Throughout this past weekend, I was able to spend a significant amount of time in one of the greatest places that you can be. From Friday night to Sunday morning, I had spent just about a total of 15 hours in a eucharistic adoration chapel throughout the course of a retreat taking place. Some parts of the weekend, I was there in the middle of the night, while the outside world was asleep and all was quiet and seemingly peaceful. But the place where I was, peace envelops you and surpasses anything that resembles peace in the world. In scripture, Jesus tells us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). As I spent time before Jesus present in the blessed sacrament experiencing His peace, I thought to myself, this right here is what it’s all about.
The world is filled with noise. And while it’s not all bad, it can make our relationship with Jesus more difficult to maintain. There is so much pressure put on us to perform, achieve, succeed, and advance. We constantly have projects, deadlines, and tasks that we need to complete. Expectations of what we are to do are placed on us all of the time. These things are not bad and are just a part of life, but they can wear us down after a while, especially if we are not taking time for prayer.
When you spend time in adoration, these pressures and expectations are removed. The most beautiful part about adoration is that you can simply exist. You don’t have to say or do anything specific. You can just be, and let Jesus pour His love out on you.
A lot of times, we may get frustrated with ourselves for how distracted we get during prayer, how far our minds wander, and how much we think about things that seem so irrelevant. But I don’t think we should be so hard on ourselves. Distractions are a part of being human. And since we are going to get distracted anyway, where better to be than in adoration, where Jesus is gazing upon us, looking at us with love. It is these encounters with love that allow us to go out into the world and live our faith, to follow His ways, to stand up for the truth, and to love others.
I think we often spend a lot of time worrying about stuff that really doesn’t matter. Something that Blessed Carlo Acutis is known for saying is “to always be close to Jesus, that is my life plan.” To be close to Jesus always; that is what truly matters. And being able to sit before Him fully present and, at times, to kneel just a few feet from the monstrance, I was reminded that this is what being close to Jesus is. Aside from receiving Him in the eucharist at mass, it is the closest to Him we can be.
We all need to take time to escape the world for a little while and to simply exist and be still. Whether it’s a few minutes, or a few hours, it will change us. My prayer is that everyone would be able to experience the real peace and love that Jesus gives while being in His presence. Because that is what it’s all about.
Faith and The Good Stuff 