Adoration at St. John's
Last spring we launched extended hours of Adoration and it has been a great blessing for our parish. Thanks to all those who have taken an hour each week to sit with Jesus. It has been a beautiful journey of growing closer to the Lord for all of us. Our dream is that eventually we will be able to open a Perpetual Adoration Chapel. This has been a prayerful journey since 2012, when I was first called to be a pastor.
Last spring we provided catechetical moments that covered the following topics: History of Eucharistic Adoration, The Gifts and Power of Adoration, The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Commitment and Sacrificial Offering of Self to Prayer and Easter Glory leading us to Divine Mercy. In the coming weeks we’d like to recap some of these catechetical moments.
Over the past five years we have been blessed to have moments of grace leading us to this point in time. Immediately after I was asked to become pastor at St. John’s, Archbishop Emeritus, Daniel Buechlein, asked us to begin discerning the possibility of offering Eucharistic Adoration perpetually in the heart of Indy. You may recall that we had “Chapel Q&A Meetings” after all the Masses one weekend. We heard the support and concerns of all those who offered their time and input.
With an overwhelming positive response, we were ready to move to the next step, to speak with surrounding parishes to see what their support would be for the chapel. At that time, Archbishop Daniel had a stroke and the discernment was placed on hold until Archbishop Tobin was installed. Shortly after his installation, I met with him and asked his blessing for us to move forward. Since we were getting ready to begin an internal evaluation of all the parishes in the city deaneries, he suggested that this work in and through the “Connected in the Spirit” discernment process and gave his blessing to keep moving forward.
The Connected in the Spirit downtown parishes met and discussed the mass times, confession times and Adoration Chapel. There was unanimous support for the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel by the priests, but some discussion as to whether St. John’s or the Cathedral would be the best location. After some further discernment, the Cathedral passed the torch onto us as the best location with the most energy for the establishment of such devotion. The parish council placed their blessing upon extended hours of adoration moving towards the possibility of Perpetual Adoration.
Through much prayer and discernment, we were at a cross roads and launching point. I think it is providential that we would extend hours of Adoration during the Jubilee Year of Mercy this past year! Is there anything which exudes God’s love and mercy more than Jesus’ Real Presence with us in the Eucharist?
I would ask your continued prayerful support to help us discern well what God desires of His faithful. If you are not yet committed to a weekly Holy Hour please pray about your possible commitment to an Hour with Jesus each week. It will change your life and our world! Adoration is typically located in the Sacred Heart Chapel inside St. John’s. Each hour has a minimum of 2 adorers. Our current Holy Hours include the following:
Last spring we provided catechetical moments that covered the following topics: History of Eucharistic Adoration, The Gifts and Power of Adoration, The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Commitment and Sacrificial Offering of Self to Prayer and Easter Glory leading us to Divine Mercy. In the coming weeks we’d like to recap some of these catechetical moments.
Over the past five years we have been blessed to have moments of grace leading us to this point in time. Immediately after I was asked to become pastor at St. John’s, Archbishop Emeritus, Daniel Buechlein, asked us to begin discerning the possibility of offering Eucharistic Adoration perpetually in the heart of Indy. You may recall that we had “Chapel Q&A Meetings” after all the Masses one weekend. We heard the support and concerns of all those who offered their time and input.
With an overwhelming positive response, we were ready to move to the next step, to speak with surrounding parishes to see what their support would be for the chapel. At that time, Archbishop Daniel had a stroke and the discernment was placed on hold until Archbishop Tobin was installed. Shortly after his installation, I met with him and asked his blessing for us to move forward. Since we were getting ready to begin an internal evaluation of all the parishes in the city deaneries, he suggested that this work in and through the “Connected in the Spirit” discernment process and gave his blessing to keep moving forward.
The Connected in the Spirit downtown parishes met and discussed the mass times, confession times and Adoration Chapel. There was unanimous support for the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel by the priests, but some discussion as to whether St. John’s or the Cathedral would be the best location. After some further discernment, the Cathedral passed the torch onto us as the best location with the most energy for the establishment of such devotion. The parish council placed their blessing upon extended hours of adoration moving towards the possibility of Perpetual Adoration.
Through much prayer and discernment, we were at a cross roads and launching point. I think it is providential that we would extend hours of Adoration during the Jubilee Year of Mercy this past year! Is there anything which exudes God’s love and mercy more than Jesus’ Real Presence with us in the Eucharist?
I would ask your continued prayerful support to help us discern well what God desires of His faithful. If you are not yet committed to a weekly Holy Hour please pray about your possible commitment to an Hour with Jesus each week. It will change your life and our world! Adoration is typically located in the Sacred Heart Chapel inside St. John’s. Each hour has a minimum of 2 adorers. Our current Holy Hours include the following:
- Sunday 11am-7pm
- Monday 1pm-9pm
- Tuesday 6am-12pm
- Thursday 1pm-10pm
- Friday 6am-12pm
