Want Power? Do the Holy Hour!
“We have got to have a source of power…
I stand up and people listen to me. I need only talk and they listen.
Is it my power?
No!
Where did I get this power?
There… That’s where I got it…
54 years of continuous daily adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.”
“Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us.”
- St. Alphonsus Liguori
Every morning, between 5.00 and 5.30am, and sometimes as early as 4.00am, a light would go on in the Apostolic Palace. There, Karol Wojtyla, a 58-year-old priest, would spend 60 to 90 minutes kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament at his prie-dieu before his 7.30 am mass. It was the “best part of his day” for him.
This priest would, for the next quarter of a century of his life, preside over a papacy that was the third longest in history and become one of the most iconic and productive Popes in history. Of course, as we all know, Fr. Wojtyla was Pope John Paul the Great. According to writer Jason Evert in Saint John Paul the Great, “a half billion people saw him in person… He travelled 775,000 miles to spread the gospel, which is more than three times the distance from the earth to the moon… John Paul averaged more than 3,000 pages every year… if you were to compile everything he wrote during his pontificate, it would be approximately the length of twenty Bibles.” He started World Youth Day, was instrumental in the fall of the Soviet Union and produced the Theology of the Body, described by biographer George Weigel as “one of the boldest reconfigurations of Catholic theology in centuries.”
How did he manage to do all of this? John Paul the Great managed to achieve all of this not through his own strength and intellect but through God working through him. Specifically, it was adoring and contemplating Jesus in the Eucharist that sustained him. He said, “the Eucharist is the secret of my day. It gives strength and meaning to all my activities of service to the Church and to the whole world.”
“To John Paul, it is not enough for Catholics to receive the Eucharist. One also must contemplate it. He said that when one ponders the love that is present in the tabernacle: love is ignited within us, love is renewed within us. Therefore, these are not hours spent in idleness, when we isolate ourselves from our work, but there are moments, hours, when we undertake something that constitutes the deepest meaning of all our work. For no matter how numerous our activities, our ministries, however numerous our concerns, our exertions — if there is no love, everything becomes meaningless. When we devote our time to ponder the mystery of love, to allow it to radiate in our hearts, we are preparing ourselves in the best possible way for any kind of service, for any activity, for any charitable work.”
- Jason Evert, Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves
How does one “ponder the mystery of love”? Enter the Holy Hour.
What is the Holy Hour?
According to Bishop Barron, a Holy Hour is “a sustained uninterrupted hour of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament”.
Its practice has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years. As Barron states, “I can testify as a seminary professor and eventually rector… [the Holy Hour is] a standard bit of spiritual practice in almost every seminary in the country. Younger seminarians and priests are very devoted to the Holy Hour.”
So why has this practice been sweeping the world like wildfire? Why did John Paul II say its impact on the church will be “inestimable?” Why is it so powerful?
Why do the Holy Hour?
#1: It’s Easy!
St. Jean Vianney once noticed a peasant come in to the church and stay for hours in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The Saint asked this man what do you say during all that time before Jesus in the Eucharist? The Peasant replied, “Nothing, I look at Him and He looks at me.”
One of the main attractions of the Holy Hour is the ease of the prayer. The prayer consists of just looking at the Blessed Sacrament! How easy is that! In contrast to other prayers which require a recitation of a text or more free form prayers which require some thinking and getting used to at the start, the Holy Hour is an extremely simple form of prayer. How blessed we are that our God became flesh and gave us himself in the Eucharist and that to pray we would only have to stare at him. No complex temple sacrifice, no gymnastics, no complicated poetry involved. Just look.
#2: Powerful Productivity
“Help us, Jesus, to understand that in order ‘to do’ in your Church, also in the field of the new evangelisation that is so urgently needed, we must first learn ‘to be’, that is, to stay with you, in your sweet company, in adoration.”
- St. John Paul the Great
The Green Lantern from DC Comics has to charge his ring every 24 hours to regain power. The same can be said for us humans. We require physical nourishment in the form of food and drink, emotional nourishment by family and friends, mental nourishment by new ideas. But we also require spiritual nourishment, a spiritual food. From our own personal experience, we know that there are times when we have been properly fed, clothed and materially provisioned, but have no inspiration or motivation to do anything. We just feel flat. We do have a spirit, and we do need to feed it. “Man does not live on bread alone.”
