Weekly Adoration: Pushing Past Fear to Embrace the Gift

Remembering the times she ignored requests for weekly adorers, AnneMarie Miller ponders the importance of pushing past the fear that keeps us away from God.  

For several years at my parish, Eucharistic Adoration was only held on one Friday a month. However, each year, I’d receive an email that our parish would have Adoration every Friday in Lent—would I be willing to commit to weekly Adoration? 

Each year, I would ignore the email.  

Afraid to commit

Although I wanted more Adoration at our parish, I was afraid of committing to a weekly Holy Hour. I’d justify my unwillingness with a variety of excuses:  

• I already commit to one hour a month; doing it every week would take up so much time.
• Committing to weekly Adoration will interfere with all of our fun activities and outings with friends. 
• Bringing my small children to weekly Adoration would be a complete disaster!  

I was comfortable with my once-a-month commitment, and I didn’t need to stretch myself further — at least, that’s what I thought.  

When everything changed  

As Lent drew near this year, I received the expected email from my parish about Adoration. As usual, I ignored it and let it slip from my mind … until the Adoration coordinator called me on the phone. After listening to her voicemail, I felt a prodding from God. This suddenly seemed like a personal request, and I couldn’t ignore it. I looked at my calendar — and noticed that every single Friday in Lent was empty.

My excuses suddenly seemed flimsy.    

I called the coordinator back and I told her that I’d be there. I then hung up, reassuring myself that this will only be during Lent; I can manage.  

Surprisingly, my kids and I survived weekly Adoration during Lent. Sure, there was one week when a child spent half an hour in tears, but since the only people in church were our family and one or two other families with young children, everyone present was very understanding. In fact, I was enjoying our weekly time in Adoration. Still, I felt reassured when I thought about the Easter season, when we’d no longer have weekly Adoration. I could go back to my comfortable once-a-month pace.   

However, once Lent ended, my pastor announced that our parish would continue the practice of weekly Adoration. A slight feeling of dread crept into my stomach as my old excuses started to rise again. That’s too much, I thought. We can’t keep doing this every week indefinitely, can we?

However, I thought about the gift of weekly Adoration during Lent, and I realized that we had no good reason to stop. We should just keep going — and so, we have.  

What I’ve learned  

When I think about my initial hesitation, I realize that fear was hindering my relationship with God. I was afraid of missing out on fun experiences if our Adoration hour interfered with activities that our friends were doing. I was afraid of dealing with meltdowns and weekly cases of children crying, “I don’t want to go to Adoration.”   

Yet, when I was worried about Adoration interfering with other activities, my priorities were misplaced. Jesus should be the priority and center of my life, and it’s still possible to enjoy park outings with friends even if we devote one hour a week to praying in Eucharistic Adoration. Furthermore, most of the time, my young children were (and still are) quite happy to gather their prayer books and head to Adoration with me. When meltdowns do happen at Adoration, I’ve decided that I would rather console a crying child with Jesus than at home, where we wouldn’t be in front of the Eucharist.  

What every commitment requires

Over time, I’ve come to see that a fear of commitment drove me as well.  

For years, I ignored the plea for weekly Lenten adorers because I was afraid of committing to an hour of prayer with Jesus in church each week. I was afraid of sacrificing the time and energy required to make this holy hour with God happen.   

But doesn’t every loving relationship require commitment and sacrifice?   

I think this is one of the greatest lessons I’ve been learning from weekly Adoration. Not only is time with Jesus priceless and essential, but making commitment helps me to sacrifice and move beyond my “comfort zone” as I grow in my relationship with God.   

How can we push past the fear that that hinders our relationship with God?  

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Copyright 2024 AnneMarie Miller
Images: Holy Cross Family Ministries, all rights reserved.