Eucharistic Adoration
Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Saviour who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the "King of Glory," respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God. Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2628
The Presence of Christ by the power of His Word and the Holy Spirit
The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."
- Cathechism of the Catholic Church No. 1374
Worship of the Eucharist
In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession."
- Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1378
The Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the overflow and consequence of our deep sharing in the Eucharistic sacrifice and the liturgy of praise. This Eucharistic service is an anticipation of the heavenly liturgy spoken of in the Book of Revelation where those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb stand before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple, the Lord Himself dwelling in their midst.
- Book of Customs and Counsels of the Congregation of the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre OSB
“How good it is for us to contemplate and adore Jesus in the Cenacle, in the Garden, on Calvary on the Cross. In the Eucharist He is always really in the state in which we are gazing on Him in faith, although this manner of being there may be mystical and immutable, and not subject to change as in His mortal life. His unique state in the Eucharist contains in itself all His divine states and He is there, the living Jesus, for us an inexhaustible source of contemplation and actual adoration.”
- Mother Marie Adèle Garnier
24 Reasons for Spending a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament
Tyburn Association of Adoration