Perpetual Adoration

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at Holy Spirit Catholic Church began on February 7, 1986, with 300 committed adorers under the endorsement and guidance of Pastor, Rev. Donald J. Grainger. Support for Perpetual Adoration continued under Pastors:
Msgr. Michael Sexton, Rev. Louis Giardino, and Rev. Michael Mac Mahon, who sponsored construction of the new Chapel on the 35th Anniversary of Perpetual Adoration at Holy Spirit. Bishop Steven Raica blessed the ground of the new chapel on March 23, 2021, and the chapel was completed and dedicated during the Summer of 2022.

The Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Holy Spirit Catholic Church is available to all residents and visitors to the North Alabama area: The chapel is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The chapel, located between the church and the rectory, is accessible during the day between 6am and 9pm.  Between the hours of 9pm and 6am, visitors may knock on the door for a scheduled adorer to allow entry. 

To assure that someone is always in attendance with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, at least one, preferably two or more committed adorers are assigned to each hour of the week.  If you are interested in enhancing your spiritual life, consider making a commitment for a specific adoration hour each week. 

 

The Holy Spirit Chapel will use new Adoration Sign Up Portal at AdorationPro to make signing up for and signing in for your holy hour easier. It is important that we have committed adorers for each hour the Blessed Sacrament is exposed.

To sign up for a holy hour, click the link above or the image to the right and then click on the Weekly Commitment button. There you will be able to sign up for the available open hours. In addition to those who have signed up for a holy hour, all are welcome to come and adore Him.  Those who have signed up for a holy hour will receive either an email or a text reminder 24 hours prior to your scheduled hour.

The AdorationPro system also makes it easy to sign up to be a substitute adorer and will even help you to find a sub if for any reason you are not able to make your scheduled holy hour.

What is Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament?

Eucharistic Adoration is a devotion in the Catholic Church in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for a limited time in a monstrance for adoration, prayer and a blessing. This devotion provides the opportunity for adoration and prayer before the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is the continual exposure of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament twenty- four hours a day, seven days a week.  This continual Eucharistic adoration serves to strengthen the spiritual life of each adorer, their families, parish, the community, and the whole Catholic Church.

Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love may be expressed in various ways, including formal prayer, biblical and spiritual reading, praying the rosary, contemplation or even silence. One is assured that the Lord will be delighted in your presence.

Great consolation is to be derived from so much as a single hour spent with Christ
when away from home and family.

The Great Power of Perpetual Adoration
“The best, the surest, and the most effective way of establishing everlasting PEACE on the face of the earth is through the great power of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.” (Saint Pope John Paul II)

The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of God’s infinite generosity towards man. When we are generous in our response to Him in this sacrament of love, God pours out His infinite goodness upon all mankind. God will bless you, your family and the world ten times as much for this sacrifice because God cannot be outdone in generosity. Whatever we give to Him, He gives us back ten, a hundred times as much. Those who are generous and willing to make a sacrifice by taking one of the most difficult hours are the ones who bring down God’s blessings upon the earth like rain that pours forth from the heavens. This is why Saint Pope John Paul II exclaimed: “Let us be generous in our time in going to meet him.”
(Dominicae Cenae).

In his first encyclical, The Redeemer of Man, Saint Pope John Paul II states that our essential commitment in life is to preserve and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and piety, and to grow spiritually in the climate of the Eucharist. The Pope called upon the whole People of God to make Jesus loved in the Blessed Sacrament and to make the Eucharist the very center of each parish through adoration. The Holy Father himself began perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on December 2, 1981.

Teach young people the value of Eucharistic Adoration

I urge priests, religious and lay people to continue and redouble their efforts to teach the younger generations the meaning and value of Eucharistic adoration and devotion. How will young people be able to know the Lord if they are not introduced to the mystery of His presence? Like the young Samuel, by learning the words of the prayer of the heart, they will be closer to the Lord, who will accompany them in their spiritual and human growth. The Eucharistic mystery is in fact the “summit of evangelization” (Lumen Gentium) for it is the most eminent testimony to Christ’s resurrection.

Twelve reasons from the teachings of the Church for wanting to spend one hour
with Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament

1. You are greatly needed!
“The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic Adoration.” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae)

2. This is a personal invitation to you from Jesus.
“Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love.” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Canae)

3. Jesus is counting on you because the Eucharist is the center of life.
“Every member of the Church must be vigilant in seeing that the sacrament of Love shall be at the center of the life of the people of God so that through all the manifestations of worship due Him shall be given back ‘love for love’ and truly become the life of our souls.”
(Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)

4. Your hour with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament will repair for evils of the world and bring about peace on earth.
“Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Jesus and ready to make reparation for the great evils of the world. Let your adoration never cease.” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicai Cenae)

5. Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament because you are the most important person in the world to Him!
“Christ is reserved in our churches as the spiritual center of the heart of the community, the universal Church and all humanity, since within the veil of the species, Christ is contained, the Invisible Heart of the Church, the Redeemer of the world, the center of all hearts, by Him all things are and of whom we exist.” (Pope Paul IV, Mysterium Fidei)

6. Jesus wants you to do more than to go to Mass on Sunday.
“Our communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in Eucharistic adoration in order that our love may be complete.” (Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)

7. You grow spiritually with each moment you spend with Jesus!
“Our essential commitment in life is to preserve and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to grow spiritually in the climate of the Holy Eucharist.” (Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man)

8. The best time you spend on earth is with Jesus, your Best Friend, in the Blessed Sacrament!
“How great is the value of conversation with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness!” (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)

9. Just as you can’t be exposed to the sun without receiving its rays, neither can you come to Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament without receiving the Divine Rays of His Grace, His Love, His Peace.
“Christ is truly the Emmanuel, that is, God with us, day and night, His is in our midst. He dwells with us full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes virtue, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak.” (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)

10. If Jesus were actually visible in church, everyone would run to welcome Him, but He remains hidden in the Sacred Host under the appearance of Bread, because He is calling us to faith, that we many come to Him in humility.
“The Blessed Sacrament is the ‘Living Heart’ of each of our churches and it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore the Blessed Host, which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word, Whom they cannon see.” (Pope Paul VI, Credo of the People of God)

11. With transforming mercy, Jesus makes our heart one with His.
“He proposes His own example to those who come to Him, that all may learn to be like Himself, gentle and humble of heart, and to seek not their own interest but those of God.” (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)

12. If the Pope himself would give you a special invitation to visit him in the Vatican, this honor would be nothing in comparison to the honor and dignity that Jesus Himself bestows upon you with the Invitation of spending one hour with Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
“The Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people the incomparable dignity.” (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei)