From the Heart of the Shepherd
- Church of St. Mark
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
From the First Sunday in Advent (2025 November 30)
Nov 30 - Advent 1
In today’s First Reading Isaiah envisions “all the nations” streaming towards God’s temple on Zion: “In days to come … many peoples shall come and say: ‘Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths" (Is 2:2-3). In the past weeks, we have had occasion to recall now that “those days” have come, the Lord’s mountain is the Church; His temple is Jesus, whose Heart contains that saving instruction that leads to peace!
My predecessor liked to often say that there should be a line of people waiting to get into our adoration chapel during the week. If only people realized who was in there, waiting for them! If families are willing to wait in line (for hours?) to sit on the lap of a stranger in a Santa suit, how much longer and more eagerly ought they be to kneel at the feet of the living God, dwelling among us in the flesh, “disguised” under the appearance of bread!
Sadly, the lines are not yet forming to see the One “who has so loved mankind.” The nations are not quite “streaming” to His mountain. But people do come. Though there are many hours in which our beautiful chapel is all but abandoned, there are other times when it is surprisingly full. And even though visitors be “few” relative to the “many” who never come, how important it is that our parish makes it possible for souls to encounter Christ, hidden yet exposed in the Blessed Sacrament so many hours of the week. Among the many good works we do here at St. Mark’s, I have to believe that this work of devotion is among the most pleasing to God.
But like any great work for God, it comes at a high cost. I recently met with our adoration leadership team to assess the state of adoration. Though our September adoration push succeeded at least one commitment for all but three of our weekly hours, the calendar remains in a precarious condition. Our schedule (identical to when adoration started in January of 2012) offers 108 hours of exposition each week. For the healthy functioning of the system, two committed adorers are needed for each hour. The “redundancy” ensures that Our Lord is never left alone, if life-events prevent one adorer or the other from coming, and no adorer is obliged to stay for a “bonus” hour. Thus, 216 weekly commitments are required. At a parish of our size, this equates to a weekly commitment for about 50% of our active households, and well over 50% of our adult Sunday Mass-goers.
At any other parish, expecting that kind of engagement would be ludicrous. By the mercy of God, at St. Mark’s somehow we have managed it. But only thanks to the sacrificial generosity of relatively few. Our weekly schedule has only 151 commitments, meaning nearly 70 hours only have one regular adorer. Three currently have none. And those commitments are borne by only 120 individuals. Our pool of short-notice substitutes is small. And many of our committed adorers have multiple hours. For example, four individuals cover (alone) 13 of our 11pm-5am hours each week. That means almost half of our nocturnal hours depend on those four generous souls!
Surely, God will reward them. But it’s not prudent to be stretched so thin. I am mindful that St. Mark’s is not the parish it was when 24/5 adoration was inaugurated. We now have far fewer retirees, who can often cover daytime and nocturnal hours more easily, and far more parishioners with little ones at home, for whom a committed hour is often not feasible. I know we must be open to considering a reduction in hours. But before doing so, I think we should turn to the Lord of the harvest, who knows well that laborers are few and the harvest abundant. To that end, we have placed a “Prayer for Adorers” in the chapel throughout the month of December. I am asking everyone–drop in visitors and committed adorers–to say that prayer each time they visit. Jesus alone can move souls to commit to that weekly “date” with their God! Pray that He do so, so that whatever else the parish is engaged in during the week, and however much the world neglects Him, Jesus will be adored by St. Mark’s, and souls have the opportunity to stream to Him.
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