April 1, 2025 • 28 mins
How did the practice of Eucharistic Adoration begin? This question launches us into a fascinating journey through Church history, tracing the development of this profound devotional practice from its earliest roots to modern expressions.
The story begins in the early Church, where consecrated hosts were first "reposed" for the sick around the third century. While formal adoration as we know it wouldn't emerge until much later, these early practices revealed a growing understanding that Christ's presence remained in the Eucharist even after Mass concluded. The pivotal moment came in 1226 when King Louis VII of France requested the Blessed Sacrament be exposed in celebration of military victory—marking what many consider the first formal instance of Eucharistic Adoration.
The practice truly flourished with the establishment of the Feast of Corpus Christi and through St. Thomas Aquinas' beautiful Eucharistic hymns and prayers. Throughout our conversation, we explore how adoration complements rather than competes with Mass attendance, creating a spiritual rhythm that nurtures our relationship with Christ. For those unfamiliar with adoration, we offer practical guidance on how to pray in silence, suggesting different forms of prayer—adoration, thanksgiving, contrition, and supplication—that can deepen this encounter.
Perhaps most moving are the stories of transformation, where young people discover Christ's real presence not in theological concepts but in the profound silence of adoration. In our distracted, noise-filled world, these moments of intentional disconnection provide spiritual nourishment many desperately need. Whether you're a lifelong adorer or curious newcomer, this episode provides historical context, practical guidance, and spiritual encouragement for encountering Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
What might the Lord say to you in those moments of sacred silence? There's only one way to find out.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's Question of Faith.
When did Eucharistic Adorationbegin?
Hey everybody, this is Questionof Faith.
I'm Deacon Mike Hayes.
I am the Director of YoungAdult Ministry here in the
Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Father Damian Ferencz, the Vicar for
Evangelization.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
And I'm Maria Wankata , Marriage and Family Ministry
Specialist.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Nice to have you both back, father, how was your trip
?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, it was wonderful.
It was my second trip aboutFlannery O'Connor in this past
month, so remember at thebeginning of the month I was
down in Iowa where she earnedher MFA, and then just this past
weekend I was down in Savannahwhere O'Connor was born.
Her childhood home is a museumthere and the Basilica, which is
also the cathedral, was herhome parish St John the Baptist.
(00:48):
So I stayed there it'sinteresting on the fourth floor
of the rectory, which has anelevator, and here in Cleveland
I live in the fourth floor ofthe rectory, which also has an
elevator.
My dad was an elevator mechanicso he would have been thrilled
with that.
I went to a reception at herchildhood home Friday night,
went to a fundraiser Saturdaynight and then went over to
(01:09):
Milledgeville where she spentthe last 14 years of her life
and actually lived there whenshe was in high school and
college as well.
Because I wanted to celebratemass at her home, I wanted to
visit her grave.
But, most importantly, there'snew artwork paintings that she
did both in high school and whenshe was an adult living at the
farm that have never been seenbefore by most people.
(01:32):
I actually saw them in astorage unit about 12 years ago
with Miss Louise Florent Court,her first cousin, but they were
put up on display on herbirthday, march 25th.
There was an evening receptionbut I had to fly out at seven.
So this woman, amanda Respis,who works for the college, got
me in early and I was able tosee all that stuff and it was
wonderful.
So this weekend, saturday andSunday morning, I took his
(01:55):
writing days and I put togetheran essay It'll come out Word on
Fire on Monday but about thewhole new exhibit.
Npr was there, bbc was there,new York Times, new Yorker.
It was a really big deal.
So I thought, well, clevelandshould be there too.
In fact I wrote the director ofthe Cleveland Museum of Art and
(02:15):
told him about this and copiedthe exhibition director and said
we should get this exhibit inCleveland.
So far they have not responded,but I'm persistent.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So I'll get on them again, I think it'd be great.
Like a dog with a bone.
That's it, baby.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's it.
So yeah, thanks for asking.
It was a wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Good glad.
I'm glad you're back too.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, and so we got a question.
I did a parish retreat out atSt Chris this past weekend, and
one of the questions that cameup at the end of the retreat in
our little Q&A that we didn'thave time for was when did
Eucharistic Adoration start?
And I put that question at theback because I was like I don't
think I know the answer to this.
I'll have to look it up.
So what did we find out?
We all did research on this.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Do you want to start Maria?
Well, so I went with myresearch.
I don't know if anyone uses theMagnificat, but they have a
Magnificat Adoration Companionand at the beginning of it they
have a little bit of history onEucharistic Adoration.
It's a very short summary of it, but basically that the
Eucharist, they can tell, wasstarted to be reposed in the
third century, but thenfull-blown adoration around.
What did we say?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
like 1100s, right, and so what you mean by reposed
is we reserved it in a specialplace that you know, like
probably an early tabernacle,probably might not look like
what we know now.
Yeah, so that happened aroundthe Council of Nicaea, and
that's just for the sick thoughso we just reserved these for
the sick, as opposed toadoration.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Right Well, which speaks to what eventually would
be understood astransubstantiation as opposed to
consubstantiation, so that evenafter the Mass, what was
confected there in the Eucharistwas believed to remain what it
was.
It didn't stop being that atMass.
So that's an importantdistinction, and so keep in mind
too, christianity only becamelegal in 313.
(04:06):
So by 325, at Nicaea,christianity was growing.
So your earlier masses for thefirst 300 years of the church
would be small liturgicalgatherings.
They didn't have basilicas likewe do today, or World Youth Day
masses, and so Eucharist wouldbe kept over to take to those
who were sick, and that's wherethe otherwise everyone would
(04:26):
consume what was there at theend of the liturgical
celebration, which I mean.
That gets us off on a wholeother topic.
Sure, but there are some places, whether they're parishes or
oratories or seminaries, thatwant to consecrate only what's
needed for that particular Mass,which is ideal.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But if you're in a suburban?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
parish.
It's really hard to do thatright.
So you're receiving what wasconfected at that Mass.
That's correct.
So my research I've got thisbook In the Presence of Our Lord
History, theology andPsychology of Eucharistic
Devotion.
I remember using this book whenI was writing a paper in the
seminary that the earliestearliest evidence of perpetual
(05:09):
adoration of the BlessedSacrament happened was in Lugo,
spain, maybe in the 6th century,but it was not formalized.
So it seems like there werecertain pockets within Europe
where this practice was emergingbut, as Maria said, it wasn't
until the 11th or 12th centurywhere it started to become
formalized.
And I think we all talkedbefore the show started that it
(05:32):
was around the Feast of CorpusChristi and Thomas Aquinas
writing particular prayers andhymns to the Eucharist, where it
became formalized as what weknow as adoration.
Is that your finding?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, I think that's right.
So I had a little website here,a history of Eucharistic
adoration which is done by theNational Shrine of St Maximilian
Kolbe, and so they had this onthe internet and they said the
late practice of adorationformally began Avignon, France,
on September 11th 1226.
And so to celebrate and givethanks for the victory over the
(06:04):
Abidjanians yes, thank you.
King Louis VII of France askedfor the bishop to have the
Blessed Sacrament exposed in theChapel of the Holy Cross.
And so that's where it started,and then they said it wasn't
until later on that theadoration became more formal and
really promulgated a lot morewith the Feast of Corpus Christi
(06:28):
when that was established.
So then it became sort of likea thing that everybody did all
the time.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, it's one of these developments of church
teaching that happens becausewhat's given to us in the
Eucharist beginning on HolyThursday is a great mystery that
continues to develop and wecontinue to unpack it.
So somewhere along the waysomeone must have thought, wow,
if this is the Lord's realpresence here that we're
receiving and we keep it for thesick here, if I need a place to
(06:55):
pray, that would be a goodplace to pray, and then why not
then adore Christ's presencehere?
And I certainly do recognizesome of the history where more
focus was paid to Eucharisticadoration than to the Mass
itself from which the Eucharistcomes to us.
So sometimes there had been animbalance theologically.
(07:19):
But at its core I don't thinkthe practice of adoration was
ever meant to take anything awayfrom the mass.
It's actually an extension of,and the monstrance is supposed
to freeze that moment in timewhere the priest elevates the
host at mass, you know.
So the monstrance is actuallyshowing that moment, and then
(07:43):
you've got time to contemplatewhat is, because, even if you
notice at mass, depending uponwhich priest is presiding Bishop
Wust in particular he holdsthat host for a long time,
because the rubric sayssomething like and then the
priest shows the host to thepeople.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It's probably in your Magnificat and it's probably
not in the rubric there, butyeah, and it was a couple of
years ago to that point where Iheard I can't remember his name
he gave a talk on because I hadgotten into the practice of when
the priest holds the host tobow my head, but he was like no,
no, adore Precisely.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, that's why he's holding it up Right, right
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, and so I.
Yeah, that was a goodcorrection.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, you know it
goes back to, you know, the massbefore the council, right, you
know, they rang a bell and theymade sure everybody the priest's
back was to you, so no one sawanything that's going on.
So the idea was, hey, payattention, he's raising the host
, you know.
And so now it's the same kindof thing.
(08:50):
It's like he's raising the hostso that you can, you can look
at it.
Yeah, and what you were sayingbefore FD was like you know that
that was one of my friendsexperiences as a campus minister
.
He said he would get tons ofstudents and by tons he meant
hundreds for Eucharisticadoration on Tuesday night, but
he'd get half that number forSunday Mass, and so he'd started
doing classes on for SundayMass, and so he'd start doing
classes on the Eucharist,because he said that's a
profound misunderstanding ofwhat's going on.
(09:11):
The thing that we really need todo is receive the Eucharist and
then adore the Eucharist.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Or at least celebrate it, because I know there's some
people who are in situations,whether because of their
marriage or whatever, where theyfeel like I'm not able to
receive communion at this time,you still should go to mass,
because even if you're notreceiving communion, you're
there with the community andyou're still experiencing graces
that are pouring forth.
And so I think some people goto adoration because they find
(09:42):
that they can commune with Godin a profound way there.
But that shouldn't take awayfrom being part of the body of
Christ that gathers togetherwhen the mass is celebrated.
Right, because that's ourobligation is to come to mass.
So, in no way should these two.
It's like so many things wetalk about in this show.
(10:02):
They're not in competition witheach other and they should
build each other up, like ourprivate prayer, our adoration
prayer should lead us tocelebrating the mass, which
should lead us out to the worldto serve, which should lead us
back to prayer, and all thatlike it's the rhythm of the
Christian right.
Yeah, david Erickson.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Indeed, yeah, and I think too that, um, you know,
when we come together as onebody in Christ, you know someone
said this the other day howoften do we stand together as
one body in Christ?
You know, we're all saying thesame thing, just in like
everyday life.
You know we have all kinds,especially today, right?
We have all kinds of divisionsgoing on, but you know, when
we're together at Mass we standtogether as one body of Christ.
(10:44):
You know, even after communion.
You know that's sort of themotif there and this diocese
anyway, where we all stand aftercommunion, that's the idea, you
know, is that we stand togetheras one body in Christ until
everybody's received the body of.
Christ, and then we sit down.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So yeah, I mean good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But it was an answer that I didn't know, so I was
glad that it let us down thisrabbit hole to kind of figure
this out.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, it's interesting too how it's
developed because even since theadvent of the charismatic
movement, which was born afterthe Second Vatican Council,
these things called exalts orfestivals of praise, praise and
adoration are newer to thetradition.
I mean, if adoration has beenhappening since the 12th century
, it's only in the last 60 yearswhere we've been playing music
(11:30):
like not just solemn hymns butpraise and adoration and a lot
of young people when they firsthave their profound experience
of encountering Jesus and I knowmany seminarians and religious
and married people, just a lotof people who said the first
time I knew Jesus was real waswhen I was in adoration and
(11:51):
praising him, and then maybe itwasn't even in the song, it was
when the musicians pulled backand it was quiet and he spoke to
me in the silence of my heartand I knew he was there and I
knew that he loved me.
So it's certainly a developmentof our tradition that's been a
(12:12):
good one and has had profoundeffects within our culture and I
think, especially with theaddiction to the phone and the
scrolling and the constant noise, I think a lot of people are
drawn to adoration because it'salso a time where they can
intentionally be quiet, turn offtheir phone, just listen and be
with the Lord.
(12:33):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
At Ignite, our conference that we did a couple
months ago now, we had kind ofhigh-energy praise and worship
going on the whole time.
And I was looking at theevaluations the other day we
were setting up our littlemeeting to discuss this and they
said, you know, if it werequieter it would have been
better.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So I was like yeah, and I think it's something we
have to build up.
Even Silence is uncomfortable.
We did just 30 minutes ofadoration at our Behold retreat
a couple weeks agomother-daughter retreat and it
was completely silent.
