February 25, 1998 saw a confluence of events in my little world.\u00a0 It was a now-mostly-forgotten birthday.\u00a0 It was Ash Wednesday, a favorite day of mine on the church calendar.\u00a0 And it was the beginning of Perpetual Adoration at St. Mary\u2019s in Sleepy Eye that continues twenty years yon.<\/p>\n
Perpetual Adoration is continual worship by a community of people in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.\u00a0 It is a Catholic thing.\u00a0 There are a lot of Catholic things.\u00a0 One can be Catholic their entire life and never fully plumb the 2,000 years of rituals, music, and spiritual practices within our faith legacy.\u00a0 I like that.\u00a0 To my non-Catholic friends some of it may seem a bit quirky.\u00a0 I can see that.<\/p>\n
We believe Jesus is present \u201cBody, Blood, Soul, and Divinity\u201d in the Eucharistic host, which has been consecrated at Mass.\u00a0 While God is certainly present everywhere, we consider Jesus to be present in the host in a unique and powerful sense.\u00a0 In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus is with us as he was with the apostles.<\/p>\n
So for twenty years, excepting Mass times and a couple of blizzards, someone has been in Adoration at St. Mary\u2019s, an hour at a time. \u00a0It was first located in the convent chapel.\u00a0 When the convent was taken down, it shifted to the back of the main church.\u00a0 It also spends part of each week at Divine Providence Community Home in the beautiful chapel there.\u00a0 Last year, Adoration moved to the dedicated chapel in the new north addition.\u00a0 God willing it will continue there for many years.<\/p>\n
That is 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u00a0 It is remarkable when you think of twenty-below days, 2:00 and 3:00 AM time slots, and busy weekends.\u00a0 Every hour.\u00a0 That means in our little parish here on the prairie, more than 200 people are taking turns in prayer.\u00a0 It is an amazing feat really.<\/p>\n
I have had the 5:00 AM Wednesday hour for those twenty years.\u00a0 Sometimes I have been with someone, sometimes alone.\u00a0 One time I slept late and got there late. I usually miss a couple times each year for travelling.\u00a0 A little figuring means I\u2019m coming up on 1,000 hours.<\/p>\n
I wish I could report those were 1,000 hours rapt in deep spiritual devotion.\u00a0 When this began, I was wildly enthusiastic, ready to save the world with prayer.\u00a0 I remember the first few times, kneeling the entire hour and making excruciating effort to pray deeply.<\/p>\n
After realizing my knees and brain were fighting me on this, I relaxed my regimen. \u00a0I kneel a while at the beginning and end of the hour.\u00a0 In between, I sit.\u00a0 Often I write or read something religious.\u00a0 Intense focus has turned into trying to keep my thoughts from straying too far.<\/p>\n
In meditation, we are told to let random and distracting thoughts float by as if in a stream.\u00a0 Don\u2019t focus on them, let them go gently past.\u00a0 I try.\u00a0 But sometimes the thoughts climb up on the dock and jump up and down demanding attention.\u00a0 Thoughts that range in gravity from \u201cSoybeans are up.\u00a0 Should I sell some today?\u201d to \u201cWill the Twins beat the Yankees in my lifetime?\u201d<\/p>\n
Some days the hour goes by quickly and others it drags.\u00a0 Regardless, I am glad I have that time.\u00a0 Sunday Mass and Wednesday Adoration are fulcrums that the rest of my week pivot on.\u00a0 I know Jesus is fully present, even if I am not.\u00a0 Some days all I can offer is, \u201cHere I am Lord.\u201d\u00a0 There is an old saying that goes, \u201cHalf the battle is showing up.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ll lean on that and give myself credit for those 1,000 hours.<\/p>\n
Thinking back, there has never been a shortfall of things to pray for, on, and about in these twenty years.\u00a0 Later in 1998, my father passed away, and my mother the following spring.\u00a0 Our three children have grown and left the house; now we have a grandchild.\u00a0 If you are a parent, you know those prayers.\u00a0 Friends and family have battled afflictions.\u00a0 Several close friends have died.\u00a0 It has probably been no different than any twenty years in any of our lives; challenges are a constant.<\/p>\n
Regardless of our faith, we all have varied ways of seeking and being present to the Creator.\u00a0 Many take time in nature.\u00a0 God is in the spectacular: sunrises, sunsets, mountains, oceans.\u00a0 He is also to be found in smaller matters: bird song, an intricate leaf, snowflakes.<\/p>\n
Then, we meet God in the unlikely mix of people we encounter each day.\u00a0 God is in circumstances, some we create and others that are thrust on us.\u00a0 The chance to help someone, to listen to someone who needs an ear, to disrupt our own plans for someone else\u2019s.\u00a0 Or are those God\u2019s plans?<\/p>\n
At Adoration, outside of short conversations of greeting with the persons who have the hour before and after, it is quiet.\u00a0 The room is simply adorned.\u00a0 The host is displayed in a \u201cmonstrance\u201d on a small altar.\u00a0 There are a few candles, sometimes plants, and stained-glass windows above.\u00a0 The overriding characteristic is silence.\u00a0 Once you encounter the quiet, then comes the task of quieting your head.<\/p>\n
Silence is not common in our world.\u00a0 Our ancestors would have known silence better.\u00a0 In the last century, generation by generation has added tools that are wonderful, but each added to the noise: radio, telephones, television, computer.\u00a0 Now we have phones that are all those things.<\/p>\n
In the First Book of Kings, we are reminded why we need silence.\u00a0 Elijah is told to go to the mountain and wait for the Lord.\u00a0 \u201cThen a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.\u00a0 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. a still small voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was God.\u00a0 The still small voice.\u00a0 Whether it is in a chapel, or the woods, or our homes, it is good to be in quiet sometimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
February 25, 1998 saw a confluence of events in my little world.\u00a0 It was a now-mostly-forgotten birthday.\u00a0 It was Ash Wednesday, a favorite day of mine on the church calendar.\u00a0 And it was the beginning of Perpetual Adoration at St. Mary\u2019s in Sleepy Eye that continues twenty years yon. Perpetual Adoration is continual worship by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 21:10:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106066,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106065\/revisions\/106066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}