Holy Hour
Holy Hour – 1955
Thursday night, 7:15 pm, winter time. I’m nine. Deeply dark when my grandmother comes to my house to fetch me so we can walk three city blocks to the local Catholic Church. What would I give to be back in that packed-with-parishioners church for just one hour! Pew after pew, side by side, devotional people. Cold-weather coats, scarves and gloves. Hats on for women, hats off for men.
Dominus Vobiscum – The Lord be with you
Et cum spiritu tuo – And with thy spirit
Repetitive prayer – litany prayer - intercessions to Jesus, Mary and the saints. Lord have mercy. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Hear our prayer. Hear our prayer. Pray for us. Pray for us. Hear our prayer. Have mercy on us.
Dim lighting. Clouds of incense. Vigil candles. Organ music and the singing of hymns. Adoration. Reverence. The Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament “exposed” in an ornate gold Monstrance.
Adoration. Sitting, kneeling, standing and again. Sitting, kneeling, standing. A sermon from the priest. Admonitions. Contemplation. Benediction. Great blessings and at last a deep silence for some considerable time.
Departing in silence. Genuflecting on one’s knees. Departing in silence. The sign of the cross with holy water. Departing in silence. Sanctified. Consecrated. Holy Hour.
Glossary:
Holy Hour: the Roman Catholic devotional tradition of spending an hour in Eucharistic adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
Eucharist: The term for the bread (wafer) that when transubstantiated (its substance having been changed during the consecration portion of a mass) into the body of Jesus Christ
Monstrance: A liturgical vessel. Also called ostensorium. A vessel in which the Eucharistic host is carried in processions and is exposed during certain devotional ceremonies.
Blessed Sacrament - also Most Blessed Sacrament. A devotional name used in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist.
Benediction: a service in which the congregation is blessed with the Blessed Sacrament.
Adoration: Veneration, worship