Actually we were supposed tohave background music that was a
(13:16):
little hiccup, but it was justcomplete silence and you could
tell maybe about 15 minutes itstarted to get a little
uncomfortable in the room, likenot everyone really knew what to
do with themselves at thatpoint.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, and this past Friday I did this parish retreat
and we did adoration at the endof it, and so I exposed the
Eucharist, I come down, I kneel,and you're right, we did an
hour, so we did a holy hour atthe end of it, and then you can
kind of tell, like, 15 minutesin, people get a little squirmy,
(13:51):
right you?
Know, it was like you know allthis can be like in other things
, right?
You know it's like when you getmaria, you'll resonate with
this.
It's like going to the gym.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, the first day you can't lift 150 pounds
you know, get started 25, youknow yeah, it's really important
to know who your people are andthen to help them enter in.
So with my Tole Legge kids inthe summer we end every night
with night prayer and we havethe blessed sacrament out, and
(14:20):
so after the reading I take liketwo or three minutes and then
the next night it's like threeor four and then by the last we
have 10 minutes.
So they're just getting moreused to the silence and to let
them know what to do.
So you let the Lord speak toyou.
You've sung this song.
Now what is the song that hewants to sing to you?
Or maybe something that youprayed in the psalm?
(14:40):
Was there a line that struckyou?
Sit with that.
But people need to be taught howto pray Because a lot of times
they don't know what to do withthe silence, like, okay, I've
been on my phone all day andI've talked to people.
How do I listen to God's voice?
How do I know it's not my ownhead?
How do I know it's not thedevil?
How do I know that?
So you know, discernment ofthose voices, all that stuff's
important and I think it's goodto explain things because
(15:05):
oftentimes we presume too much.
I mean, this is evidenced inBishop Molesik's new pastoral
letter.
I've ran into a couple ofpeople who say, yeah, I just
read the fourth section becauseI already knew that Paschal,
mystery, kerygma, stuff.
I'm like dude, are you kiddingme?
Like that's foundational andyou presume that you're there.
Are you praying 15 minutes aday?
Well, not every day?
(15:25):
Okay, well, do it.
Do you have your own story?
No, I don't need my own story.
Come on, so get the basics down.
First things first.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
First things first.
Yeah, no, it's probably thequestion I get asked the most in
spiritual direction is like howdo I stop the distractions from
coming, because I try to sit insilence.
One of my directees the otherday had said oh, you know, I
think I just really need to goback to adoration again.
And I was like okay.
I said you know, you might wantto start with going to Mass and
(15:57):
really paying attention at Massand then maybe staying after
Mass for a little while to doadoration little by little.
And her response I thought wasreally both spiritually mature
and actually mature, right, youknow, she said yeah, I got to
stop throwing myself in thedeepest part of the ocean.
You know.
She said I think I could justgo right back to adoration and
sit there for an hour and shegoes.
(16:17):
And then I'm asking myself whyam I getting distracted?
And she goes.
I'm not used to doing the houryet.
She said so yeah let me takethis in bite-sized bits and see
where I can go with it for awhile, and then I'll get to the
hour.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, again, if you have the Magnificat or the Word
Among Us or one of thosebooklets, it gives you the daily
readings and the prayers I findso often in the morning when I
make my holy hour across thestreet.
Bishop has a nice chapel on thesecond floor.
That's where I pray in themorning.
He does indeed To take thecollect and sometimes the
collect is so beautiful which isthe opening prayer, and
(16:51):
oftentimes it's like oh yeah,the priest said that I didn't
pay any attention, and usuallythe first time I'm reading, if I
don't prepare, I'm not payingattention either, but a lot of
times it's theologically deepand rich and it's exactly what
we need to hear.
Spend some time with thescripture, some of the different
prayers at mass.
You could just tease outmeaning there, or let those
texts speak to you.
(17:11):
Or spend some time with partsof the creed.
Even you know there's so manythings to do.
And I would say too, althoughwe call it Eucharistic Adoration
, there are other forms ofprayer that you can pray while
you're in front of the BlessedSacrament, whether the Blessed
Sacrament is in formalexposition, meaning in a
monstrance, or if it's in aciborium, or even if you're just
(17:32):
in the like in the morning, Ijust like to pray in the chapel
tabernacle's there, the Lord'sclose, it's fine and I like what
was I saying?
I forgot what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Other prayers.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Oh Other prayers yeah , other things you can do while
you're doing adoration.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, things you can do while you're doing adoration,
Like the rosary, for example.
I would say, yeah, I forgotwhat I was going to say so you
could edit that part out.
I was so excited to saysomething profound and I lost it
.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You should just leave a sentence yeah, yeah, to know
what to say, to know what to do.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Exactly, and I do that with the.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Lord too, oh no, I know what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
So it's giving thanks , ah, very good.
So maybe other forms of prayerother than just adoration.
So thank you Lord for this,because I do my examine and kind
of review my day, what happenedthe day before.
So thank you Lord for that.
Or maybe petition People haveasked you to pray, and then
what's the other one?
Adoration and petition,adoration, thanksgiving, and
(18:28):
what's the other one?
There's another one, there's afourth one, what's the other
form of prayer?
Well, somebody's out therelistening in their car going
it's this, and I can't rememberExactly.
I can't either.
Yeah, I'll think of it.
You can keep talking.
I'll think of it.
We'll come up with it at somepoint.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, I mean's what I do generally.
You know, when I go toadoration it's like I'll sit
there.
I'll usually do if it's aroundthe time I usually pray.
So I'll do liturgy of the hours.
So I'll do one either morningor evening prayer if I'm in
there, and then maybe I'll do arosary.
You know, I'll do my examine,as you just said.
You know, it's a good time forme to do that and that kind of
(19:05):
fills up the time a little bit,but at the same time then
sometimes I'm just quiet, right,you know.
I say, okay, there's nothingmore for me to do, I don't have
to say anything, let me justwatch the Lord, watch me.
Supplication, oh, that's theone.
So if you're driving in yourcar yelling supplication, you
could stop yelling now.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, stop yelling supplication.
Someone will think you'recussing Supplication.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Someone will think you're cussing.
I think around the diocesethere are lots of perpetual
adoration chapels.
I know my parish, st Joe's inStrongsville, has one.
I love to just pop in for justa couple minutes to pray for
something that's coming up orask God for advice.
(19:48):
And even just 10, 15 minutescan center and ground my whole
day, just spending time andspending that time with Jesus.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, and for some people, right, like they need
place, like I said that tosomeone the other day when they
were asking about that, I said,well, you know, I said where do
you pray and where's the mosteffective place for you to pray?
