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If we only knew the enormous grace of Eucharistic Adoration, we would spend entire days on our knees before the altar. To adore the Blessed Sacrament is to accompany Jesus Himself in the moment of His sacrifice for humanity. He taught us so, through Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (with whom this devotion started): “Every night, between Thursday and Friday, I will make you a partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives.”
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a centuries-old practice rooted in an essential teaching of Catholic Christianity: Jesus Christ is truly and completely present in the Eucharist. Like many practices of our faith, however, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament developed gradually.
In the earliest years of Christianity, consecrated bread would be brought home from the celebration of the Eucharist to be given to those not able to be present at the liturgy because of illness. It was also to be consumed by the faithful during the week to keep them connected to the Eucharist and the community they celebrated with.
The Blessed Sacrament is a mysterious yet beautiful element of the faith, vital in providing spiritual nourishment to the members of the Church. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis:
The Eucharist is a “mystery of faith” par excellence: “the sum and summary of our faith.” The Church’s faith is essentially a eucharistic faith, and it is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist. Faith and the sacraments are two complementary aspects of ecclesial life. Awakened by the preaching of God’s word, faith is nourished and grows in the grace-filled encounter with the Risen Lord which takes place in the sacraments: “faith is expressed in the rite, while the rite reinforces and strengthens faith.” For this reason, the Sacrament of the Altar is always at the heart of the Church’s life: “thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever anew!”