Grieving with Jesus and Comforting Him in a holy hour is a special way to pray that offers special graces.
Grieving with Jesus in a Holy Hour of Love
When praying a holy hour in adoration, offer the Lord love in return for His love, and spend time grieving with Jesus over those who do not believe in Him or love Him. Commit to coming for a Holy Hour with Jesus. This ancient practice of praying to Him in the Cenacle, or “Upper Room” will help you to know Him and understand Him. The more you are with Jesus in adoration, the more intimate your relationship with Him will become. There is something special about the sacred quiet space of Eucharistic adoration. To be in the “cenacle” is like being in the Garden of Gethsemane with Him.
New to Meditative Prayer?
If you are new to prayer and want to learn how to pray and ways to pray, when you are with Jesus in a Holy Hour, you may also want to read about how divine reading takes prayer to a different level. Divine reading is an ancient form of meditative prayer that was common with the saints.
If you’ve been praying for a while and feel God is calling you to deeper prayer and the prayer of intercession, let’s delve more into this type of prayer.
And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.
Grieving with Jesus in A Holy Hour
The middle aged man was sitting with his legs crossed, leaning back against the backrest of the pew. He was turned sideways to make room for his stack of papers laid out next to his hip. On his lap was a briefcase, used as a makeshift desktop, and he had pen in hand. His reading glasses were cocked low. I assumed because he wanted to both read and be able to look up at a moment’s notice.
He was thoroughly enveloped in his work, so much so, that for the initial five minutes of our visit we heard nothing but the loud flipping of pages. It was if he was frantically searching for a passage he knew was there.
Several times I glanced back toward this man in the last row. It was 10 am on a Monday morning. Why was he here, in the adoration chapel, distracting others and using this sacred space for his work?
It wounded my heart. I looked at Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and I felt sorrow. Many people come to this place, and other chapels like it, with disengaged hearts.
Any heart that visits Him in the Blessed Sacrament will receive His grace. This is true. He is truly physically present there, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Anyone who comes to sit in His presence will leave better. Anyone. It doesn’t matter your sin or station in life.
He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. We thought of him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.
God is generous.
But not all people receive equal grace, the same as not all students receive equal grades. To truly receive and to become an instrument of grace for others you must learn how to adore Him.
I’m going to try and explain how I’ve come to know Him over several years of weekly holy hour adoration.
But first I want to talk about what not to do. I’ve seen it all in the chapel and for love of Christ, I want to tell all the wonderful and well-meaning souls who come that there is a right way to pray in adoration and a wrong way to pray in adoration.
Christ is King.
I want to start here. When you are entering into His presence bow or genuflect. Silently greet Him with love and respect. Acknowledge you have entered into a holy place to receive His grace and to give Him love.
Your body language is just as important as your prayer language. Dress appropriately. Women should be modestly dressed. Don’t go in there with flip-flops and a T-shirt with a beer logo on it. I’ve seen this. That is why I say it. No. You are in a HOLY place. This is Christ, who died for your sin. Acknowledge it.
Humble yourself.
If you have ever seen a devotee come into chapel and bow with hands outstretched and face touching the floor it is an adorer devoted to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. And this person is praying one of the prayers to Christ that Our Lady of Fatima taught the three shepherd children.
When you enter the pew, or come to your chair, immediately KNEEL. Please, for love of Christ, kneel. If there is no kneeler, kneel on the floor. If you are old and your knees hurt, offer it up for the poor souls. If you have an injury and cannot kneel, bow while standing over your seat for an entire length of a prayer. This is giving Our Lord reverence. You have entered the house of God and are in His Real Presence. Behave like it. This is grieving with Jesus. This is recognizing the lack of love man has for Christ; He who is love.
I have seen people drop off their elderly parents with dementia to the chapel. I have seen a woman knitting in the chapel. Once a woman came in with a coffee and started a conversation in the chapel. I have seen people playing with their phones, and checking social media. I have been disturbed by people listening to loud music on their earbuds. This behavior does not console Our Lord. When you are in adoration you are to console Him.
