Many elements of the two small rooms are the same. The
freshly cut flowers, lit candles, religious artwork and the
sound of silence. The altars, one of dark wood, the other a
bright white and gold, each hold a monstrance with the
Blessed Sacrament exposed. Both have statues of angels on
either side of the monstrance, as if reverently guarding the
host. And in the perpetual adoration chapels at Sacred Heart
of Jesus Church in Winchester and St. Agnes Church in
Arlington, there are men and women constantly praying in
front of the Eucharist.
Late on a Tuesday night, six adorers are in the St. Agnes
chapel. Some kneel, meditating with rosaries or reading
spiritual books; others sit with their eyes closed and heads
bowed.
Theresa Lowell, a parishioner of St. John the Beloved Church
in McLean, began coming to adoration last year, in part to
help her decide which graduate school to attend.
Rochelle Marsh used to hand out sandwiches to the homeless,
but now her illness keeps her from the streets. Instead, the
Our Lady, Queen of Peace parishioner uses that time to pray
for the sick and poor at Adoration.
Tony Bennett, a new seminarian for the diocese, visits the
chapel on trips home from the Pontifical College Josephinum
in Columbus, Ohio. As he spent time in adoration over the
past three years, Bennett said he heard the Lord saying to
him, “Spend time with me, waste time with me.”
Though a cherished ministry for the four churches with
perpetual adoration in the diocese – St. Agnes, Sacred Heart
of Jesus, Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge and St.
Michael Church in Annandale – finding adorers around the
clock is no easy task. At both Sacred Heart and St. Agnes,
the hours after midnight are the most difficult to fill. In
the 20 years he’s been an adorer at Sacred Heart, Virginia
State Police officer Jeff Zirkle said there have been times
when he feared they wouldn’t be able to keep it perpetual.
“I think it’s a reflection of the times, a hectic pace (that
has increased) over the years,” he said.
Zirkle enjoys the solitude. “It’s a very intimate
relationship with no one else to watch, and you can speak
your heart out loud if you want,” he said. “I originally
signed up at a tough hour (2 a.m. on Wednesdays) because I
wanted to make it difficult to come and see Jesus; I felt as
though that was a special thing that I could give to Him. And
then what I got was this great gift of being alone with Him,
to be able to have that relationship, just Him and I.”
Greg King, the adoration coordinator at St. Agnes who works
in network security for the government, takes a shift at 3
a.m. on Sunday mornings to help him prepare for the Sunday
liturgy.
“Jesus waits for us 24/7 so it’s a very sweet duty to be able
to sit with Him and adore,” he said. “I often say that the
hardest part is hearing the alarm go off, but then once I’m
there and on my knees, it’s the happiest time of my life.”
The first moment of adoration is when the priest lifts the
host and says the words of consecration at Mass, explained
King. The adoration that begins at Mass continues when the
consecrated host is exposed in a monstrance for people to
adore.
“We realize that heaven meets earth at that moment, and then
that very special moment is still available to us in the
chapel,” King said.
Those who have been adorers late at night for many years
understand best the beauty of the chapel being open at all
hours of the day. “I can’t tell you the number of times that
I’ve gotten a call (in the middle of the night) from someone
who wants to get in the chapel,” said King. “Months or years
later you find out, ‘Yeah, that night you let me in the
chapel was the night I returned to the church.’ Or you come
to the chapel in the middle of the night, and you find
someone kneeling and crying their heart out. They find
comfort in those moments of despair,” he said.
Pat O’Boyle, a music teacher at Sacred Heart Academy in
Winchester and one of the two adoration coordinators at
Sacred Heart of Jesus, spent many years taking the late night
shift at the chapel. “One of my most memorable times in the
chapel was when a young couple came in with a newborn baby,”
she said. The couple knelt down, and then the man took his
jacket off and laid it on the floor between the kneelers. The
couple then prayed while the baby slept soundly on the
jacket, she said. The tenderness of that moment was amazing,
said O’Boyle. “I’ll never forget it.”
Both St. Agnes and Sacred Heart are able to maintain
perpetual adoration through the dedication of permanent
adorers who take the same time slot every week. A group of
substitutes fill in the gaps. At St. Agnes, adorers can sign
up by calling King, or by using the
website, which lists the hours they need filled.
At Sacred Heart of Jesus, open hours are listed in the
bulletin, and adorers keep in touch with the coordinators
through phone calls and emails, said Sue Fleming, another
coordinator at Sacred Heart of Jesus. Fleming takes the late
night adoration shift knowing her insomnia will most likely
wake her up anyway, something she describes as “making
lemonade out of lemons in the chapel.”
For each of the adorers, making late-night trips to the
chapel has changed their lives. Fleming said adoration has
helped her talk more about the faith to others, especially
non-Catholics. O’Boyle spoke of how adoration has helped
center her life on the Eucharist. King said, “When I got
married I made a commitment that I would adore so that I
could be a better husband for my wife. The grace that I get
from adoration flows back out into my life.”
The most rewarding part of facilitating adoration, said King,
is seeing the chapel filled with people. “Now, mind you, they
didn’t sign up for a particular hour, they didn’t necessarily
make my job any easier,” he said, laughing. “But the fact
that I do what I can to make sure Jesus is never left alone
is rewarding to me. Sometimes it’s hard, but it has drawn me
closer to Jesus in all aspects of my life.”
Di Mauro can be reached at [email protected] or on
Twitter
@zoeydimauro.