And they're like, oh, you know,like yeah, okay, yeah, maybe
that's why I'm gettingdistracted is that I'm praying
in my home and there's all kindsof things going on praying in
(20:19):
my home and there's all kinds ofthings going on.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Maybe I just need to pick another place to go do this
.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, bishop says that in his pastoral letter too,
if you can get in front of thebusted sacrament, do it.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
If not, do you have a nook in your home, a little
prayer chair?
You have an icon?
You could light a candle butset aside a place and get rid of
your phone during that time.
It can be a distraction, unlessyou're praying on the hallow
app or something.
But I like praying my braveryout of a book because the book
doesn't distract me.
If I get distracted it's by myown thoughts, not my phone,
(20:45):
speaking of phone.
So adoration, praise, one,thanksgiving two, confession,
contrition is three, becausesupplication is the same as
petition.
So those are the four.
So adoration and praise,thanksgiving, confession,
contrition, supplication,petition.
I'm glad we solved that problem.
That's why we have phones, yeah.
(21:06):
It is nice to be able to getthat information quickly.
I went to the Aquinas lecturethis weekend.
It was a Dominican sister fromNashville.
She's a philosopher at CUA andshe was talking about our lack
of memory these days, because wedon't even memorize phone
numbers anymore addresses, and Ican't even memorize the four
types of prayer.
I mean, what the heck's wrongwith?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
me.
I remember back in the day whenwe first started being able to
store phone numbers.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Just in a regular phone, like it would have a
little memory thing, A memorybutton.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah and so I remember my friend had a call
and this was before cell phones.
My friend was going to call hisgirlfriend and he goes to a pay
phone and he went memory what?
No, I can't do that.
What the heck's your phonenumber?
He goes I can't believe, Idon't know my girlfriend's phone
number.
Now, I mean, I don't know yourphone number for sure, I don't
know yours either I don't know,phil knows, my phone number is
(21:56):
the one that gets given out.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
That's funny.
That's funny.
Do you remember your childhoodphone number?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yes, I do.
What was it?
Don't give the zip code.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Don't give the area code 963-6571.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
842-8480.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
661-1988.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Nice, very nice.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
See that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
People don't even have home phones anymore.
No, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
It used to be hilarious.
You'd get a phone call.
Everyone in the house knew thephone rang and then she's like I
don't, uh, and you have the bigcord and get in the closet,
that's right.
Yeah, I'll call you later.
I'll call you later.
My parents are around.
Get in the closet, what?
Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Anyway, all right, so let's take a look at the
readings for the fifth Sunday ofLent.
Woman caught in adultery is thegospel this weekend, one of my
favorite parts of this.
We probably have talked aboutthis before.
Jesus bent down and began towrite on the ground with his
finger.
I always say, well, what was hewriting?
And so there's a bunch ofdifferent theories on this.
The one that I like best is hewas writing down the names of
(23:06):
all the men who had been withthe woman, and that they were
all in front of him.
You know, then, that's why theydropped the stones.
He said let you.
Who was that sin cast?
the first stone so they alldropped their stones.
They'd all been with her.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
They weren't the ones being shamed what the woman was
I heard too that possibly,again, it's all conjecture,
speculation, but perhaps thelord was writing the sins of,
yes, the particular around,whether it was with her or not,
but he was exposing their sins.
Because what strikes me here isthis line that teacher, this
woman was caught in the very actof committing adultery.
So it was likely a setup, andhow embarrassing would that be.
(23:33):
So think to yourself of theworst sin you've ever committed,
which should make you shudder abit, and then you being pulled
out, and all the news cameras,social media now, everybody
knows it.
And how is it that the Lordtreats you?
And that's a good way to enterinto this scripture because he
treats this woman with mercy andwith love, because she doesn't
(23:55):
have a name, by the way.
So she's you, she's me, and theLord knows all our sins.
They may not be present toeverybody else, but he knows
them all.
And what does he want to do?
He wants to forgive us and healus.
So, yeah, it's a beautiful,beautiful story.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I heard a talk on this just recently and that
Jesus gives mercy and then alsocalls her, on the path towards
him, to go and sin no more.
So it's both love and mercy.
But we're not called to condemn, we're called to bring others
to him.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Closing line.
Go and, from now on, do not sinanymore.
Yeah, all called to conversion.
Father, was there a church onyour travels that you?
You just started to talk aboutone, I think earlier, when we
were talking about uh let metalk about two if you don't mind
.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So the basilica of the cathedral of saint john the
baptist in Savannah, Georgia, isgorgeous and I had mass there
on last Saturday, which was likethe 22nd or something, I
suppose the noon mass.
(25:08):
Between the noon mass and thevigil mass there were 1,700
visitors, pedestrian visitorsthat came in to check out that
church and it's Gothic, it'sbeautiful and, again, this is
where Flannery would havereceived her sacraments and her
childhood home is literally inthe shadow of the steeple there.
So she was very much formed byher Catholic imagination or by
(25:30):
the literal basilica that shecould see out her parents'
window.
Interestingly, another friendof mine and you I don't know
about you, I know you're morecountry girl but Bruce
Springsteen- grew up also in theshadow of the steeple of St
Rosalima Church in Freehold and.
I've been to both those placeson pilgrimage, which is cool.
And then the second church is avery small church.
(25:52):
It's old, I want to say 150years old.
The church itself is inMilledgeville, georgia, which is
the pre-Civil War capital ofGeorgia, and Flannery and her
mother would go to church thereevery day.
So she went to church here whenshe was in high school and
college and then the last 14years of her life she and her
(26:14):
mom would go to mass everymorning, 7 am mass.
She'd have breakfast, thenshe'd spend the rest of her
morning writing.
But I was able to celebrate the1210 mass there, thanks to
Father Brian, who's the pastorthere now on Flannery O'Connor's
birthday, which was also theFeast of the Annunciation, which
was a wonderful delight.
So I've been to those churchesbefore.
(26:36):
If you've never been, youshould go.
Make a Flannery pilgrimage.
It's well worth it, very nice.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I love the Springsteen story about the
place that he grew up.
He said I grew up literallysurrounded by God.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And what's interesting is his childhood
home was torn down to build aparking lot because this church
grew.
Now there's a lot of HispanicCatholics at St Rose of Lima now
, so they have a bigger churchand a couple of Spanish masses.
The song Wrecking Ball whichwas on the album Wrecking Ball
(27:13):
was about the old giant stadium,but this summer when I went to
see him in Philly, my buddy RichMcCarthy and I, that morning,
the night, we saw Sam, we wenton Springsteen pilgrimage and it
was the first time I puttogether.
