To pray before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar is to cast a glance of faith upon Jesus Christ, true God and true man, truly present in the Bread of the Eucharist.

This prayer of adoration manifests God’s mercy and tenderness for humanity and calls each one of us to intercede for the needs of men. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus, the source of salvation, is offered for our contemplation and adoration incessantly. From him, all who pray to him receive an abundance of grace to live in this world as beloved children; and through him, in the Spirit, each of us returns to the Father, the God of tenderness and mercy, to bless and glorify him. Moreover, regardless of our poverty or wealth, through prayer, we can draw from the unfathomable riches of the Heart of Christ, given to us in the Eucharist, for the good of all people. Let us ask the Lord to make us worshipers in spirit and truth, witnesses of the love of God before the men and women of our time.

There is one action whose effect is boundless: it is our confident and insistent prayer. Even the poorest of believers, when he does not have much to give, still has an unknown wealth: to draw through prayer from the infinite treasury of God’s mercy.

In the Gospel, the Lord calls us to perseverance in prayer. Pray without ceasing. Watch and pray. While our world lacks hope, a powerful remedy is offered to us. In a society that suffers from loneliness and individualism, Eucharistic adoration helps us discover the Real Presence of Christ at our side: I am with you always, until the end of the age. His love for us does not change. From him alone comes the stability of our life. The prayer of adoration allows us to welcome this love, to take this time of reflection in silence, to root ourselves in Christ and to allow our inner freedom to grow. Furthermore, Eucharistic adoration has the power to transform our everyday relationships by giving them the true meaning of human love.

Let us rediscover our sense of the beauty of the sacred. Let us habituate our gaze to receive in adoration the pure light of the Lord. Patiently, let us allow him to fashion, in the Holy Spirit, our true face, in his image and likeness, until the day of our eternal face-to-face: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And in the Communion of Saints, let us find all those whom we have loved and who have preceded us before him.

In the prayer of adoration, it is not a question, like the hypocritical Pharisee of the Gospel, of giving thanks for our own righteousness, and of praying only for others who are sinners (cf. Lk 18:9-14). But before the infinite love of God, given for us in Jesus, exposed before our eyes in the Blessed Sacrament, it is a question of recognizing ourselves as poor and sinful, to see that without him we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5), to let ourselves be saved by him, to let ourselves be healed, to let ourselves be converted. It is a question of offering ourselves to God the Father in the one and perfect offering of Jesus his Son, under the movement of the Holy Spirit, in order to fully accomplish his will. In this way, our prayer will be true: it will transform us, and in the Communion of Saints, it will shine forth as the grace of salvation for many men and women of our time who do not know God, who have distanced themselves from him, or who refuse his love.

The practice of reserving the Eucharist is an ancient observance which has its origins in the earliest centuries of the Church’s history. The first extant description of reserving the Eucharist in order to bring Holy Communion to the sick is found in Saint Justin Martyr’s First Apology (c. 155–157). During the following century, Saint Cyprian of Carthage described how Christians would bring the Eucharist to their homes to receive it during the week, since the celebration of the Eucharist usually took place only on Sundays at this point in Christian history. In a tradition beginning in the city of Rome, the Eucharist was sometimes reserved and then added to the Precious Blood during a later Mass celebrated in another location as a way of symbolically expressing the communion between parishes and their bishop or between various bishops. At other times, the reserved Sacrament from one Mass was added to the Precious Blood at a later Mass to signify the unity of all Eucharistic celebrations in Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross. In order to make the Eucharist available for these various purposes, the Blessed Sacrament was regularly reserved in tabernacles from the fourth century onward.

The common practice of praying before the reserved Eucharist began roughly in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a consequence of the writings of certain Scholastic theologians on the subject of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. During this period, the dogma of transubstantiation, which is listed among the articles of faith, was first articulated. Transubstantiation is the term used by the Church to describe “the way in which Christ becomes present in [the Holy Eucharist] through the conversion of the whole substance of the bread into his Body and of the whole substance of the wine into his Blood.” This teaching was formally defined by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and confirmed by the Council of Trent in 1551. At the time, the Council Fathers of Trent also reiterated the teaching of the Council of Constance (1415) concerning the doctrine of concomitance, which states that “Christ is present whole and entire in each of the [Eucharistic] species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”

As the faithful during the late Middle Ages meditated on the nature of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, practices such as gazing upon the Eucharist at the time of the elevation of the host and chalice after the consecration at Mass, adoring the exposed Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance outside of Mass, and carrying the Eucharist in procession began to develop. At this time and during the centuries which followed, these rites were considered to be primarily devotional in nature, meaning that they were regarded as extensions of the Church’s liturgical celebration of the Mass.

