Why adoration is in the centre of our parish life?

Let us build our parish on the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Our parish is like a person who, although great and charming, has underlying problems with their heart rhythm – a heart disease. This is one of the images I have of our parish.

In this context, it does not matter how much we are involved in helping others, reaching out, cleaning or caring with our welcoming attitude. The question is not how gifted we are, or how much we are involved (we are doing well in so many areas and I am sure that many people would sing praises about what we do). The real question is what the person from our image as presented above is doing about their heart disease?

One might be a superb friend, eat healthily, be an altruist, liturgist, co-ordinator, parent, etc, and still die due to heart disease. The same is true of our parish. Evangelisation and formation are not enough to bring life to the parish, what it truly needs is to resolve the problem of heart disease. Of course, we should take care of what and how we breathe (prayer and healing ministry of Jesus), what and how often we eat (God’s word and sacraments), how often we exercise and how our digestive system works (formation), and how we interact and practise love for our neighbour (serving and enjoying social events). However, we also need to be aware of how our heart works. Adoration followed by rediscovery of the Liturgy brings back serenity and peace and restores the health rhythm of our souls and emotions. ~ Fr Stan, Earley, June 2017