The Adoration Companion

By Magnificat

A precious tool to help you adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and carry its fruits into your daily walk.

This unique companion contains:
• Practical suggestions for adoration and explanations of this ancient practice from the Benedictine Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre
• Writings from the Magisterium of the Church on the Eucharist, the Real Presence, and fitting worship
• Features programs of Adoration for a Couple and Adoration in Time of Need
• Profiles of saints who were known for their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament
• Scripture and meditations to encourage us to enter deeply into the Real Presence
• Prayers, hymns, and litanies drawn from the treasury of the Church

Now is the ideal time to equip yourself with a tool that will help you stay close to the Lord in adoration and love no matter the circumstances—before a monstrance or tabernacle, or in the privacy of your home.

If ever you fear, even for the slightest moment, that God does not remain with you, that somehow you are all alone in this world, you have only to look towards the tabernacle, and the small flame that signals what lies within it, to be assured of the presence of God.
Fr. Sebastian White, o.p.
Editor-in-Chief

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781949239492

Book preview

Dear Friends of MAGNIFICAT,

The book you now hold in your hands is a treasury of teachings, prayers, meditations, and witnesses from the saints to help guide you in one of the most beautiful and elevated devotions of the Catholic faith: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In the Blessed Sacrament, the Most Holy Eucharist, we adore Christ himself. We are not faced with a mere symbol, but the true and substantial presence of our Savior—seen only with the eyes of faith, yes, but faith "is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie" (CCC 157). If ever you fear, even for the slightest moment, that God does not remain with you, that somehow you are all alone in this world, you have only to look towards the tabernacle, and the small flame that signals what lies within it, to be assured of the presence of God.

As you read and pray with this companion, may you grow in the certainty of Christ’s love for you—for he is our ultimate Companion, our truest Friend, our one and only Savior. May you be confirmed in your joys, encouraged in your sorrows, and strengthened in the midst of temptations. May you one day join all those who see God face to face, who live and feast forever in the banquet of the King.

In the Eucharistic Heart of our Lord,

Fr. Sebastian White, O.P.

Table of Contents

What Is Adoration?

History and Forms of Eucharistic Adoration

Historical Backgound

Purposes of Eucharistic Worship Outside of Mass

Eucharistic Adoration and Exposition

Words of Counsel as You Begin to Adore

Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as a Couple

First Hour: Jesus Institutes the Eucharist

Second Hour: Prayer to Jesus for Unity in the Communion of Love

Third Hour: Jesus Accomplishes the Will of the Father

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in a Time of Need

First Hour: Finding Rest

Second Hour: The Agony of Jesus

Third Hour: Trust in God the Father

Devotion to the Holy Eucharist: Recent Magisterial Statements

The Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

The Eucharist and the Love of God

The Eucharist and the Tabernacle

Visiting the Blessed Sacrament

The Eucharist and Prayer

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

The Eucharist and Adoration

Faith and the Eucharist

Meditations

He is here, in our midst…,

Our Conversation, Our Secret

Consumed by the Fire of Love

A Life of Sacrifice

O Marvelous Sacrament!

In the Presence of the Beloved

Drawn to Adore

The Grace of Transformation

My Burning Desire

Dear Jesus

Proof of His Love

Face to Face

Love for Eternal Wisdom

Love of Loves

Listening to Jesus

Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Bonds of Sublime Love

Inexhaustible Love

Contemplating the Sacred Mysteries

Our Brother, Our Food

The Silence of Eternity

The Eucharistic Heart of Jesus

Seeing, Believing, Listening, Loving

Hidden Grandeur

Immortal Food

Paradise in the Holy Eucharist

He Is My Heaven

Food of the Soul

The Door of Salvation

Bread of Life

Drawn to Him

Trusting in Mercy

O Sacred Host!

The Power of Faith

To Gaze upon the Sun of Love

Faith to See Beyond Appearances

Yes, Jesus, I Love You

You Are Precious to Jesus

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist

O Boundless Charity!