More recently, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed the traditional teaching of the Church concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. They taught:

During the Council, Saint Paul VI expressed his hope that the reform and restoration of the Mass called for by the Conciliar Fathers would “produce abundant fruits in the form of Eucharistic devotion, so that the Holy Church may, with this salvific sign of piety raised on high, make daily progress toward the full achievement of unity.” In 1967, the Sacred Congregation of Rites similarly emphasized the relationship between adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the celebration of the Mass, indicating that “when the faithful adore Christ present in the sacrament, they should remember that this presence derives from the sacrifice and is directed toward both sacramental and spiritual Communion.” The intimate connection between Eucharistic adoration and the celebration of Mass was more fully articulated and developed in Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass (1973). This document presents the worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass within the context of the official liturgical rites of the Church, noting that the Eucharist is “reserved after Mass to extend the grace of the sacrifice” of the Eucharistic celebration. This ritual book continues to guide the Church in her liturgical celebrations of offering worship to the Eucharist outside of Mass.

The popes of our time have consistently encouraged the practice of worshiping the Eucharist outside of Mass. For example, in his annual Holy Thursday letter to priests in 1980, Saint John Paul II wrote that “the Church and the world have great need of Eucharistic adoration. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration and contemplation full of faith. And let us be ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease.” In his 2005 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict XVI similarly noted the value of adoring the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass, saying, “only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another.” More recently, Pope Francis has also reflected on how “one cannot know the Lord without the habit of adoring, of adoring in silence.”

These papal statements and the historical development of Eucharistic adoration indicate that there are three purposes for the worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass:

The worship and adoration of the Eucharist outside of Mass most often takes place when the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle. These times of private adoration and prayer offer the faithful a privileged opportunity to “easily, fruitfully, and constantly honor the Lord, present in the sacrament, through personal worship.”

In addition to the private adoration of the Eucharist in the tabernacle, the Blessed Sacrament may be exposed in a monstrance or ciborium for display to the faithful. The exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is a public liturgical rite which is celebrated by the church community. Thus, the times of exposition should be scheduled when a sufficient number of the faithful can be present to pray before the exposed Eucharist. At no time should the Blessed Sacrament be exposed without anyone present.

Many parishes arrange at least annually for the solemn exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This may take place within the context of a “Forty Hours” devotion or for some shorter period. Parishes may also schedule briefer periods of exposition more often throughout the year. Some religious communities and other groups, such as pious associations of the laity, have the practice of adoring the exposed Blessed Sacrament perpetually or for extended periods of time. When permission has been given for perpetual exposition of the Blessed Sacrament to take place in a parish church, this normally occurs in a chapel that is set apart and distinct from the body of the church so that liturgical services and other daily activities may take place in the church without interruption.

The Liturgy of the Hours may be celebrated in the presence of the exposed Blessed Sacrament. And the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments has stated that the rosary, as “a prayer inspired by the Gospel and centered on the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption, ‘should be considered a prayer of deep Christological orientation,’ and may rightly be counted among the prayers designed to ‘direct the attention of the faithful to the worship of Christ the Lord’” within the context of adoration of the exposed Blessed Sacrament.

Finally, the tradition of carrying the Eucharist in procession, especially on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), is encouraged by the Church’s liturgical books. The purpose of such processions through the streets is to give public witness to the faith of the Christian people and to manifest their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

The Second Vatican Council reminded the Church that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the summit and source of the Christian life. Inspired by this teaching, may our worship of the Lord’s Body and Blood in the Most Holy Eucharist help us to experience the salvation Christ won for us and the peace of his kingdom.

You have entered this chapel where you meet Jesus in his Eucharistic Presence. Now enter your heart, in the most intimate part of your being. Silence yourself. Silence all the voices that are in you, do not chase after useless thoughts. Your problems, your concerns, your anxieties, offer them to Jesus. During this time of worship, occupy yourself with him. Ask for the grace of abandonment and trust.

Put your eyes on Jesus in the Sacred Host. Begin to let your heart speak, that is, love him who loved us first. Pray not only with your lips, but also by meditating on the words you say. Choose a Psalm, a phrase from the Gospel, a simple little prayer, and repeat it silently, gently, and continually until it becomes your prayer, your cry, your supplication.

Enter in thanksgiving, in gratitude. Instead of considering only what you need or are lacking, give thanks for what you are and for what you have. Give thanks for what will be given to you tomorrow. You may experience fatigue or distraction, but take courage. As soon as you realize it, resume your prayer of the heart, gently. Ask the help of the Holy Spirit to help you in your weakness and to become your inner teacher.

Jesus wants to be at the center of your existence. Looking at him, learn, little by little, to go from “I” to “You”—from the desire to realize your projects to the desire for his will for you. He is solemnly exposed. Welcome the light that emanates from his Presence. As the sun warms and melts snow, he can continue to illuminate the darkness that envelops your heart until it is completely dispelled.

He hides under the simple and poor appearances of bread. He comes to you, poor, so that you may learn to welcome in truth your poverty and that of your brothers and sisters. You are in silence; remain in silence. Mary, Stella Matutina and Porta Caeli, Star of the Morning and Gate of Heaven, is with you on your way. She tells you the way and introduces you into the King’s chamber. It is she who will make you understand, in silence, that by looking at Jesus you will discover the presence of the Blessed Trinity in you. And you will be able to experience in your life the words of Psalm 34: Look to him and be radiant, and your faces may not blush for shame.