For some in the world, it is power and money and status. But for Catholics, we know that our power source should be God. So we go for Mass to receive Jesus as our spiritual food and drink but we can prolong that nourishment through the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. And as we have seen in the life of St. John Paul the Great, there is an energy that comes from spending time with Jesus. This energy expands our horizons and leads us to do things that we never thought were possible. Other than the example of John Paul, I think it useful to highlight the example of the Venerable Fulton Sheen and how the Holy Hour energised his life.
On the day of his Ordination, the Venerable Fulton Sheen made a resolution to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. And for 60 years of his life, he did so without fail. Initially, he practiced the Hour in the afternoon or evening. As the years went by and he became busier, he started it in the mornings, generally before the Mass.
According to Church Life Journal, nourished by the flames of the Blessed Sacrament, “Sheen authored approximately 70 books in his lifetime, and he captivated millions of Americans through his newspaper columns and broadcasts on radio and television in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. It was not unusual for the mail he received to average 15,000 to 25,000 letters per day, and it was estimated that thirty million people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, tuned in to his programming each week.”
And as the quote at the start of the article states, he attributed this all to the powers gained from the Blessed Sacrament.
In my own personal case, the daily Holy Hour become the centrepiece of my spiritual practice. Jesus in the Eucharist has made me more productive and my focus has improved. A curious thing happened once I started the Holy Hour: I used to binge Youtube videos for 8 hours continuously on a regular basis. It was a habit I struggled to rid myself of for years with little result. However, once I started the Holy Hour, I stopped completely. I don’t think I have ever watched Youtube for more than 2 hours in a row since then. One hour in front of Jesus saved me 7 in front of my laptop. Talk about a productive trade off.
Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervour dies out.
- Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
#3: More Creativity
“We know, it is love that increases knowledge. Theological insights are gained not only from the two covers of a treatise, but from two knees on a prie-dieu before a tabernacle.”
- Venerable Fulton Sheen, A Treasure in Clay
The great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas’ insight came more from prayer than study. The story is that he would rest his head against the tabernacle and proceed to ask the Lord for instruction.
In Saint John Paul the Great, John Paul II “often spent hours at a time writing before the Blessed Sacrament. He explained: I have always been convinced that the chapel is a place of special inspiration. What a privilege to be able to live and work in the shadow of His Presence.”
Being in the presence of Jesus helps us become more creative. After all, this is the God of the seas and the skies we are talking to! As we know from Genesis, God is an extremely generative and creative guy!
From my own experience this has proved especially true. In chapel, I often receive inspiration and have better and more ideas. I know that if I need to complete an assignment, the chapel is the best place to get it done. I’m a big fan of Fulton Sheen’s recommendation to bring writing material into adoration to record ideas that come.
I would recommend watching Bishop Barron comment on Eucharistic Adoration. Barron provides an impressive list of extremely productive and capable people who have drawn their intellect and creativity from the Blessed Sacrament.
#4: Discern the Will of God
One of the things you can do with your Holy Hour is to consider issues that are happening in your life. Want to know what to do after getting into an argument with someone? Do you need to make a decision on what job to pursue? Place them in front of Jesus during the Holy Hour.
When I make decisions or consider issues in front of the Blessed Sacrament, a dilemma gradually resolves itself. It may take one session or multiple days, but a clear and definite answer usually arises after prayer. For John Paul II, “One of his aides noted that he made “all his major decisions… on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament.”
Allow the Lord to guide you. And remember: listen. Listen! Ausculto! As Sheen writes, “We do not say: ‘Listen, Lord, for Thy servant speaks,’ but ‘Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.’”
#5: Profound Friendship with Jesus
The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to hold converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him.
- Archbishop Fulton Sheen
According to Church teachings, as one of the seven sacraments, the Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus. He is really there! CCC1374 states, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” Therefore, when we pray the Holy Hour, we are really present in the midst of Jesus.
So in contrast to other forms of prayer, where Jesus may be present but not materially, during the Holy Hour, he is really there with you! You can expect a much deeper and more intimate personal encounter with him. Perhaps this experience of encounter was on display best in Pope John Paul the Great’s practice of the Holy Hour. “One witness remarked that this union with our Lord in the Eucharist allowed him “not merely to speak to Christ, but actually to converse with him.”
