9:00am–3:00pm — every Wednesday

“O Come, Let Us Adore Him”  

Beginning with lowly shepherds tending their flocks, to a multitude of singing angels, to Magi from the East, followers of Christ have been taking time to visit and adore Jesus. We are in search of additional Adorers for Holy Hours on Wednesdays between 8:30 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.  We would love to see you there … as would Jesus in the True Presence of the Eucharist.

Please contact our coordinator of Adoration, Susan Whitman, at 603 745 3331 with your availability.
(Subject to cancellation for funeral liturgies)

“Our essential commitment in life is to preserve and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to grow spiritually in the climate of the Holy Eucharist.”

POPE JOHN PAUL II, REDEEMER OF MAN

Prolonged Eucharistic adoration is one of the distinguishing features of Roman Catholicism and is credited with the calling of saints and the bringing of converts to the Catholic Church. St. Faustina Kowalska stated that she was called to religious service while attending the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at age seven.[55] Notable examples of conversion are Saints Elizabeth Ann Seton and John Henry Newman, both having converted from Anglicanism,[39] and the Venerable Hermann Cohen (Carmelite), O.C.D., from Judaism, following Eucharistic adoration. Cohen went on to help establish the widespread practice of nocturnal adoration.

The practice of a “daily Holy Hour” of adoration has been encouraged in the Catholic tradition, for instance Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a Holy Hour each day and all members of her Missionaries of Charity followed her example.[56][57]

Since the Middle Ages the practice of Eucharistic adoration outside Mass has been encouraged by the popes.[58]

In the middle of the Second Vatican Council, on September 3, 1965, a few days before opening the fourth session, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical Mysterium fidei whereby he urged daily Mass and communion and said that “In the course of the day, the faithful should not omit to visit the Blessed Sacrament, which according to the liturgical laws must be kept in the churches with great reverence in a most honorable location. Such visits are a proof of gratitude, an expression of love, an acknowledgment of the Lord’s presence.” “The daily adoration or visit to the Blessed Sacrament is the practice which is the fountainhead of all devotional works,” St. Pius X used to say.

In Dominicae Cenae Pope John Paul II stated:

The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith.[59]

And in Ecclesia de Eucharistia John Paul II stated:

The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church…It is the responsibility of Pastors to encourage, also by their personal witness, the practice of Eucharistic adoration, and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.[60]

From his early years, the Eucharist had a central place in the theology of Joseph Ratzinger and in his role as Pope Benedict XVI as well as in his book God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life he strongly encouraged Eucharistic adoration.[61][62]