People prepare for eucharistic adoration. Photo/Wikimedia Commons via Isaac Wong [http://bit.ly/1PdKzMv]

Engaged, inspiring parishes are Church’s drawing card

By 
  • August 13, 2015

It’s summertime and the living is easy. Regular schedules are abandoned as day trips, vacations and relaxation provide respite from the everyday humdrum. In our churches, the pews that appeared to be sparsely occupied in fall, winter and spring seem to be even more vacated in the summer heat. Open the doors and where’s the people, we might ask.

In the first of two small books titled An Hour With Jesus, author Rev. Ralph J. Lawrence provides a series of prayers and meditations that could be useful during an Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament visit. In the opening meditation, the author writes about how to praise Jesus.

“It just seems that the whole world should be more aware of your presence here,” the meditation goes. “Shouldn’t all come in praise and adoration? You are their Saviour. How can we praise you, Lord?

“What if it was the President that was actually here? Would this building be filled? Or a great movie star, or a professional athlete or even the Pope? Would crowds jam the building? Would the media be here, cameras rolling? Applause? Would they bow if it were the Queen of England who was present here? And yet, those are only people. You are our Saviour, our Lord. And only a few come. Why?”

Those are very good questions, but unfortunately there are not very many good answers to why God and Jesus have become fringe players in many people’s lives. God has not become irrelevant, but His hard-headed, obstinate people have become more and more irreverent.

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