Thoughts On The Holy Hour

Is Jesus in your heart? As Catholics, we should be grounded in our Faith. And the heart of our Faith is Jesus. We should want to be friends with Jesus, as our Savior and as our brother. To be friends with someone means to know them. And knowing someone requires personal contact. But how can we get personal with Jesus?

We get personal with Jesus at the Mass and through the Eucharist. We also get personal with Him when we get together, in His name. Jesus promised us, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) But the Eucharist is the defining method of united ourselves with Jesus. The Catechism tells us, “The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’ of the Christian life.” (1324) This is also why Pope Benedict XVI stated, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deus Caritas Est)

Pope Leo XIV in his Pentecost homily, noted that, despite the prevalence of social media and its burgeoning use and popularity, people are more alone than ever. It is a false community. How many of those “friends” will be there when you need them. That’s one of the important things we are called to do as Catholic Christians – we are called to support each other as members of the Body of Christ. To develop that kind of relationship requires personal contact. And that’s what the Mass and adoration give us, that personal encounter. Besides the Mass the next best way to encounter Jesus is through a Holy Hour including adoration. Bishop Sheen explains, “The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ.”

We need to strive to be like Jesus. “…[T]he Church exists for nothing else but to draw man into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy missions, sermons, even the Bible itself are simply a waste of time.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity) Bishop Sheen, explaining why he engaged in a Holy Hour throughout his priesthood gave three reasons: First, it is a sharing in the work of redemption; second, it joins us with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (“Could you not watch one hour with me?)”; and third, to grow more and more into His likeness. Sheen also notes that an hour is important because it takes us 15 or more minutes to get the world out of our systems to concentrate on prayer.

Even when traveling, Bishop Sheen made a Holy Hour every day. If he couldn’t get into a church he would find out where the tabernacle was and park as close as possible to it and make his Holy Hour there. If you can’t get to church, do a Holy Hour in your own home. As Jesus said, go into your room and close the door and spend an hour in prayer.

The Church is about unity, being the Body of Christ. How do we achieve that unity? By trying to make ourselves one with Him. We join ourselves to our friends, our family, our Brother Knights (Knights of Columbus), and our fellow Christians (brothers and sisters in Christ) by being with them. When was the last time you were with Jesus? Were you really with Him at Mass last Sunday or were you paying attention to the others around you and not to His sacrifice on the altar?

Can we get one more? Our parish has adoration every Friday. Does your parish have regular adoration of the Eucharist? If not, perhaps you should ask your pastor to initiate one, if not weekly, at least monthly (e.g., in conjunction with First Friday devotions).

It may be difficult to attend during the day since, understandably, many are at work and can’t make it. In that case adoration should cover at least one or two evening hours to give everyone the opportunity to worship. But if you have free time, what better way to spend an hour than quietly with the Lord. Bring a rosary, bring some Scripture, bring some reflections on the Word of God (lots of mass reflections are available online – I post mine weekly here on Catholic365.com). You might be surprised to find that Jesus is talking to you. Just remember, even if you are in the middle of prayer, when God is speaking to you, stop and LISTEN!

As the old “Mikey” commercials used to say, “Try it, you’ll like it.”