His adorers are His cenacle, which means we are His inner circle. We are in the Upper Room. We are here to join Him in the commission to pray for the entire world. We are the ones He has called. If you are an adorer, then He has called you to this mission. Take it seriously. You are a friend of His Sacred Heart. He needs you to pray fervently. Pray the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, a prayer known to end civil unrest.
Grieving with Jesus.
Think of it this way. Do you remember the agony in the garden? What did Jesus say? He was upset with his disciples who fell asleep and didn’t pray with Him. Why? Because He knew they would enter into temptation. And they did. He scolded them for not being able to stay awake and pray with him for an hour.
This is what the Holy Hour is all about, my friends. Stay vigilant. Stay focused. Pray fervently in the adoration chapel with Him. Stay there for an hour. Do not leave when you are ‘done’ – stay until you’ve given Him at least an hour. This will change your spiritual life tremendously. He will give you abundant grace.
Our generation has witnessed the destruction of churches and the sacrilege of sacred things in many places worldwide. Statues of Mary have been beheaded, churches have burned, and tabernacles have been stolen. Console Him. Open your heart and console Him. He came to save us all from our wickedness and He wishes to heal our land of evil and sin, but the people don’t come to Him. They don’t believe in Him. They blaspheme Him and reject Him. Console Him. Ask Him to give them grace on your behalf. Surely a holy soul has prayed for you long before you desired God. Now you must do likewise.
Put your papers away. Turn off your music. Put your cell phone away. Do not do anything at all while you are there except look at Him and feel His broken heart for mankind. Pray from your heart and use the prayers on this website to enter into a loving embrace with the great I AM.
Commit to a Holy Hour.
Feel His presence. Look long and hard at the Blessed Sacrament. Stare into it with your heart. Stare at Him until your heart hurts like His. Then begin by saying, “Here I Am, Lord.”
And wait a while. If you are met with silence and your mind begins to wander say, “Let me see what You see. Let me feel what You feel.” Pray to the Holy Spirit for control over your mind and wandering thoughts. Ask for the grace to remain in Him.
Repeat it if necessary.
And wait a while.
Patience.
Open your heart a bit more.
Meditate on the crucifix. Put yourself at the foot of it, and gaze up at your dying, wounded Savior. See His gaze. He is looking at you with love.
Love this cross. Be willing to carry yours as well.
Gaze at it.
He does this for you at every Mass. He offers Himself for the salvation of your soul.
All your selfish interests, all your worries, unforgiveness, vices, stupid arguments, failed promises, sins – they offend Him.
Yet these vices all melt under that gaze. They melt into a kind of humility that brings about real change in your life. They make you realize how wrong you were, how much you need to be more like Him. They fill you with such a divine knowledge of who you are in Him and how He is God and you are not. This divine love makes you capable of amending your life. It’s a grace.
Now you are ready to pray and ask for things. Now you are open to the Holy Spirit and have the right disposition.
You have consoled His Sacred Heart. You have spent time grieving with Jesus over lost souls. And He has given you a tremendous grace that will carry you far in your desire to know Him and to love Him.
If you ask in this moment for instruction He will speak to your spirit. How he communicates with a soul differs. But the Holy Spirit will come and you will be nudged and the answer will come and when it does you will fall more deeply in love with Him. He captures the heart in the adoration chapel. Just open yours and you will see.
If you are unable to visit an adoration chapel, you can do a virtual livestream Eucharistic Adoration Chapel to pray and adore Him.
Saint Quotes on Prayer in Adoration
“In the Mass and in Eucharistic Adoration we meet the merciful love of God that passes through the Heart of Jesus Christ.” St. John Paul II
“People ask me: ‘What will convert America and save the world?’ My answer is prayer. What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in holy hours of prayer.” St. Teresa of Calcutta
“A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” St. Padre Pio
Learn more about the ancient history of Eucharistic adoration.
One Response
I Love all your loving hard work , it is Beautiful I’m 82 and spend alot of my time in prayer. and I just found your site, by way of looking for the prayer, that is in the Pieta,
THE ROSARY OF THE HOLY WOUNDS OF JESUS CHRIST, I wanted to find out how to pray it on the rosary. your is so beautiful, I Love it, I will pray using yours it brings me closer to Jesus who suffers still for us. God Bess you….