Prayers and Devotions

Anima Christi

Suscipe

Prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified

The Universal Prayer attributed to Pope Clement XI

Obsecro Te

Prayer of St. Bonaventure

O Sacrum Convivium

O Bone Iesu

Salutation to Our Lord Jesus Christ

Salve, Salutaris Victima

Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ

Domine Iesu Christe, qui neminem vis perire

Domine Iesu, Noverim Me

Litanies

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Litany of the Most Precious Blood

A Litany of Trust

A Magnificat with Mary Litany

Eucharistic Hymns

Adoremus in Aeternum

Adoro Te Devote

Ave Verum Corpus Natum

Iesu, Dulcis Memoria

Lauda, Sion

Salutaris Hostia

Pange, Lingua

Additional Scripture Readings

Gospel Passages

Matthew 11:25-30 (I am gentle and humble of heart.)

Luke 15:1-10 (Heaven is filled with joy when one sinner turns back to God.)

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 (We are celebrating because your brother has come back from death.)

John 10:11-18 (A good shepherd is ready to die for his flock.)

John 15:1-8 (Live in me as I live in you.)

John 15:9-17 (Love one another as I love you.)

John 17:20-26 (Father, you loved them as you loved me.)

John 19:31-37 (When they pierced his side with a spear, blood and water flowed out.)

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 (This is my body. This is my blood.)

Mark 15:16-20 (They dressed Jesus up in purple and put a crown of thorns on him.)

Luke 9:11-17 (All the people ate and were satisfied.)

Luke 22:39-44 (His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.)

Luke 24:13-35 (They recognized him at the breaking of the bread.)

John 6:1-15 (They gave the people all the food they wanted.)

John 6:24-35 (If you come to me, you will never be hungry. He who believes in me will never know thirst.)

John 6:41-51 (I am the living bread from heaven.)

John 6:51-58 (My flesh and blood are true food and drink.)

John 14:1-6 (I am the way and the truth and the life.)

John 21:1-14 (Jesus took the bread and gave it to them.)

Other New Testament Scripture Passages

Acts 2:42-47 (They continued in fellowship with the apostles and in the breaking of the bread.)

Acts 10:34a, 36-43 (After he was raised from the dead, we ate and drank with him.)

1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (Though we are many, we are one bread and one body.)

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (Each time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord Jesus.)

Hebrews 9:11-15 (The blood of Christ purifies our hearts from sin.)

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 (Jesus brings you to the Father by shedding his blood for you.)

1 Peter 1:17-21 (You have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.)

1 John 4:4-8 (The Spirit, the water, and the blood give witness.)

Revelation 1:4-8 (Because he loves us, he has saved us from sin with his blood.)

Revelation 7:9-14 (They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.)

Old Testament Scripture Passages

Genesis 14:18-20 (Melchizedek brought bread and wine.)

Exodus 12:21-27 (When the Lord sees the blood on the door, he will pass over your home.)

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 (I will rain bread from heaven upon you.)

Exodus 24:3-8 (This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord God has made with you.)

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 (He gave you food which you and your fathers did not know.)

1 Kings 19:4-8 (Strengthened by the food, he walked to the mountain of the Lord.)

Proverbs 9:1-6 (Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared.)

Psalms

Psalm 63

Psalm 110

Psalm 111

Psalm 116 [10-19]

Saints Who Loved the Eucharist

Saint Peter Julian Eymard

Saint Geltrude Comensoli

Saint Michael de Sanctis

Saint Tarcisius

Saint Francis Carraciolo

Saint Maria Cristina Brando

Saint Stanisław Sołtys Kazimierczyk

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Peter of Alcántara

Saint Euphrasia Eluvathingal

Saint Peter Chrysologus

Saint Paschasius Radbertus

Saint Stanislaus Kostka

Saint María Micaela Desmaisières

Saint Paschal Baylon

Acknowledgments

WHAT IS ADORATION?