Oh you know what.
I bet you he was also thinkingabout his childhood home, like
(27:35):
bring on your wrecking ball,which is I'll take the Good
Friday, like I'm up for thesuffering because I believe that
the resurrection is to come.
And you may say, didSpringsteen really think that?
Maybe not, but he certainlyfelt it.
I guarantee you that.
So sermon over Sermon over.
Sorry about that, flanneryO'Connor.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
My two favorite Catholic artists.
Two favorite Catholic artistsSame here.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
All right, maria, thanks for coming back.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
All right, we'll have this and we'll have a whole lot
more next time here on Questionof Faith.
On today's Question of Faith.
When did Eucharistic Adorationbegin?
Hey everybody, this is Questionof Faith.
I'm Deacon Mike Hayes.
I am the Director of YoungAdult Ministry here in the
Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Father Damian Ferencz, the Vicar for
Evangelization.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
And I'm Maria Wankata , Marriage and Family Ministry
Specialist.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Nice to have you both back, father, how was your trip
?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, it was wonderful.
It was my second trip aboutFlannery O'Connor in this past
month, so remember at thebeginning of the month I was
down in Iowa where she earnedher MFA, and then just this past
weekend I was down in Savannahwhere O'Connor was born.
Her childhood home is a museumthere and the Basilica, which is
also the cathedral, was herhome parish St John the Baptist.
(00:48):
So I stayed there it'sinteresting on the fourth floor
of the rectory, which has anelevator, and here in Cleveland
I live in the fourth floor ofthe rectory, which also has an
elevator.
My dad was an elevator mechanicso he would have been thrilled
with that.
I went to a reception at herchildhood home Friday night,
went to a fundraiser Saturdaynight and then went over to
(01:09):
Milledgeville where she spentthe last 14 years of her life
and actually lived there whenshe was in high school and
college as well.
Because I wanted to celebratemass at her home, I wanted to
visit her grave.
But, most importantly, there'snew artwork paintings that she
did both in high school and whenshe was an adult living at the
farm that have never been seenbefore by most people.
(01:32):
I actually saw them in astorage unit about 12 years ago
with Miss Louise Florent Court,her first cousin, but they were
put up on display on herbirthday, march 25th.
There was an evening receptionbut I had to fly out at seven.
So this woman, amanda Respis,who works for the college, got
me in early and I was able tosee all that stuff and it was
wonderful.
So this weekend, saturday andSunday morning, I took his
(01:55):
writing days and I put togetheran essay It'll come out Word on
Fire on Monday but about thewhole new exhibit.
Npr was there, bbc was there,new York Times, new Yorker.
It was a really big deal.
So I thought, well, clevelandshould be there too.
In fact I wrote the director ofthe Cleveland Museum of Art and
(02:15):
told him about this and copiedthe exhibition director and said
we should get this exhibit inCleveland.
So far they have not responded,but I'm persistent.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So I'll get on them again, I think it'd be great.
Like a dog with a bone.
That's it, baby.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's it.
So yeah, thanks for asking.
It was a wonderful time.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Good glad.
I'm glad you're back too.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, and so we got a question.
I did a parish retreat out atSt Chris this past weekend, and
one of the questions that cameup at the end of the retreat in
our little Q&A that we didn'thave time for was when did
Eucharistic Adoration start?
And I put that question at theback because I was like I don't
think I know the answer to this.
I'll have to look it up.
So what did we find out?
We all did research on this.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Do you want to start Maria?
Well, so I went with myresearch.
I don't know if anyone uses theMagnificat, but they have a
Magnificat Adoration Companionand at the beginning of it they
have a little bit of history onEucharistic Adoration.
It's a very short summary of it, but basically that the
Eucharist, they can tell, wasstarted to be reposed in the
third century, but thenfull-blown adoration around.
What did we say?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
like 1100s, right, and so what you mean by reposed
is we reserved it in a specialplace that you know, like
probably an early tabernacle,probably might not look like
what we know now.
Yeah, so that happened aroundthe Council of Nicaea, and
that's just for the sick thoughso we just reserved these for
the sick, as opposed toadoration.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Right Well, which speaks to what eventually would
be understood astransubstantiation as opposed to
consubstantiation, so that evenafter the Mass, what was
confected there in the Eucharistwas believed to remain what it
was.
It didn't stop being that atMass.
So that's an importantdistinction, and so keep in mind
too, christianity only becamelegal in 313.
(04:06):
So by 325, at Nicaea,christianity was growing.
So your earlier masses for thefirst 300 years of the church
would be small liturgicalgatherings.
They didn't have basilicas likewe do today, or World Youth Day
masses, and so Eucharist wouldbe kept over to take to those
who were sick, and that's wherethe otherwise everyone would
(04:26):
consume what was there at theend of the liturgical
celebration, which I mean.
That gets us off on a wholeother topic.
Sure, but there are some places, whether they're parishes or
oratories or seminaries, thatwant to consecrate only what's
needed for that particular Mass,which is ideal.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But if you're in a suburban?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
parish.
It's really hard to do thatright.
So you're receiving what wasconfected at that Mass.
That's correct.
So my research I've got thisbook In the Presence of Our Lord
History, theology andPsychology of Eucharistic
Devotion.
I remember using this book whenI was writing a paper in the
seminary that the earliestearliest evidence of perpetual
(05:09):
adoration of the BlessedSacrament happened was in Lugo,
spain, maybe in the 6th century,but it was not formalized.
So it seems like there werecertain pockets within Europe
where this practice was emergingbut, as Maria said, it wasn't
until the 11th or 12th centurywhere it started to become
formalized.
And I think we all talkedbefore the show started that it
(05:32):
was around the Feast of CorpusChristi and Thomas Aquinas
writing particular prayers andhymns to the Eucharist, where it
became formalized as what weknow as adoration.
Is that your finding?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, I think that's right.
So I had a little website here,a history of Eucharistic
adoration which is done by theNational Shrine of St Maximilian
Kolbe, and so they had this onthe internet and they said the
late practice of adorationformally began Avignon, France,
on September 11th 1226.
And so to celebrate and givethanks for the victory over the
(06:04):
Abidjanians yes, thank you.
King Louis VII of France askedfor the bishop to have the
Blessed Sacrament exposed in theChapel of the Holy Cross.
