4th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023 "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts!"

 

“If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts!”

 On the value of a holy hour

The first time I ever saw Eucharistic Adoration when I was a seminarian at St. Meinrad, and I instantly fell in love with it…and I can look back over time and see how the holy hours have made me an infinitely better person…I still have a long way to go but they have me infinitely better.

As Father Patrick Hyde talked about when he came to Dearborn County in November… just as nuclear radiation in a negative way reorients every atom of our being without us feeling the effects at first, being in the Presence of Jesus exposed in a monstrance reorients every fiber of our body and soul and over time changes us more and more for the better.

 

The average American spends two thirds of their waking hours staring at glass screens whether it is smart phones, tablets, laptops or television sets…and I just want to say that the only glass screen that will bring us any lasting peace is staring at the glass screen of a monstrance with Jesus’ Real Presence right behind it.

 

Starting on Ash Wednesday, there will be a new perpetual adoration chapel at St. Mary’s in Aurora…and we also be making an appeal to every parishioner next weekend to fill out a card to sign up for at least one hour each week at the adoration chapel.

 

I was listening to Catholic Radio on the way to Mass this morning here at St. Mary’s and a gentleman was recounting how he was baptized a Catholic at a young age, and fell away from the Catholic Faith…made millions of dollars…but was also addicted to alcohol…and when he hit rock bottom he went to the Catholic Church which was locked.  He said he walked around the corner, and there was what he would later learn is a perpetual adoration chapel.  He said he slept in the room, and when he woke up, he felt such a calm sense of peace, and that time in the adoration chapel put him back on the right course.

 

Next weekend after all the Masses, we will be asking you to sign up for an hour.  I love the psalm from today for many reasons, and it is “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts..” so Fr. Meyer and I just ask that you spend this coming week asking Jesus to show you what He wants from you in regard to an hour of adoration.