Every Thursday in our choir chapel (located on the second floor of the monastery and just behind the organ chamber of the Basilica) we have Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament with Adoration from 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. The custom in many monasteries of having Exposition and Adoration all day long every Thursday goes back to the seventeenth century. It was also not uncommon to celebrate a Votive Office of the Most Holy Eucharist every Thursday: a kindly of weekly festival of Corpus Domini.
The forthcoming Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, will promote Eucharistic Adoration. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has already announced its publication for March 13th.
I took this photo in the choir chapel earlier today. The exquisite little monstrance is from the 1700s. Our own orto provided the luxuriant Calla Lilies: pure white trumpets announcing the presence of the King of Glory.
During the hour assigned them, our postulants quietly prayed the Chaplet of the Eucharistic Face of Christ. The Chaplet of the Eucharistic Face of Christ is a way of anchoring the heart in the silence of adoration.
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O Sacred Banquet in which Christ is received,
the memory of His passion is renewed,
the soul is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory is given us, (alleluia).
Before each decade:
My soul is thirsting for God, the strong and living God;
when shall I enter and see the Face of God? (Ps 41:3)
On the Hail Mary beads:
It is Thy Eucharistic Face, O Lord, that I seek;
hide not Thy Face from me. (cf. Ps 26:8-9).
On the Glory be to the Father beads:
Behold, O God our protector,
and look upon the Face of Thy Christ. (Ps 83:10)
In conclusion, three times:
Father, glorify the Eucharistic Face of Thy Son,
that Thy Son may glorify Thee (cf. Jn 17:1)
His Excellency, Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given
Father Mark a special mandate to live under the Rule of Saint Benedict in adoration before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, offering thanksgiving, intercession, and reparation for all his
brothers in Holy Orders. In this way, Father is preparing the foundation of the new Diocesan Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle. Father Mark is available to the
priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental support in their pursuit of holiness. He is also charged with the spiritual formation of women who desire to dedicate themselves to spiritual motherhood in favour of priests.
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