And so that's where it started,and then they said it wasn't
until later on that theadoration became more formal and
really promulgated a lot morewith the Feast of Corpus Christi
(06:28):
when that was established.
So then it became sort of likea thing that everybody did all
the time.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, it's one of these developments of church
teaching that happens becausewhat's given to us in the
Eucharist beginning on HolyThursday is a great mystery that
continues to develop and wecontinue to unpack it.
So somewhere along the waysomeone must have thought, wow,
if this is the Lord's realpresence here that we're
receiving and we keep it for thesick here, if I need a place to
(06:55):
pray, that would be a goodplace to pray, and then why not
then adore Christ's presencehere?
And I certainly do recognizesome of the history where more
focus was paid to Eucharisticadoration than to the Mass
itself from which the Eucharistcomes to us.
So sometimes there had been animbalance theologically.
(07:19):
But at its core I don't thinkthe practice of adoration was
ever meant to take anything awayfrom the mass.
It's actually an extension of,and the monstrance is supposed
to freeze that moment in timewhere the priest elevates the
host at mass, you know.
So the monstrance is actuallyshowing that moment, and then
(07:43):
you've got time to contemplatewhat is, because, even if you
notice at mass, depending uponwhich priest is presiding Bishop
Wust in particular he holdsthat host for a long time,
because the rubric sayssomething like and then the
priest shows the host to thepeople.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It's probably in your Magnificat and it's probably
not in the rubric there, butyeah, and it was a couple of
years ago to that point where Iheard I can't remember his name
he gave a talk on because I hadgotten into the practice of when
the priest holds the host tobow my head, but he was like no,
no, adore Precisely.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, that's why he's holding it up Right, right
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, and so I.
Yeah, that was a goodcorrection.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, you know it
goes back to, you know, the massbefore the council, right, you
know, they rang a bell and theymade sure everybody the priest's
back was to you, so no one sawanything that's going on.
So the idea was, hey, payattention, he's raising the host
, you know.
And so now it's the same kindof thing.
(08:50):
It's like he's raising the hostso that you can, you can look
at it.
Yeah, and what you were sayingbefore FD was like you know that
that was one of my friendsexperiences as a campus minister
.
He said he would get tons ofstudents and by tons he meant
hundreds for Eucharisticadoration on Tuesday night, but
he'd get half that number forSunday Mass, and so he'd started
doing classes on for SundayMass, and so he'd start doing
classes on the Eucharist,because he said that's a
profound misunderstanding ofwhat's going on.
(09:11):
The thing that we really need todo is receive the Eucharist and
then adore the Eucharist.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Or at least celebrate it, because I know there's some
people who are in situations,whether because of their
marriage or whatever, where theyfeel like I'm not able to
receive communion at this time,you still should go to mass,
because even if you're notreceiving communion, you're
there with the community andyou're still experiencing graces
that are pouring forth.
And so I think some people goto adoration because they find
(09:42):
that they can commune with Godin a profound way there.
But that shouldn't take awayfrom being part of the body of
Christ that gathers togetherwhen the mass is celebrated.
Right, because that's ourobligation is to come to mass.
So, in no way should these two.
It's like so many things wetalk about in this show.
(10:02):
They're not in competition witheach other and they should
build each other up, like ourprivate prayer, our adoration
prayer should lead us tocelebrating the mass, which
should lead us out to the worldto serve, which should lead us
back to prayer, and all thatlike it's the rhythm of the
Christian right.
Yeah, david Erickson.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Indeed, yeah, and I think too that, um, you know,
when we come together as onebody in Christ, you know someone
said this the other day howoften do we stand together as
one body in Christ?
You know, we're all saying thesame thing, just in like
everyday life.
You know we have all kinds,especially today, right?
We have all kinds of divisionsgoing on, but you know, when
we're together at Mass we standtogether as one body of Christ.
(10:44):
You know, even after communion.
You know that's sort of themotif there and this diocese
anyway, where we all stand aftercommunion, that's the idea, you
know, is that we stand togetheras one body in Christ until
everybody's received the body of.
Christ, and then we sit down.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So yeah, I mean good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But it was an answer that I didn't know, so I was
glad that it let us down thisrabbit hole to kind of figure
this out.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, it's interesting too how it's
developed because even since theadvent of the charismatic
movement, which was born afterthe Second Vatican Council,
these things called exalts orfestivals of praise, praise and
adoration are newer to thetradition.
I mean, if adoration has beenhappening since the 12th century
, it's only in the last 60 yearswhere we've been playing music
(11:30):
like not just solemn hymns butpraise and adoration and a lot
of young people when they firsthave their profound experience
of encountering Jesus and I knowmany seminarians and religious
and married people, just a lotof people who said the first
time I knew Jesus was real waswhen I was in adoration and
(11:51):
praising him, and then maybe itwasn't even in the song, it was
when the musicians pulled backand it was quiet and he spoke to
me in the silence of my heartand I knew he was there and I
knew that he loved me.
So it's certainly a developmentof our tradition that's been a
(12:12):
good one and has had profoundeffects within our culture and I
think, especially with theaddiction to the phone and the
scrolling and the constant noise, I think a lot of people are
drawn to adoration because it'salso a time where they can
intentionally be quiet, turn offtheir phone, just listen and be
with the Lord.
(12:33):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
At Ignite, our conference that we did a couple
months ago now, we had kind ofhigh-energy praise and worship
going on the whole time.
And I was looking at theevaluations the other day we
were setting up our littlemeeting to discuss this and they
said, you know, if it werequieter it would have been
better.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So I was like yeah, and I think it's something we
have to build up.
Even Silence is uncomfortable.
We did just 30 minutes ofadoration at our Behold retreat
a couple weeks agomother-daughter retreat and it
was completely silent.
Actually we were supposed tohave background music that was a
(13:16):
little hiccup, but it was justcomplete silence and you could
tell maybe about 15 minutes itstarted to get a little
uncomfortable in the room, likenot everyone really knew what to
do with themselves at thatpoint.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, and this past Friday I did this parish retreat
and we did adoration at the endof it, and so I exposed the
Eucharist, I come down, I kneel,and you're right, we did an
hour, so we did a holy hour atthe end of it, and then you can
kind of tell, like, 15 minutesin, people get a little squirmy,
(13:51):
right you?
Know, it was like you know allthis can be like in other things
, right?
You know it's like when you getmaria, you'll resonate with
this.
It's like going to the gym.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, the first day you can't lift 150 pounds
you know, get started 25, youknow yeah, it's really important
to know who your people are andthen to help them enter in.