I can personally testify that being in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament has led to many moments of intimate encounter. When I place all my worries and concerns before Jesus, he consoles me. When I have moments of rage and anger, he gives me calmness and peace. When I pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament, every prayer becomes amplified. As writer Edward Sri says, “This intimacy with Christ’s presence in the Eucharist can bring great strength and consolation to the soul.” And from Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s experience, his daily Holy Hour has allowed him to bear his crosses with more love, “The Holy Hour should be a daily event because our crosses are daily, not weekly.”
This closeness of friendship with Jesus is exactly what we need in the Christian life, “Abide in me as I in you and you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:4) When we are that close to Jesus, we know what he likes and dislikes, what he wants to tell us and what he wants us to do in our lives.
#6: It Counters the Flatness of the Mass
There is an amazing account of John Paul II’s intense relationship with the Eucharist:
On a trip to Maryland, the Pope was scheduled to walk down a hallway in the archbishop’s residence. Along that hallway was the entrance to a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was. The papal organiser had seen to it that there was no indication that the door led to the chapel as he knew that John Paul would then proceed to pay a visit to the Lord and significantly derail the schedule.
On the day of the pilgrimage, however, John Paul walked past the door, then he stopped, wagged his finger at the papal organiser and proceeded to pray in the chapel. Father Michael White who was there stated, “He’s never been in this place before, never set eyes on the place, and there was nothing about the door that distinguished it in any way as a chapel. It was just one more door in a corridor of doors. But he turned right back around, he opened that door up, and he went into the chapel and he prayed.”
There is such a thing as Eucharistic sensitivity.
However, most Catholics have not developed it. Indeed, most people would report that the Holy Mass, “source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC1324) and the place of the consecration of the Eucharist, is boring. How can this be? Perhaps one reason for this gap is because our flesh has not been taught the gift of the Eucharist. We know that the Holy Mass is a great and momentous event but our eyes and whole bodies rebel. Just like how we know we have to get out of bed in the morning, but “the flesh is weak.” We lack what JPII had, a sensitivity and a love of the Eucharist.
What is needed is a training of the flesh to appreciate and, even more than that, thirst and hunger for the Eucharist. This can be achieved in adoration.
Pope Benedict XVI writes in Sacramentum caritatis, “The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself. Indeed, “only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another.”” And Pope Paul VI writes in Saluberrimum Sacramentum Eucharistiae, “the reason, therefore, that adorers continue worship of the Eucharist outside Mass is that they may more fully share in the effects of the sacrifice and be empowered to take part in it more effectively.
With our own eyes, we see the Eucharist for a very short time during mass, not enough to appreciate it as a great gift. Therefore, when we finally eat of his flesh and blood, our reaction is a muted, “meh.” Like a person who jumps to the climax of a movie without watching the build up, we miss the context and complain about the content.
By adoring the Eucharist outside the Mass, we teach the body to love Jesus. We open up another dimension of the senses.
For me, before I discovered adoration, I found it hard to concentrate during Mass. I wouldn’t call it “enjoyable”. When I received the Eucharist, I did not really appreciate it, despite intellectually understanding what was happening.
But now, with adoration, I crave the Eucharist. After looking at Jesus for so long, I want an even closer union with him and then I long to be at Mass where I can be “one flesh” with him. I am disappointed if I miss daily Mass. And now during Mass, I am able to focus better and I am especially aware of the gift I receive in the form of the Eucharist.
“Like the passion of Christ itself, this sacrifice, though offered for all, “has no effect except in those united to the passion of Christ by faith and charity…. To these it brings a greater or less benefit in proportion to their devotion.””
#7: We become more like Jesus
“I know this is the only thing that works in the priesthood. And those who are doing it now are completely changed men. In just a short space of time.”
- Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Pope Paul VI writes in Saluberrimum Sacramentum Eucharistiae, “When indeed we offer the homage of devout service to Christ hidden in the august sacrament, we receive an increase in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.” When we come back to adoration constantly, we become what we see.
