Homily on Eucharistic Adoration from Vespers and Benediction

Bishop Elias Lorenzo, O.S.B. officiated at our last Vespers and Benediction and preached an excellent homily on Eucharistic Adoration. He gave us permission to post it on our blog to share with all of you. Don’t miss our next Vespers and Benediction, Sunday March 12 at 5:30pm!

The Homily of Bishop Elias Lorenzo for Vespers and Benediction with the Dominican Nuns
February 12, 2023

My dear brothers and sisters, “immersing oneself in silent [Eucharistic] Adoration is the secret to knowing the Lord,” Pope Francis said in the chapel of his residence at Santa Marta. “One cannot know the Lord without being in the habit of adoring, of adoring in silence,” said the Holy Father. Yet, he lamented, “I believe, if I am not mistaken, that this prayer of adoration is the least known among us; it is the one we engage in the least.”

“To waste time — if I may say it — before the Lord, before the mystery of Jesus Christ. To adore, there in the silence, in the silence of adoration. He is the Lord, and I adore Him.” The pope based his comments on Eucharistic Adoration from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (3:14-21), in which the Apostle prays that the Holy Spirit may grant them the grace to be strengthened, and that Christ may dwell in their hearts. “Here is the heart and center,” Pope Francis said. Here in the Sacrament of the Altar!

The apostle Paul, the Holy Father also observed, “immerses himself” in the “sea which is the Person of Christ.” “How can we come to know Christ,” the pontiff asked? How can we come to know “the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:14-21)?

Firstly, “Christ is present in the Gospel, and we come to know Christ by reading the Gospel,” the pope said. Daily lectio divina for nuns and monks and indeed for every Christian is fundamental practice of our faith. “And all of us do this, at least we hear the Gospel when we go to Mass.” We also come to know Christ by studying the Catechism,  since according to the Holy Father “the catechism teaches us who Christ is.” But this is not enough, he said. “In order to understand the breadth and length and height and depth of Jesus Christ we need to enter into prayer, as Paul does, on his knees, saying: ‘Father, send me the Holy Spirit that I may know Jesus.’”

Secondly, “We need to pray in order to truly know Christ,” the Pope repeated. But Paul “does not only pray; he adores this mystery which surpasses all knowledge, and it is within the context of adoration that he asks this grace” from the Lord. “One cannot know the Lord without the habit of adoring, of adoring in silence,” emphasized the pontiff. “I believe — he acknowledges— that we must spend more time before the Lord {in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar], before the mystery of the [Risen] Lord, Jesus Christ. To adore, here in silence, in the silence of adoration. He is the Lord and [we] adore Him.”

Thirdly, the pope noted, “to come to know Christ we need to know ourselves, that is, we need to be in the habit of knowing ourselves,” [to be] “sinners” in need of God’s amazing grace and the ocean of mercy that flows for this Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. “To enter into this bottomless and boundless sea of mercy, which is the mystery of Christ, three things are needed. Prayer: ‘Father, send me the Spirit that he might lead me to know Jesus.’ Second, adoring the mystery, entering into the mystery through {Eucharistic] Adoration. And third, knowing oneself: ‘I am a person of unclean lips,’” and unclean heart in need of the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ.

As we come into the presence of the Eucharistic Lord in this Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, may the love of Christ which surpasses all our hopes and dreams fill you all with every grace and blessing from above.  To Christ be all glory and honor in the Church forever and ever.  Amen!

Bishop Elias R. Lorenzo, O.S.B.
February 12, 2023