Adoration

Adoration is my favorite time of the day.  We have all returned from our various work projects, Communion calls, home visits, and children’s activities.

We go our separate ways in the morning; small groups head out in different directions tasked with their duties for the day.  But in the late afternoon, we gather back as Casa Guadalupe, tired but anxious to share our experiences with one another.

 At 5 o’clock, we have our daily holy hour called “Adoration”.  We begin with group prayers and hymns and then we sit in silence before the Blessed Sacrament – praying, meditating, reading, journal writing, or just gazing at the Lord trying to be in deeper Communion with Him.  There are two members of our group who play music and sing contemplate songs.

There is a contentment, a peace that surrounds me in a joy that fills my heart.  Spending quiet time in prayer in is not always easy at home in the U.S. – noise of work, tv, different activities, family life, etc. seem to consume our day, with little time set aside for quiet prayer.  Here, like the Friars, we are disciplined in our prayer life.  We specifically set aside different times of the day to pray.  Adoration is an opportunity to be intimate with the Lord and give him a chance to enter into our hearts.

I think we don’t realize how much we need this prayer time; how much our hearts desire – and God’s desire for us – of being opened up and to rest before Him.

Most times, the hour speeds by and then it is time for dinner.  As St. John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, so He can increase.”  I hope He has increased in me.