As Sheen writes in Treasures in Clay:
[we] grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: “We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendor to splendor.” We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain. Something happens to us similar to that which happened to the disciples at Emmaus. On Easter Sunday afternoon when the Lord met them, he asked why they were so gloomy. After spending some time in his presence, and hearing again the secret of spirituality — “The Son of Man must suffer to enter into his Glory” — their time with him ended and their “hearts were on fire.”
I can attest that as I practice the Holy Hour, I find it easier and easier to practice virtue in life. My sins have diminished and it is sweeter to become closer to the image of Christ.
The closer one gets to the sun, the more the sun’s energy will engulfs them. The closer we get to the fireplace, the warmer we become. The more time we spend in close proximity with the Son of God and the Light of the World in the context of the Eucharistic Holy Hour, the more his light, life, and power will be channeled through our lives as we become veritable prisms, living icons of Christ.
#8: Jesus asked for it!
“Lord Jesus Christ, there was only once that you ever asked your disciples to do something special for you”
- Venerable Fulton Sheen
“Can you not watch one hour with me?” (Mark 14:34)
How to do the Holy Hour
Flexible in Practice
You can do anything during the Holy Hour! It is endlessly flexible and adaptable. Indeed, Sheen writes in The Priest Is Not His Own, “Some spiritual writers recommend a mechanical division of the hour into four parts: thanksgiving, petition, adoration, reparation.” He continues, “This is unnecessarily artificial. An hour’s conversation with a friend is not divided into four rigid segments or topics. The Holy Hour is not an official prayer; it is personal.”
Here’s a list of things you could do:
- Say the rosary
- Do the Liturgy of the Hours
- Meditate on scriptures
- Examine an issue or decision
- Journal
- Personal prayer
- Examen
- Listen in silence
For me personally, one of the things I have found helpful is to plan my schedule for the day in front of the Blessed Sacrament and to ask the Aquinas question, “Is this pleasing to you Lord?” If the Lord approves of my schedule, I usually have a day that proceeds like clockwork.
One Hour Minimum
Sheen observes that it takes a while to “catch fire in prayer”. Thus an hour is needed at a minimum to allow the soul to “collect itself and shake off the multitudinous distractions of the world” and enter into friendship with Jesus.
He recounts the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples are noisy and gloomy when Jesus meets them. They rant and rave to Jesus, and he listens, taking it in. Only gradually is Christ revealing himself to his disciples. Then the Lord spoke to them, making sense of their experiences. Only at the end did the disciples recognise him. Sheen says, “This is why we have to have an hour. When we begin we are like the disciples: talking, talking, discussing. Bringing in the world with us… Then as we remain with him, the earth begins to fade away. And then we are more conscious of the presence of Christ. And at the end of an hour, very often, we are reluctant to leave. ‘Remain with us dear Lord, the day is far spent’ (Luke 24:29)”
By spending the minimum one hour, we shake off the barnacles the world has attached to us. Our voice shrinks and the Lord’s expands.
Holy Hour(s)?
If you so desire, follow in the extreme footsteps of John Paul the Great in extending your Holy Hour. Jason Evert writes, “He also spent long amounts of time before the Blessed Sacrament before and after his pilgrimages. Marathons of prayer were not unusual for him. One papal photographer recalled, “I remember that in Vilnius he prayed for six hours in a row…”
On another occasion, “Father Jan Zieja recalls that… Wojtyla knocked on the door of the convent, looking to spend some time in prayer. A nun led him to the chapel and he was left alone. Zieja recalls: When he did not emerge for some time, they looked in on him. He lay prostrate on the ground. The sister stepped back, filled with respect… After another while, the sister looked into the chapel again. The priest still lay prostrate. But the hour was late. The sister went up to him and shyly asked, “Perhaps Father would be so kind to come to supper?” — The stranger responded: My train to Krakow isn’t until after midnight. Allow me to stay here. I have much to discuss with the Lord.” Eight hours after his prayer began, he departed.”
There we are! The what, why and how of the Holy Hour. May this powerful prayer sanctify and energise your days for the rest of your life!
“Let Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament speak to your hearts. It is he who is the true answer of life that you seek. He stays there with us: he is God with us. Seek him without tiring, welcoming him without reserve, lose him without interruption: today, tomorrow, forever.”
- John Paul the Great
“Expose yourself to the atomic radiation of the Lord”
- Archbishop Fulton Sheen
