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Perpetual adoration returns to Boston after 40 year absence [Catholic Caucus]
cna ^
| July 27, 2009
| Christine Williams
Posted on 07/27/2009 3:50:19 PM PDT by NYer
Boston, Mass., Jul 27, 2009 / 10:26 am (CNA).- To see the image of God in Boston, a passerby need only look up
Two billboards featuring the Eucharist displayed in a monstrance tower over the streets in Brighton and East Boston. The words under the image read, “The Son’s rays for your soul.”
These advertisements are meant to get the word out about the return of perpetual adoration to Boston after a 40-year absence. St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine on Boylston Street will mark the start of adoration with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption.
From then on, the Eucharist will be exposed in a monstrance all day, every day, apart from regularly scheduled Mass times. Currently, the shrine offers adoration six hours or more daily.
Tim Van Damm, coordinator of the effort, said the grace at the already vibrant St. Clement community will be multiplied.
“Anytime the Lord is present 24-hours a day, seven days a week, people are changed,” he said. “This is a way to build spiritually and bring people together in prayer.”
Van Damm said that St. Clement, a community he has been active in since 2000, was a natural choice for perpetual adoration because it is a eucharistic shrine.
Cardinal Richard Cushing made St. Clement into a eucharistic shrine, staffed by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, in 1945. The sisters maintained perpetual adoration from 1945 to the late 1960s. The Oblates of the Virgin Mary began staffing the shrine in 1976.
The effort to bring perpetual adoration back to Boston is a direct response to the call of Pope Benedict XVI to have spaces dedicated to prayers for vocations and the sanctity of priests during the Year for Priests which began in June and runs to June 2010. St. Clement’s will be the designated site in the Central Region of the archdiocese.
Van Damm said the inspiration for his involvement came from his own need to adore the Lord in the Eucharist. Van Damm said adoration has “re-ignited” his faith and given him much peace.
Marie Baranko, another member of the St. Clement’s community, agreed. Before she came to the shrine, Baranko said she did not believe in Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Raised Catholic, she had never before seen adoration. After being invited to the shrine by a roommate, she attended adoration and recognized Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
“When you seek the truth, God honors that,” she said. “He reveals Himself to you.”
Her experience has also resulted in the discernment of her vocation. She will be entering the Sisters of Life order in September. She will be praying for the success of perpetual adoration at St. Clement’s from New York, she said.
“The shrine has played a major role in my vocation,” she said. “It’s centered around the Eucharist.”
She hopes that perpetual adoration at St. Clement’s will help others to “fall more in love with the Lord.”
Director of the shrine, Father Peter Grover, OMV said perpetual adoration has a “powerful effect” wherever it is instituted.
“Any church that emphasizes prayer is going to affect the Church of Boston as well as the community,” he said. “It will be a big grace in the city.”
In order to invite everyone to adoration at St. Clement’s, in addition to the billboards organizers are sending e-mails and posting signs in neighboring parishes. Van Damm has been a guest on two national radio shows and will be featured on CatholicTV’s “This is the Day” on Aug. 4 at 10:30 a.m. Organizers also hope to be able to buy advertising space on the MBTA’s Green Line subway trains.
Van Damm said the costly advertisements are “a leap of faith.”
For more information, to download a sign-up sheet or to donate to the effort, visit the Web site at www.adorationboston.org.
TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Current Events; Worship
KEYWORDS: catholic; cult
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1
posted on
07/27/2009 3:50:21 PM PDT
by
NYer
To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
2
posted on
07/27/2009 3:50:55 PM PDT
by
NYer
("One Who Prays Is Not Afraid; One Who Prays Is Never Alone"- Benedict XVI)
To: NYer
Gee, 2009 - 40 = 1969. I wonder what was special about that year in the Archdiocese of Boston that caused the Cardinal Archbishop to want to hide the Truth?
To: MIchaelTArchangel
That’s a good point, why/how was it done away with in the first place?
Freegards
4
posted on
07/27/2009 4:10:26 PM PDT
by
Ransomed
(Son of Ransomed Says Keep the Faith!)
To: NYer
Good grief, where have they been?
We have five parishes in our archdiocese holding Perpetual Adoration, including Cathedral Parish.
And this is the South, where Catholics are still a bit thin on the ground. But full of enthusiasm.
