“The classroom of silence”

One day, the volunteer 24 Hour Adoration Coordinator at my parish followed me out of the chapel and asked me to sign up for an adoration holy hour. ‘Sure, what time do you need me?,’ I asked.

‘4 a.m.’

My heart sank for a moment. But I agreed. For the next few years, I regularly met with Jesus for a Eucharistic holy hour.

I remember the first time I ever went to adoration. It was 2009, I was a senior in high school and had just become a teen catechist at St. Anastasia in Troy, MI. The adult catechist in my class, Lauren, took a few other teen catechists and me into the adoration chapel at St. Anastasia and told us, ‘Adoration is where you can encounter Jesus in the most intimate way. You can present yourself before Him, talk to him, listen, and adore him in awe while gazing upon our Lord, who makes himself so vulnerable in the monstrance.’. 

Before Lauren told us that, I had never heard the word ‘monstrance’ before, nor did I even know that Eucharistic adoration was a thing. When she explained what adoration really was, I felt like I just learned a super special secret. Shortly after this experience, I visited the chapel from time to time and began to fall in love with Jesus in a deeper way.

Since then, I’ve gotten married and had kids. I’m no longer able to commit to a weekly holy hour at a crazy hour in the morning. But I still love to go whenever I can, even if only for a few minutes. As a music minister, I have also had many opportunities to adore the Lord during Eucharistic adoration prayer services with music, prayer, and silence. That's a story for another time. I will always remember the first time I went to adoration, and I highly recommend that anyone who wants to grow closer to the Lord enter the classroom of silence in an adoration chapel.