Moments after we enter, a young girl opens the interior door of the chapel, adjacent to the altar. She begins to squirt a chemical on the back of our pew and wipe with a towel. Startled by the disturbance, we fell out of concentration and paid more attention to her movements than on contemplating the Real Presence Our Lord. 

I couldn’t remember seeing her enter. But I found it was quite odd the way she sprayed and wiped without concern over whether it was disturbing. It seemed she was not aware that she was in the real presence of God, in a sacred place, a place set aside for adoration and worship. She leaves, not bowing, not genuflecting, walking right passed Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with her disinfectants and through the same door she had entered. 

I was bothered, but not distressed. At one time I was guilty of the same myself. But once I came to know Jesus, and to love Him through many weeks, months, and years of regular adoration this kind of behavior became unthinkable to me. 

Refocusing my Mind On Jesus in the Eucharist

Again, I turned to the Lord and I began to pray, contemplating the Real Presence of Jesus in the chapel. I started the Eucharistic Holy Face Chaplet. It is a beautiful prayer of love and I have had so many beautiful experiences with Jesus through that prayer over the years. It opens my heart to love Him and I often pray it with my own intentions, like I do a rosary, while sitting alone with Him in the adoration chapel. He knows my heart and knows how much this prayer moves me. 

Upon the third decade two young teen boys enter from an interior door adjacent to the altar. They have with them a large rolling cart full of boxes of candles.

To understand what came over me in this moment you must understand the Eucharistic Holy Face Chaplet, written by a Benedictine Monk in Silverstream Priory. This prayer is a powerful prayer of adoration. I pray it for priests mainly, but also for others. 

More Distractions in the Chapel

The boys settled their business on the right side of the altar in the place where I last felt an overwhelming presence of His spirit when I knelt beneath the Blessed Sacrament and poured out my heart. They took no notice of the Real Presence of Jesus. It was odd to me that they carried on their business as if they were in an ordinary room. Nothing to see here. No sacredness. It was just a job and they were happy to extinguish the prayers of adorers who had come before me and replace those intentions with fresh unlit candles. 

My heart sank. I began to feel tremendous pain in my chest. In this moment, by the grace of God I felt a deep sorrow that was not of me. I think the Holy Spirit gave me a grace. I began to weep. I sobbed hard. My face mask stained with tears and underneath it, mucus running from my nose toward the tip of my lip. I was a mess.

I was deeply disturbed that these young people had no understanding of who Jesus is and that He is truly present in this place. I wanted to speak, but my heart had no words. I was so deeply saddened I couldn’t. The sobbing wouldn’t stop. The grieving was long. They sauntered passed the altar to remove candles on the left side.

People deny Him.

It wounds His Sacred Heart when we deny his Real Presence in the Eucharist.

We need to do better. We have to teach others how to contemplate the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus is worthy of our time, our talent, our treasures. But all he wants is our sin. He wants us to come and sit with Him a while. He wants us to give Him all our worries, and confess our sins, and surrender our pride. He wants to transform us into  a new creature. He wants to renew us so that we can begin a new life in Him. We are his chosen people. We are invited to the cenacle. Let’s all go in with an open heart and love Him. Jesus does not wish for us to give Him so much. He wants a simple bow, a genuflection, He asks that we humble ourselves and open our hearts in worship. If we do that, He will give us so much more than we could ever desire or need. He will give us an abundant life in Him.