So with my Tole Legge kids inthe summer we end every night
with night prayer and we havethe blessed sacrament out, and
(14:20):
so after the reading I take liketwo or three minutes and then
the next night it's like threeor four and then by the last we
have 10 minutes.
So they're just getting moreused to the silence and to let
them know what to do.
So you let the Lord speak toyou.
You've sung this song.
Now what is the song that hewants to sing to you?
Or maybe something that youprayed in the psalm?
(14:40):
Was there a line that struckyou?
Sit with that.
But people need to be taught howto pray Because a lot of times
they don't know what to do withthe silence, like, okay, I've
been on my phone all day andI've talked to people.
How do I listen to God's voice?
How do I know it's not my ownhead?
How do I know it's not thedevil?
How do I know that?
So you know, discernment ofthose voices, all that stuff's
important and I think it's goodto explain things because
(15:05):
oftentimes we presume too much.
I mean, this is evidenced inBishop Molesik's new pastoral
letter.
I've ran into a couple ofpeople who say, yeah, I just
read the fourth section becauseI already knew that Paschal,
mystery, kerygma, stuff.
I'm like dude, are you kiddingme?
Like that's foundational andyou presume that you're there.
Are you praying 15 minutes aday?
Well, not every day?
(15:25):
Okay, well, do it.
Do you have your own story?
No, I don't need my own story.
Come on, so get the basics down.
First things first.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
First things first.
Yeah, no, it's probably thequestion I get asked the most in
spiritual direction is like howdo I stop the distractions from
coming, because I try to sit insilence.
One of my directees the otherday had said oh, you know, I
think I just really need to goback to adoration again.
And I was like okay.
I said you know, you might wantto start with going to Mass and
(15:57):
really paying attention at Massand then maybe staying after
Mass for a little while to doadoration little by little.
And her response I thought wasreally both spiritually mature
and actually mature, right, youknow, she said yeah, I got to
stop throwing myself in thedeepest part of the ocean.
You know.
She said I think I could justgo right back to adoration and
sit there for an hour and shegoes.
(16:17):
And then I'm asking myself whyam I getting distracted?
And she goes.
I'm not used to doing the houryet.
She said so yeah let me takethis in bite-sized bits and see
where I can go with it for awhile, and then I'll get to the
hour.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, again, if you have the Magnificat or the Word
Among Us or one of thosebooklets, it gives you the daily
readings and the prayers I findso often in the morning when I
make my holy hour across thestreet.
Bishop has a nice chapel on thesecond floor.
That's where I pray in themorning.
He does indeed To take thecollect and sometimes the
collect is so beautiful which isthe opening prayer, and
(16:51):
oftentimes it's like oh yeah,the priest said that I didn't
pay any attention, and usuallythe first time I'm reading, if I
don't prepare, I'm not payingattention either, but a lot of
times it's theologically deepand rich and it's exactly what
we need to hear.
Spend some time with thescripture, some of the different
prayers at mass.
You could just tease outmeaning there, or let those
texts speak to you.
(17:11):
Or spend some time with partsof the creed.
Even you know there's so manythings to do.
And I would say too, althoughwe call it Eucharistic Adoration
, there are other forms ofprayer that you can pray while
you're in front of the BlessedSacrament, whether the Blessed
Sacrament is in formalexposition, meaning in a
monstrance, or if it's in aciborium, or even if you're just
(17:32):
in the like in the morning, Ijust like to pray in the chapel
tabernacle's there, the Lord'sclose, it's fine and I like what
was I saying?
I forgot what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Other prayers.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Oh Other prayers yeah , other things you can do while
you're doing adoration.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, things you can do while you're doing adoration,
Like the rosary, for example.
I would say, yeah, I forgotwhat I was going to say so you
could edit that part out.
I was so excited to saysomething profound and I lost it
.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You should just leave a sentence yeah, yeah, to know
what to say, to know what to do.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Exactly, and I do that with the.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Lord too, oh no, I know what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
So it's giving thanks , ah, very good.
So maybe other forms of prayerother than just adoration.
So thank you Lord for this,because I do my examine and kind
of review my day, what happenedthe day before.
So thank you Lord for that.
Or maybe petition People haveasked you to pray, and then
what's the other one?
Adoration and petition,adoration, thanksgiving, and
(18:28):
what's the other one?
There's another one, there's afourth one, what's the other
form of prayer?
Well, somebody's out therelistening in their car going
it's this, and I can't rememberExactly.
I can't either.
Yeah, I'll think of it.
You can keep talking.
I'll think of it.
We'll come up with it at somepoint.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, I mean's what I do generally.
You know, when I go toadoration it's like I'll sit
there.
I'll usually do if it's aroundthe time I usually pray.
So I'll do liturgy of the hours.
So I'll do one either morningor evening prayer if I'm in
there, and then maybe I'll do arosary.
You know, I'll do my examine,as you just said.
You know, it's a good time forme to do that and that kind of
(19:05):
fills up the time a little bit,but at the same time then
sometimes I'm just quiet, right,you know.
I say, okay, there's nothingmore for me to do, I don't have
to say anything, let me justwatch the Lord, watch me.
Supplication, oh, that's theone.
So if you're driving in yourcar yelling supplication, you
could stop yelling now.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, stop yelling supplication.
Someone will think you'recussing Supplication.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Someone will think you're cussing.
I think around the diocesethere are lots of perpetual
adoration chapels.
I know my parish, st Joe's inStrongsville, has one.
I love to just pop in for justa couple minutes to pray for
something that's coming up orask God for advice.
(19:48):
And even just 10, 15 minutescan center and ground my whole
day, just spending time andspending that time with Jesus.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, and for some people, right, like they need
place, like I said that tosomeone the other day when they
were asking about that, I said,well, you know, I said where do
you pray and where's the mosteffective place for you to pray?
And they're like, oh, you know,like yeah, okay, yeah, maybe
that's why I'm gettingdistracted is that I'm praying
in my home and there's all kindsof things going on praying in
(20:19):
my home and there's all kinds ofthings going on.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Maybe I just need to pick another place to go do this
.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, bishop says that in his pastoral letter too,
if you can get in front of thebusted sacrament, do it.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
If not, do you have a nook in your home, a little
prayer chair?
You have an icon?
You could light a candle butset aside a place and get rid of
your phone during that time.
It can be a distraction, unlessyou're praying on the hallow
app or something.
But I like praying my braveryout of a book because the book
doesn't distract me.
If I get distracted it's by myown thoughts, not my phone,
(20:45):
speaking of phone.
