Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Today we begin our Forty
Hours Devotion. This is an intense time of adoration, praise, petition and
thanksgiving for the whole parish as we spend time in quiet prayer for Our Lord
who is truly present, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Holy Eucharist.
The practice of have 40 hours of continuous eucharistic
adoration probably began in the 16th Century in
Milan, Italy. According to Pope Paul III,
the two primary reasons for the start of the
devotion were “to appease the anger of God provoked
by the offences of Christians, and in order to bring to nought the efforts and
machinations of the Turks who
are pressing forward to the destruction of Christendom.”
One important fruit of Forty
Hours is that it provides people of all ages and walks of life to spend some
time in silence before Our Blessed Lord. In a world filled with so much noise and distractions (especially of the
electronic kind!), we need silence. A few years ago Pope Benedict said, “When
messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to
distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary” (World Communication Day message 2012).
Please take some time during
40 Hours to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament in silence.
In Christ,
Msgr. Baker
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.