A modern need for adoration

St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) born near Grenoble in France – an Apostle of the Eucharist - and founder of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation is especially remembered today.  A strong feature of his life, as with so many saints, were the many trials and tribulations he faced in responding to his vocation from opposition within his family, especially his father, to difficulties in the religious congregation he joined and later in establishing the congregation he founded. His physical health was fragile throughout.  At a young age he felt drawn to the Blessed Sacrament and a vocation to the priesthood. 

The mission of the congregation he founded is to spread knowledge and love of Jesus in the Eucharist everywhere. In practice, many of its communities carry out this mission in the heart of major cities.  By happy coincidence,

Adoration at the heart of the city

My home city, Dublin, has been blessed with the presence of the Congregation of the BlessedSacrament since 1970. A modest chapel opened that year on D'Olier Street before moving, in 1995, to Bachelor's Walk, where it remains today.

Many hundreds of people pass through its doors each day - some to pause for a prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, others to attend one of the daily Masses or celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation or, perhaps, seek spiritual help as I did from 1981 for a time. People come from every walk of life, representing a wide range of ages, backgrounds and circumstances. The visible signs of homelessness, addiction and mental health struggles that mark the streets of the city are not absent from this oasis of peace. Equally noticeable is the growing number of visitors from other continents, many of whom appear younger than those typically found in many parish congregations.

The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Eucharist

Adoracja z Niepokalanowa

Rounding off this succession of great celebrations - Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus - today we mark the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The origins of this liturgical day stretch back over several centuries of Marian devotion. It was extended to the universal Church by Pope Pius XII in 1944, and later placed on the Saturday following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart by Pope Saint Paul VI in the reform of the calendar in 1969, highlighting the union between the Heart of the Son and the Heart of his Mother.