Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been taking place at Portsmouth St. Mary Church since December, and the decision to offer the devotion has been a great success in its first two months.
“About 230 parishioners have pledged to make a weekly Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament and are enthusiastically keeping that commitment,” said Father Brian Beal, pastor of the Scioto Catholic Consortium, which includes the Portsmouth St. Mary and Holy Redeemer, Wheelersburg St. Peter in Chains and Pond Creek Holy Trinity parish communities.
“Adoration helps parishioners experience a peace that surpasses all understanding. They have been coming consistently throughout the cold weather. Their commitment to Adoration is solid and abiding.”
Those desiring to take part in the Adoration program are asked to commit to spending a specific hour every week before the Blessed Sacrament. One adorer is needed at all times to make sure Jesus Christ, in the form of a consecrated host in a monstrance, is never alone.
Holy Redeemer parishioner Howard Robinson coordinates the Adoration schedule. He said about 170 people signed up as adorers on the weekend of Nov. 13 and 14, 2021, with an additional 50 adding their names the following weekend. Adoration began at 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 13, was practiced throughout the holidays and continues 24 hours, seven days a week except when Mass is being celebrated.
“As might be expected, the hardest hourly time slots to fill are between midnight and 8 a.m.,” Robinson said. “It’s also difficult to find adorers between 10 p.m. and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and on holidays.
“One great benefit is that we have three sisters of the Leaven of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (LIHM) in Portsmouth. They pray at night anyway because their daily schedule includes one hour of nocturnal Adoration for each one, so that helps a great deal.”
“Our daily life as LIHM sisters revolves around the Eucharist, the irreplaceable center of each LIHM community,” said a recent statement in the consortium’s Sunday bulletin from Mother Assumpta Tangan and Sisters Chiara Francisco and Soledad Sauzameda.
“To be with Jesus is our life and joy. He is our source of unity and our only treasure. Every LIHM sister adores the Lord for at least two hours every day, seeking to emulate Mary’s union with Jesus.”
Father Beal said he became familiar with Adoration while growing up attending the Church of Notre Dame in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, located near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border not far from Youngstown. “My father was a coordinator of Adoration for 17 years. His life and witness inspired me to desire Perpetual Adoration to spread and flourish,” he said.
Perpetual Adoration started in 2002 at Columbus Immaculate Conception Church, where Father Beal was a parishioner, with Bill Hinger as coordinator of the program. Father Beal said the success of the devotion there provided a model for many parishes in the diocese, including those in Portsmouth.
Robinson said Father Beal got in touch in October with him and parishioners Pam and Paul Reipenhoff; Becky and Lou Schottle and Betty Fannin of St. Peter in Chains; and Andy Glockner of St. Mary, who formed the planning committee for the Adoration program.
Before being transferred to Grove City Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in July, Father Joseph Yokum had regular Adoration hours at several parishes of the consortium, whose various parishes, some now closed, he served for more than a decade as parochial vicar and later pastor.
“Being an adorer feels like a calling,” Fannin said. “I was one of a handful of parishioners who started taking part in Adoration during a Holy Hour every Wednesday which was part of the recent Year of St. Joseph.
“Being in front of the Blessed Sacrament makes me feel so comfortable and at peace, so when Father Beal approached me about getting Perpetual Adoration started, I was very happy to help out.”
Holy Redeemer parishioner Marissa McCormick and her husband, Christopher “CJ,” invited Father Beal to dinner soon after he arrived in Portsmouth in July. “When we heard he’d like to start Perpetual Adoration here, we jumped at the chance and said, ‘Let’s do it,’ based on the impact Adoration had on our lives,” she said.
The McCormicks were married in 2014 and lived in Sidney, where CJ was a field agent for the Knights of Columbus, until 2018, when they moved to northern Virginia to be closer to CJ’s family. The couple at that point had been trying unsuccessfully to have children for 4 ½ years, and Marissa had become very ill, but no one had been able to diagnose the cause of her illness.
A Virginia doctor determined in fall 2018 that she had chemical polycystic ovary syndrome (CPCOS), a spectrum of clinical disorders that affects as many as 8 percent of reproductive-age females. The condition is associated with increased androgen production from the ovaries and insulin resistance. It increases the risks of infertility, cardiovascular complications and insulin resistance.
“The doctor gave me a prescription for medication which wouldn’t help my fertility issues but would help me lose weight,” Marissa said. “At that point, I was resigned to not having children but didn’t want to go home and tell CJ’s family.
“I told him we needed to go somewhere else, anywhere but home. We wound up at an Adoration service at a Catholic church in Warrenton, Virginia. I started praying there and fell on the ground, saying to God, ‘Give me a new path. Tell us what you want us to do.’ After that, I felt a sense of healing and comfort.
“In early December, we visited my parents in Portsmouth. I was still feeling sick and saw a doctor there who told me, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re 9½ weeks pregnant!’ Our daughter Natalie was born in July 2019 and I gave birth to a second daughter, Monica, on Jan. 26.”
The couple moved in January 2019 to Portsmouth, where CJ is an adjunct professor at Shawnee State University.
“I still have CPCOS, but my daughters and I are in good health,” Marissa said. “I give God the credit. When I put things in His hands at that first Adoration service, I felt a burden lift. I’ve been involved with Adoration ever since and look forward to being a regular adorer after recovering from my pregnancy.”
An up-to-date list of diocesan parishes where Adoration is taking place regularly will be published in the Feb. 27 issue of The Catholic Times. For more information on how to start a Eucharistic Adoration program, contact Hinger at Bill.Hinger@huntington.com or Robinson at fayreed@roadrunner.com.