mda. On Sunday the Church all round the world was united in prayer for an hour – for the first simultaneous Eucharistic Adoration. All over the world Catholics united at 5 p.m. Central European Summer Time in Cathedrals, churches and religious houses to pray. Pope Francis led the Eucharistic Adoration in St Peter’s, while Catholic churches in more than seventy countries joined in. This hour of common adoration around the globe was one of the climaxes of the Year of Faith, and an historical event, because for the first time in the history of the Church Catholics all over the world spent sixty minutes simultaneously with our Holy Father in Rome to adore our Eucharistic Lord. They were united by the motto: One Lord, one Faith. It was an impressive sign, witness and experience of the unity of the Church.
Not only the Cathedrals of the world were united with the diocese of the Pope, so were many parishes, religious communities and religious houses, as well as movements and associations.
At many places the same texts were used as were prayed in St Peter’s, while at others there was silent adoration while a live TV link to Rome was relayed on a large screen. There were places where specially prepared texts were used; almost everywhere prayer was offered for the two intentions wished for by Pope Frances: for the Church and for the people who suffer from violence and need. In St Peter’s and the Cathedrals throughout the world, in parishes and chapels, in many churches and Schoenstatt shrines: for one hour the Catholic world was on its knees before the Lord.
The parish church in Madrid was filled to overflowing, and was borne by an atmosphere of recollection and the closeness of the Holy Spirit. It was the same during an hour of silent adoration in the Bonn Basilica, while in the square outside loud music accompanied a fire brigade celebration. More and more people left the celebration to enter the Basilica, and remained to pray…
1500 pilgrims in Bujumbura adore …
“Today we are celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi and unite ourselves with the adoration of our Holy Father,” wrote Fr Rodrigo Delazar on Sunday morning in Bujumbura. “The shrine on Mont Sion Gikungu answered the call of our Holy Father to adore Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and invited pilgrims to unite in prayer with the Faithful all over the world under the leadership of our Holy Father” – these words are taken from the internet page of the Schoenstatt Movement in Bujumbura. Holy Mass and the Corpus Christ procession lasted until 3 p.m.; the usual time of Adoration on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. was transferred to 5 p.m. and took place in the Church of the Blessed Trinity. When the Blessed Sacrament was exposed at 5 p.m. there were 1500 pilgrims present…
Also in home shrines
The associates of schoenstatt.org took their covenant in solidarity with Pope Francis seriously and made every effort to publicise the call for adoration where no one knew anything about it, or else took the initiative and organised adoration in parishes and shrines. In Germany the response and the knowledge were very limited. The Austrian newsportal kath.net had publicised the adoration intensively and reported that it was only through these articles that many people in Germany got to know about it. In collaboration with the translators of schoenstatt.org kath.net published the German translation of the Holy Father’s intentions for the hour of adoration still on Sunday. In Lima, Manchester, Cordoba, Buenos Aires … the shrines filled as people joined our Holy Father and millions of people around the world.
Two collaborators of schoenstatt.org in Bad Ems, Germany, anticipated the Adoration in the Original Shrine and then joined in with the Adoration in Rome in their home shrine. Many Schoenstatters in Argentina did the same “thanks to the miracle of the internet”, as someone remarked.
In the Original Shrine
Early on Sunday morning a comment appeared on schoenstatt.org under its article, “The Original Shrine is also there!” From 5-6 p.m. many came to the Original Shrine to join in an hour of Adoration with hymns and prayers in German and Spanish, with texts of our Holy Father and Fr Kentenich.
Fr Michael Marmann, Rector of the Original Shrine, conducted the celebration that had been prepared by the Adoration Sisters. Pilgrims who were in Schoenstatt on that day, and the Spanish-speaking community that celebrated their Holy Mass in Schoenstatt on Sunday afternoon, also joined in.
God’s solidarity with us
“This evening, once again, the Lord distributes for us the bread that is his Body, he makes himself a gift; and we too experience “God’s solidarity” with man, a solidarity that is never depleted, a solidarity that never ceases to amaze us: God makes himself close to us, in the sacrifice of the Cross he humbles himself, entering the darkness of death to give us his life which overcomes evil, selfishness and death. Jesus, this evening too, gives himself to us in the Eucharist, shares in our journey, indeed he makes himself food, the true food that sustains our life also in moments when the road becomes hard-going and obstacles slow our steps. And in the Eucharist the Lord makes us walk on his road, that of service, of sharing, of giving; and if it is shared, that little we have, that little we are, becomes riches, for the power of God — which is the power of love — comes down into our poverty to transform it.
So let us ask ourselves this evening, in adoring Christ who is really present in the Eucharist: do I let myself be transformed by him? Do I let the Lord who gives himself to me, guide me to going out ever more from my little enclosure, in order to give, to share, to love him and others?
Pope Francis, Corpus Christi Mass
Complete Text
Thank you, Holy Father, because we have experienced that we can link the world in a single prayer before the Lord in the one Faith. Thank you for the gift of the unique experience of a world on its knees before the Lord.
Solemnity of Corpus Cristi (Video)
With material from Vatican Information Service. Collaborators on this article: Diomede Mujojoma (Burundi), Fr Rodrigo Delazar and associates of the schoenstatt.org team in Madrid, Vallendar, Bad Ems, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Rome.