5
posted on
07/27/2009 4:12:57 PM PDT
by
AnAmericanMother
(Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
To: NYer
**Two billboards featuring the Eucharist displayed in a monstrance tower over the streets in Brighton and East Boston. The words under the image read, “The Son’s rays for your soul.”**
Wow! Good news, indeed. I’m guessing that we have Cardinal O’Malley to thank for this as well as the local priest.
6
posted on
07/27/2009 4:13:07 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: AnAmericanMother
**We have five parishes in our archdiocese holding Perpetual Adoration, including Cathedral Parish.**
Great. And in little Salem we have two of the four vicariate churches with 24/7 Adoration. It is indeed a blessing!
7
posted on
07/27/2009 4:15:05 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: AnAmericanMother
**And in little Salem **
adding, Oregon to that! LOL!
8
posted on
07/27/2009 4:16:03 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: NYer
wow. I didn’t know there was no Perpetual Adoration there. My goodness...no wonder the place is the bottom of the cesspool.
9
posted on
07/27/2009 4:18:49 PM PDT
by
the invisib1e hand
(The revolution IS being televised.)
To: Ransomed
That’s a good point, why/how was it done away with in the first place? Freegards Because Massachusetts is so progressive.
To: All
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." -- Pope John Paul II
"Could you not watch one hour?" -- Mark 14:37
I am happy to testify that many young people are discovering the beauty of adoration, whether personal or in community. I invite priests to encourage youth groups in this, but also to accompany them to ensure that the forms of adoration are appropriate and dignified, with sufficient times for silence and listening to the word of God. In life today, which is often noisy and scattered, it is more important than ever to recover the capacity for interior silence and recollection: Eucharistic adoration permits one to do this not only within one's "I" but rather in the company of that "You" full of love who is Jesus Christ, "the God who is near us."
~Pope Benedict XVI
11
posted on
07/27/2009 4:23:50 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: All
12
posted on
07/27/2009 4:26:50 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: the invisib1e hand
Well, no doubt it made a lotta progresive Catholics happy, but I wonder if it was something done officially or something that just dried up from lack of intrest due to awful guidance from the clergy.
Freegards
13
posted on
07/27/2009 4:29:03 PM PDT
by
Ransomed
(Son of Ransomed Says Keep the Faith!)
To: NYer
Three cheers for the Oblates. They have a nice little chapel in the Prudential Mall as well.
To: NYer
Why on earth would they not have perpetual adoration in Boston for 40 years?
No wonder the diocese sucks.
To: AnAmericanMother
We have it in our parish. Our fine Irish Priest did a great service in insisting that we have Perpetual Adoration.
16
posted on
07/27/2009 5:20:08 PM PDT
by
coon2000
To: NYer
She will be entering the Sisters of Life order in September.Good for her! The world needs more religious. Praying for her.
17
posted on
07/27/2009 5:48:55 PM PDT
by
cmj328
(Filibuster FOCA--a/k/a this "Health" Bill--or lose reelection)
To: coon2000
The Irish have been great soldiers for Christ.
Our rector is who they would send if somebody called Central Casting for an Irish priest.
Note the omnipresent cigar.
I've never seen a man work so hard. He runs a 2000-member parish and seems to have a hand in everything that happens around here, plus he leads pilgrimages, retreats, and writes. I don't know how he does it.
18
posted on
07/27/2009 6:33:47 PM PDT
by
AnAmericanMother
(Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
To: All
Encourage your parish priest to have someone from the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament come and do a Mission during Lent. We had one — and by May 6th following Lent that year, we had our Adoration Chapel up and going.
It was truly astounding, and the hand of God was obviously in the mix. Things kept falling into place from someone to paint the rooom to someone to build a small altar to someone who wired all the lighting and installed an air conditioner to our pastor who had three statues that seemed out of place wherever he put them, that is, until he put them on the shelf under the Blessed Sacrament tabernacle there. Someone even supplied throws during the first winter until we got the heat restarted for that room.
All a miracle that showed God’s hand at work in our parish.
19
posted on
07/27/2009 7:40:52 PM PDT
by
Salvation
(With God all things are possible.)
To: AnAmericanMother
We have a Perpetual Adoration Chapel carved out of a corner of the church’s walk-out basement, with 24-hour access to all (and security cameras and an alarm).
I believe this is why we have so many vocations for the priesthood from our church. We have 10 in seminary right now and one was just ordained.
This is central Indiana.
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