So adoration, praise, one,thanksgiving two, confession,
contrition is three, becausesupplication is the same as
petition.
So those are the four.
So adoration and praise,thanksgiving, confession,
contrition, supplication,petition.
I'm glad we solved that problem.
That's why we have phones, yeah.
(21:06):
It is nice to be able to getthat information quickly.
I went to the Aquinas lecturethis weekend.
It was a Dominican sister fromNashville.
She's a philosopher at CUA andshe was talking about our lack
of memory these days, because wedon't even memorize phone
numbers anymore addresses, and Ican't even memorize the four
types of prayer.
I mean, what the heck's wrongwith?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
me.
I remember back in the day whenwe first started being able to
store phone numbers.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Just in a regular phone, like it would have a
little memory thing, A memorybutton.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah and so I remember my friend had a call
and this was before cell phones.
My friend was going to call hisgirlfriend and he goes to a pay
phone and he went memory what?
No, I can't do that.
What the heck's your phonenumber?
He goes I can't believe, Idon't know my girlfriend's phone
number.
Now, I mean, I don't know yourphone number for sure, I don't
know yours either I don't know,phil knows, my phone number is
(21:56):
the one that gets given out.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
That's funny.
That's funny.
Do you remember your childhoodphone number?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yes, I do.
What was it?
Don't give the zip code.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Don't give the area code 963-6571.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
842-8480.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
661-1988.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Nice, very nice.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
See that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
People don't even have home phones anymore.
No, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
It used to be hilarious.
You'd get a phone call.
Everyone in the house knew thephone rang and then she's like I
don't, uh, and you have the bigcord and get in the closet,
that's right.
Yeah, I'll call you later.
I'll call you later.
My parents are around.
Get in the closet, what?
Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Anyway, all right, so let's take a look at the
readings for the fifth Sunday ofLent.
Woman caught in adultery is thegospel this weekend, one of my
favorite parts of this.
We probably have talked aboutthis before.
Jesus bent down and began towrite on the ground with his
finger.
I always say, well, what was hewriting?
And so there's a bunch ofdifferent theories on this.
The one that I like best is hewas writing down the names of
(23:06):
all the men who had been withthe woman, and that they were
all in front of him.
You know, then, that's why theydropped the stones.
He said let you.
Who was that sin cast?
the first stone so they alldropped their stones.
They'd all been with her.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
They weren't the ones being shamed what the woman was
I heard too that possibly,again, it's all conjecture,
speculation, but perhaps thelord was writing the sins of,
yes, the particular around,whether it was with her or not,
but he was exposing their sins.
Because what strikes me here isthis line that teacher, this
woman was caught in the very actof committing adultery.
So it was likely a setup, andhow embarrassing would that be.
(23:33):
So think to yourself of theworst sin you've ever committed,
which should make you shudder abit, and then you being pulled
out, and all the news cameras,social media now, everybody
knows it.
And how is it that the Lordtreats you?
And that's a good way to enterinto this scripture because he
treats this woman with mercy andwith love, because she doesn't
(23:55):
have a name, by the way.
So she's you, she's me, and theLord knows all our sins.
They may not be present toeverybody else, but he knows
them all.
And what does he want to do?
He wants to forgive us and healus.
So, yeah, it's a beautiful,beautiful story.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I heard a talk on this just recently and that
Jesus gives mercy and then alsocalls her, on the path towards
him, to go and sin no more.
So it's both love and mercy.
But we're not called to condemn, we're called to bring others
to him.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Closing line.
Go and, from now on, do not sinanymore.
Yeah, all called to conversion.
Father, was there a church onyour travels that you?
You just started to talk aboutone, I think earlier, when we
were talking about uh let metalk about two if you don't mind
.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So the basilica of the cathedral of saint john the
baptist in Savannah, Georgia, isgorgeous and I had mass there
on last Saturday, which was likethe 22nd or something, I
suppose the noon mass.
(25:08):
Between the noon mass and thevigil mass there were 1,700
visitors, pedestrian visitorsthat came in to check out that
church and it's Gothic, it'sbeautiful and, again, this is
where Flannery would havereceived her sacraments and her
childhood home is literally inthe shadow of the steeple there.
So she was very much formed byher Catholic imagination or by
(25:30):
the literal basilica that shecould see out her parents'
window.
Interestingly, another friendof mine and you I don't know
about you, I know you're morecountry girl but Bruce
Springsteen- grew up also in theshadow of the steeple of St
Rosalima Church in Freehold and.
I've been to both those placeson pilgrimage, which is cool.
And then the second church is avery small church.
(25:52):
It's old, I want to say 150years old.
The church itself is inMilledgeville, georgia, which is
the pre-Civil War capital ofGeorgia, and Flannery and her
mother would go to church thereevery day.
So she went to church here whenshe was in high school and
college and then the last 14years of her life she and her
(26:14):
mom would go to mass everymorning, 7 am mass.
She'd have breakfast, thenshe'd spend the rest of her
morning writing.
But I was able to celebrate the1210 mass there, thanks to
Father Brian, who's the pastorthere now on Flannery O'Connor's
birthday, which was also theFeast of the Annunciation, which
was a wonderful delight.
So I've been to those churchesbefore.
(26:36):
If you've never been, youshould go.
Make a Flannery pilgrimage.
It's well worth it, very nice.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I love the Springsteen story about the
place that he grew up.
He said I grew up literallysurrounded by God.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And what's interesting is his childhood
home was torn down to build aparking lot because this church
grew.
Now there's a lot of HispanicCatholics at St Rose of Lima now
, so they have a bigger churchand a couple of Spanish masses.
The song Wrecking Ball whichwas on the album Wrecking Ball
(27:13):
was about the old giant stadium,but this summer when I went to
see him in Philly, my buddy RichMcCarthy and I, that morning,
the night, we saw Sam, we wenton Springsteen pilgrimage and it
was the first time I puttogether.
Oh you know what.
I bet you he was also thinkingabout his childhood home, like
(27:35):
bring on your wrecking ball,which is I'll take the Good
Friday, like I'm up for thesuffering because I believe that
the resurrection is to come.
And you may say, didSpringsteen really think that?
Maybe not, but he certainlyfelt it.
I guarantee you that.
So sermon over Sermon over.
Sorry about that, flanneryO'Connor.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
My two favorite Catholic artists.
Two favorite Catholic artistsSame here.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
All right, maria, thanks for coming back.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
All right, we'll have this and we'll have a whole lot
more next time here on Questionof Faith.
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