Local

Peace and quiet in overnight adoration

Matt Riedl | Catholic Herald Multimedia Producer

Eucharistic adoration at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester is held in the main church during the day to allow for social distancing. Overnight, it is moved to the adoration chapel. FR. BJORN LUNDBERG | COURTESY

LR-Adoration.jpg

In the Washington area, silence is an elusive thing.

Helicopters roar overhead, car horns bark and subwoofers boom from an upstairs neighbor.

But after the din of the day subsides, the world grows quieter.

It’s in these overnight hours, when most Virginians are sleeping, that Weldon Barry said she finds her serenity in the adoration chapel.

“It’s just wonderful, just the calmness,” said Barry, a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Winchester.

Many parishes in the diocese have offered extended adoration hours during the pandemic. However, Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of just a few diocesan parishes that have been able to maintain perpetual adoration throughout the pandemic — another being Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge.

At a time when Mass attendance is still capacity-limited, adoration offers parishioners a chance to spend more time in their churches, in the Lord’s presence.

And that time has borne fruit in other ways, said Father Bjorn Lundberg, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“So many good things happen at Sacred Heart, and I would attribute it to the fact we have 25 years of adoration,” Father Lundberg said. “There’s a strong culture of going to the sacrament of

reconciliation because they spend quiet time with him in the monstrance.

They just live the sacraments much more intensely, much more richly because of that time in front of the Blessed Sacrament.”

AT HOME WITH THE LORD

Adoration has been held at the Sacred Heart of Jesus chapel perpetually since Aug. 22, 1995.

The pandemic was certainly a challenge to that record, but the parish was able to keep its perpetual adoration going through creative means.

“Bishop (Michael F.) Burbidge encouraged us to be creative and continue having adoration (during the pandemic),” Father Lundberg said. “We had to be careful, but we didn’t have to shut down adoration at night if it was doable.”

In normal times, Sacred Heart’s chapel could hold about 15 adorers at a time.

But, to limit the number of people in that small space, adoration was moved to the main church at the onset of the pandemic.

At night, Father Lundberg would take the monstrance into the rectory and place it in the rectory chapel window.

Adorers would park their cars in front of that window and adore at their scheduled times from the parking lot, Father Lundberg said.

“There were a few weeks where it got difficult to cover,” he said. “At night we’d have the Blessed Sacrament exposed (in the rectory chapel) and I would sleep in there to make sure adoration was covered.”

Since those times, adoration has resumed in the Sacred Heart chapel and, for the most part, it’s business as usual.

Father Lundberg said he’s grateful to be pastor of a church where there is such a commitment to adoration.

“There is a real culture of that personal relationship with Christ in adoration,” he said. “There’s love and adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Part of the challenge now is making sure you pass the torch and continue to invite people.”

MEANS OF GRACE

Father Paul D. Scalia, pastor of St. James Church in Falls Church, said the pandemic had an unexpected effect.

As public Masses were suspended, many parishioners found other ways to deepen their prayer lives.

“I think people came to a greater appreciation just of the means of grace that are available to them outside of the Mass,” Father Scalia said. “We increased our times for confession and adoration, which are two means of grace. People would keep going to confession regularly even though they had no opportunities to receive holy Communion.”

While some parishes increased their non-Mass offerings during the pandemic, others had to cut back.

Father Lundberg said frequent adoration helps people “know that presence” of the Lord in their lives.

“Thinking of all the times in history, we need this more than ever so people can come spend time with him, be loved by him, and charge their batteries,” he said. “Anything you can do to promote adoration I just think is going to provide blessings on individuals and families in the parish.”

Barry has been going to adoration at the church for more than 20 years.

That regular commitment has improved her prayer life, she said.

“You’ve probably heard your whole life about when things are so overwhelming in your life, you just have to stand back and give them to God,” she said. “Adoration will teach you that in most circumstances in your life, be they good, bad or indifferent, learning how to give it to God … makes things, all of a sudden, become very manageable.”

Riedl can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @RiedlMatt.

 

Related Articles