The Benedictine Sisters

of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre

ADORATION IS DUE TO GOD ALONE. To adore the thrice-holy and supremely lovable God in the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar means that we offer ourselves to the ineffable love of God who has begun to manifest himself in creation, who has been revealed to us since Abraham, who has laid in Jesus Christ the foundation of the Church through which he acts in the world.

To pray before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar is to cast a glance of faith upon Jesus Christ, true God and true man, truly present in the Bread of the Eucharist.

This prayer of adoration manifests God’s mercy and tenderness for humanity and calls each one of us to intercede for the needs of men. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus, the source of salvation, is offered for our contemplation and adoration incessantly. From him, all who pray to him receive an abundance of grace to live in this world as beloved children; and through him, in the Spirit, each of us returns to the Father, the God of tenderness and mercy, to bless and glorify him. Moreover, regardless of our poverty or wealth, through prayer, we can draw from the unfathomable riches of the Heart of Christ, given to us in the Eucharist, for the good of all people. Let us ask the Lord to make us worshipers in spirit and truth, witnesses of the love of God before the men and women of our time.

The Treasury of God’s Mercy

There is one action whose effect is boundless: it is our confident and insistent prayer. Even the poorest of believers, when he does not have much to give, still has an unknown wealth: to draw through prayer from the infinite treasury of God’s mercy.

In the Gospel, the Lord calls us to perseverance in prayer. Pray without ceasing. Watch and pray. While our world lacks hope, a powerful remedy is offered to us. In a society that suffers from loneliness and individualism, Eucharistic adoration helps us discover the Real Presence of Christ at our side: I am with you always, until the end of the age. His love for us does not change. From him alone comes the stability of our life. The prayer of adoration allows us to welcome this love, to take this time of reflection in silence, to root ourselves in Christ and to allow our inner freedom to grow. Furthermore, Eucharistic adoration has the power to transform our everyday relationships by giving them the true meaning of human love.

Let us rediscover our sense of the beauty of the sacred. Let us habituate our gaze to receive in adoration the pure light of the Lord. Patiently, let us allow him to fashion, in the Holy Spirit, our true face, in his image and likeness, until the day of our eternal face-to-face: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And in the Communion of Saints, let us find all those whom we have loved and who have preceded us before him.

In the prayer of adoration, it is not a question, like the hypocritical Pharisee of the Gospel, of giving thanks for our own righteousness, and of praying only for others who are sinners (cf. Lk 18:9-14). But before the infinite love of God, given for us in Jesus, exposed before our eyes in the Blessed Sacrament, it is a question of recognizing ourselves as poor and sinful, to see that without him we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5), to let ourselves be saved by him, to let ourselves be healed, to let ourselves be converted. It is a question of offering ourselves to God the Father in the one and perfect offering of Jesus his Son, under the movement of the Holy Spirit, in order to fully accomplish his will. In this way, our prayer will be true: it will transform us, and in the Communion of Saints, it will shine forth as the grace of salvation for many men and women of our time who do not know God, who have distanced themselves from him, or who refuse his love.

The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre has been the site of continuous perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris since 1885.

HISTORY AND FORMS OF EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by praying before it outside of Mass, we are enabled to make contact with the very wellspring of grace…. It is pleasant to spend time with [Jesus], to lie close to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in his heart.

– Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 25

Historical Background

The practice of reserving the Eucharist is an ancient observance which has its origins in the earliest centuries of the Church’s history. The first extant description of reserving the Eucharist in order to bring Holy Communion to the sick is found in Saint Justin Martyr’s First Apology (c. 155–157). During the following century, Saint Cyprian of Carthage described how Christians would bring the Eucharist to their homes to receive it during the week, since the celebration of the Eucharist usually took place only on Sundays at this point in Christian history. In a tradition beginning in the city of Rome, the Eucharist was sometimes reserved and then added to the Precious Blood during a later Mass