At any time of the day or night for most of the past 25 years, one would have found at least two members of what is now Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish, Hamilton, spending time in adoration and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Recently celebrating the milestone of having perpetual adoration for a quarter century has given the parish community an opportunity to reflect on the blessings that have been realized through the devotional practice. Msgr. Thomas N. Gervasio, pastor, remarked, “I think for 25 years, perpetual adoration has been a lasting gift to Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony because it is the gift of prayer.

“It’s a practice that helps us to focus on the whole center of our faith. I think people have grown spiritually through coming into communion with the Lord regularly in a sustained way and there has been a great benefit to the parish,” Msgr. Gervasio shared.

“I don’t think we will ever know all of the benefits that can come from the practice of perpetual adoration.”

The belief that perpetual adoration can bring meaningful and lasting spiritual gifts to a parish community is embraced in a number of communities across the diocese. But most recently, the practice has been adopted with great success in St. Raphael-Holy Angels Parish, also in Hamilton.

In November, just as their Hamilton neighbors were preparing to celebrate 25 years of perpetual adoration, St. Raphael-Holy Angels Parish opened its new perpetual adoration chapel, a long-awaited development that enjoyed an enthusiastic reception among its community members. 

Why Perpetual Adoration? 
In perpetual adoration, parishioners work together to ensure that there is always someone engaged in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at any time of the day or night.

Adorers are encouraged to give praise, offer prayers of thanksgiving, repentance and intercession.

Pope Benedict XVI has said of the Eucharistic devotion: “Adoration means entering the depths of our hearts in communion with the Lord, who made himself bodily present in the Eucharist. In the monstrance, he always entrusts himself to us and asks us to be united with his presence, with his risen body.”

The worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass has been an act of reverence for centuries in the Catholic faith and grew out of the teachings of the apostles. The reservation and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during early Church history led Pope Clement VIII to issue a document establishing a devotion of 40-hours of prayer in 1592.

The practice spread throughout the Catholic population and soon included perpetual, or continuous, adoration before the Eucharist.

Forms of Eucharistic adoration might involve parishes in the diocese having annual, monthly, weekly, daily or, those like Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony and St. Raphael-Holy Angels, perpetual adoration, where Eucharistic adoration continues non-stop.

The impetus to have perpetual adoration in Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish began in the 1980s with Msgr. Edward O’Keefe, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows at the time, who “wanted to do something to strengthen the parish” in a spiritual sense, according to Bob Marino, a parishioner for about 40 years.

Marino’s own interest in having perpetual adoration in the parish was fostered through his faithful attendance of nocturnal adoration every first Friday of the month in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton.

“Going to nocturnal adoration was a positive experience for me,” Marino said. “It fulfilled a need in my life at the time and I began to appreciate what adoration was all about.” 

Nurturing Eucharistic Devotion 
With Marino’s research and assistance, Msgr. O’Keefe introduced perpetual adoration in Our Lady of Sorrows Nov. 1, 1985, and received an overwhelmingly positive response from his parishioners.

While perpetual adoration was originally held in the church, Marino said that after about eight years, arrangements were made to relocate it to the convent chapel to avoid conflicts with other events and celebrations taking place in the church.

In recent years, Marino said that for practical purposes, it was decided to shorten the parish’s adoration hours from round-the-clock to 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on any given day, there are between 50 and 75 people who visit the chapel.

“Some days we have more than others,” he said. “Overall, we have a good amount of traffic coming through.”

In St. Raphael-Holy Angels, Eucharistic adoration began at the initiative of Father Jeffrey Kegley, pastor, who designated each Wednesday for the devotional practice.

But as time went on and parishioners started asking for more, it was decided last July to begin offering perpetual adoration in the chapel of the parish’s spiritual center, the building that at one time had served as the convent for the contemplative Good Shepherd Sisters.

As interest in having perpetual adoration was generated around the parish, Father Kegley said that he developed a core team of two hourly captains, two divisional leaders and two coordinators to oversee the scheduling and overall operation of the perpetual chapel.

“There was such an excitement and a buzz about it. People couldn’t wait for it to open,” said Father Kegley, noting that although he had made the announcement about the opening of the chapel during the summer, it didn’t actually open until Nov. 1, which coincidentally happened to be 25 years to the day of when Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony Parish inaugurated its perpetual adoration chapel.

Preparation for opening the St. Raphael-Holy Angels’ chapel included having a sign-up weekend and inviting the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament priests to preach at all Masses. There were also about 500 people who signed up for adoration at the time, Father Kegley said.

While Father Kegley had made it a rule that there must be at least two people committed to being in the chapel, he has been pleased to see how that number has been far surpassed.

“Anytime you go, there are about 14 people at any given time,” he said. “Sometimes there are five or six people in the chapel. But it’s never empty; there’s always more than one person in there.” 

‘A Beautiful Thing’ 
Like Msgr. Gervasio, Father Kegley points to many blessings that have come about as a result of the parish’s perpetual adoration.

He noted the significant amount of young people who come to the chapel with their families as well as students from both St. Raphael School, who come as a class, and the parish religious education program.

“People who were never connected or talked with each other are now prayer partners during the same hours,” Father Kegley observed. “Relationships and friendships are building. People are meeting at the chapel and then are going out for coffee. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Father Kegley smiled when he thought back to how his parish responded to having perpetual adoration made available more than just once a week. When perpetual adoration was started, the people “flocked here,” he said.

“Even though we live in a very busy time, and everyone is so active, I really sense that by having people commit time out of their busy schedules to sit and spend time with the Lord, they will realize a wonderful manifestation such as in their prayer life.”

Then, giving an example of what the adoration chapel can mean to people, Father Kegley, who makes a Holy Hour each day in the chapel, recalled witnessing the interaction between a mother and her daughter.

“They were there for about a half-hour and when the mother motioned to the daughter that it was time to leave, the daughter responded by saying ‘just one more minute.’ “That was beautiful to see,” Father Kegley said.