of the tabernacle key. Now we have replaced the lock, and the chapel is open again for adoration and prayer. However, in order to maintain a spirit of reverence and quiet, we are asking that you enter and leave the chapel by the outside entrance rather than through the church. We have installed dead bolt locks on the two doors that lead to the sanctuary to increase security. You may also have noticed that the chapel door now has a keypad. This new locking system will be used when we inaugurate perpetual adoration. Now, let me tell you how we are progressing in this direction.

For the past several weeks the Perpetual Adoration Committee has been meeting to prepare for our parish to inaugurate perpetual adoration. They have prepared posters and bulletin announcements. They have printed a form that you can find at the rear of the church for you to sign up for a time of adoration. Signing in for adoration is essential because we need to know that every hour is covered.

Two weeks from today Fr. Victor Warkulwiz of the Missionary Priests of the Blessed Sacrament will speak at all the Sunday Masses. Fr. Victor’s community has a special apostolate to promote perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. His purpose in coming to St. John’s is to help us start perpetual adoration in our Blessed Sacrament Chapel. After the last Mass on Sunday evening June 10, Fr. Victor will conduct an organization meeting. I hope many of you will attend.

What is “perpetual” adoration? As the word indicates, it is 24/7. Jesus asked his disciples to “spend one hour” with Him. Every hour of the day and night will be covered by a team of adorers who will be headed by a captain. During the day the chapel is open as usual from 6AM to 9PM. After 9PM adorers will need a number code to enter the chapel using the keypad on the door. Once you sign up for a late night hour, you can obtain your own private PIN number from the front office.

I know that you will want to be a part of this great movement. Let us all pray for the success of perpetual adoration at St. John’s.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand