When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, and Catholic bishops throughout the world closed churches for more than two months, one of the casualties of the shutdown was Eucharistic Adoration.
Because of widespread fear that people coming in close contact could exacerbate the spread of the virus, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was slow to return to many parishes after public Masses were reinstated the last week of May 2020.
Since then, the devotion has picked back up again at parishes in the diocese, and at least two now have made the commitment to perpetual Adoration, which involves adorers coming to spend time with Christ 24 hours, seven days a week (with exceptions) in dedicated Eucharistic chapels and in churches when Mass is not taking place.
One of those is Gahanna St. Matthew in a chapel located in the lower level of the church. The other is in Portsmouth, where a Eucharistic revival is emerging.
On Dec. 13, the four parishes in the area that make up the Scioto Catholic consortium celebrated one year of perpetual Adoration at St. Mary Church. The other parishes in the grouping are Portsmouth Holy Redeemer, West Portsmouth Holy Trinity and Wheelersburg St. Peter in Chains.
“Ever since then, the Lord has provided every hour, night and day, people praying and adoring,” said Father Brian Beal, who has served as pastor of the consortium of four churches since July 2021.
Filling all those hours each day and night of the week are 232 faithful adorers and the three sisters from the Leaven of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (LIHM), who came to Portsmouth in 2021 at the invitation of former Diocese of Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan to serve the parishes and schools. The sisters fill the 3-6 a.m. time slots daily.
Not only are adorers coming to St. Mary on a daily basis, but students are also participating at their schools. Adoration is offered on Mondays for grades K-6 at Holy Redeemer and from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays in the chapel at Portsmouth Notre Dame High School.
“The students have their own personal journals that they bring to Adoration,” Father Beal said, “and the parents, teachers and myself have been so impressed with their personal relationship with Jesus and the Eucharist – how they express themselves about how they love Him, how they depend on Him, how they are following Him, and in their own words just journaling heart to heart with Our Lord.”
The idea to bring Adoration on a regular basis to the parishes and schools began to take shape in November 2021 with a four-week promotional period to introduce the devotion.
Father Beal mentioned that Columbus Immaculate Conception Church, where perpetual Adoration began in 2002 and continued until the pandemic in 2020, served as an inspiration.
“The men at Immaculate Conception, 17 of them together with Msgr. (Anthony) Missimi and other parish leaders, started the devotion there, and that has always stayed with me that this is the best thing a parish could do on earth is to do what is done in heaven – to adore Our Lord perpetually.”
As the four-week test run proceeded in Portsmouth, “we were so edified by 230 people committing to a weekly holy hour,” Father Beal said.
The impact of spending quiet time before the Lord in prayer and contemplation has made a profound impact on the parishes and their parishioners, he said.
One of them, Absalom Hall, is discerning a vocation to the priesthood and hopes to enter the seminary for the Diocese of Columbus next year.
“People have said words like ‘life-changing’ and ‘transformative,’ ‘the best hour of their week,’” he said.
Some of the adorers have requested to go before the congregation prior to the final blessing at Mass to testify to what some have called an hour of power before the Lord. Their witness has led to about 20 newcomers to Adoration in the past year.
“They’ve spoken about how Adoration has changed their life and how they would highly recommend everyone to make a weekly holy hour,” Father Beal said.
“They’ve personally brought even non-Catholics and people just curious with them to a holy hour. And those people have experienced the profound sense of peace of being with the Lord.”
Adoration has also brought more people of all ages to confession on a regular basis.
“A marked increase,” Father Beal said. “Good catechesis in the classroom, the journaling in the presence of the Lord. It’s just been phenomenal growth. I just came from almost an hour of hearing confessions after Mass at school, and one kid after another making a good, heartfelt confession to Our Lord.”
Father Beal has seen the fruits of Adoration manifested not only in personal devotion but in service to the church.
“It has affected the daily life and daily prayer life and Mass-going life of the people in their active and conscious participation at Mass,” he said. “We have more lectors, more people serving in the Knights of Columbus.
“The whole life of the parish has gotten stronger.”
Parishioners and adorers have become more involved outside the parish as well.
It’s no secret that southern Ohio has experienced economic difficulties for the past few decades, and many individuals who need assistance come to the diocese’s St. Francis Evangelization Center in McArthur that provides food and clothing.
“We’ve seen more adorers volunteer at our local St. Francis Center (Portsmouth),” he said. “They’re inspired to serve the homeless and help with bagging groceries and the distribution of clothing.
“Our Knights of Columbus group has wanted to serve, and many of them personally have said to me, ‘Father, let me know how I can become more active in the parish and how I can help more.’ And it has also led to more sacrificial giving.”
For some who come to spend intimate time with the Lord, a 30-minute drive is not uncommon to St. Mary, which is one of the few locations in southern Ohio with regular Adoration.
“I’ve heard brother priests express how they feel a stirring to increase Adoration,” Father Beal said, “and so we’re very excited to see more and more chapels filled with adorers.”
Portsmouth’s Adoration initiative dovetails with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival, which launched in June and culminates in July 2024 with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
The stated intention of the revival is to restore love and devotion for the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in a day and age when surveys indicate only one-third of professed Catholics believe that Christ is truly present – body, blood, soul and divinity – in the consecrated bread and wine.
“(Pope) Benedict XVI said it perfectly, that our communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in the Eucharist in order for our love to be complete,” Father Beal said. “And so, this is everything that the Holy Father has expressed in that quote – that we reverently experience Mass, and we want to continue that reverence on earth as it is in heaven 24/7.
“And then that leads to a deeper belief in the Real Presence, increased Mass attendance, more personal prayer and a greater life for the whole of the parish.”