Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Features Question Time

A Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament

byGuest Contributor
2 December 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA
A Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament

Time with Jesus: “The Holy Hour. Is it difficult? Sometimes it seemed to be hard; it might mean having to forgo a social engagement, or rise an hour earlier, but on the whole it has never been a burden, only a joy.”

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Question Time by Fr John Flader

Question: I have heard that Archbishop Fulton Sheen made a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament every day. Can you tell me more about it, and whether it must be done in a church?

First, in answer to your second question, Archbishop Sheen always did his holy hour before the tabernacle in a church or chapel.

If you cannot pray before a tabernacle, but can pray for an hour in some other place, by all means do it. It will help you greatly and it will be very pleasing to God.

For anyone not familiar with Archbishop Fulton Sheen, he was an American bishop who, in addition to his prolific writings, had an average audience of over 30 million viewers on his weekly television program Life is Worth Living in the 1950s.

Billy Graham called him “the great communicator” and Pope Pius XII “a prophet of the times”.

In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, published shortly before his death in 1979, Archbishop Sheen says that on the day of his priestly ordination he made two resolutions – to offer the Mass every Saturday in honour of Our Lady to ask her protection on his priesthood, and to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

He goes on to say that in the course of his priesthood, he kept both of these resolutions.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Prayerful: United States Archbishop Fulton Sheen is pictured preaching in an undated photo. Photo: CNS

As regards the Holy Hour: “The Holy Hour had its origin in a practice I developed a year before I was ordained. The big chapel in St Paul’s Seminary would be locked by six o’clock; there were still private chapels available for private devotions and evening prayers. This particular evening during recreation, I walked up and down outside the closed major chapel for almost an hour. The thought struck me – why not make a Holy Hour of adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? The next day I began, and the practice is now well over sixty years old.”

He goes on to explain why he kept up the practice and encouraged others to do the same: “First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption. Our Blessed Lord used the words ‘hour’ and ‘day’ in two totally different connotations in the Gospel of John. ‘Day’ belongs to God; the ‘hour’ belongs to evil. Seven times in the Gospel of John, the word ‘hour’ is used, and in each instance it refers to the demonic, and to the moments when Christ is no longer in the Father’s Hands, but in the hands of men. In the Garden, our Lord contrasted two ‘hours’ – one was the evil hour: ‘this is your hour’ – with which Judas could turn out the lights of the world. In contrast, our Lord asked: ‘Could you not watch one hour with Me?’ In other words, he asked for an hour of reparation to combat the hour of evil; an hour of victimal union with the Cross to overcome the anti-love of sin.

Related Stories

Let Jesus Christ feed the hungers of your life, Pope Francis says on Corpus Christi

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

Elderly must set example of faith for young people, Pope says

“Secondly, the only time Our Lord asked the Apostles for anything was the night he went into his agony. Then he did not ask all of them … perhaps because he knew he could not count on their fidelity. But at least he expected three to be faithful to him: Peter, James and John. As often in the history of the Church since that time, evil was awake, but the disciples were asleep. That is why there came out of His anguished and lonely Heart the sigh: ‘Could you not watch one hour with me?’ Not for an hour of activity did He plead, but for an hour of companionship.

“The third reason I keep up the Holy Hour is to grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: ‘We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendour to splendour.’ We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain.”

To encourage us to persevere in this practice, he says: “The Holy Hour. Is it difficult? Sometimes it seemed to be hard; it might mean having to forgo a social engagement, or rise an hour earlier, but on the whole it has never been a burden, only a joy.”

What should one do in this hour?

It can be any spiritual activity – engaging in a loving conversation with Our Lord or simply contemplating him, saying the rosary or other vocal prayers, reading the Scriptures or spiritual books… For those who can take up this admirable practice, it will do them the world of good and through them it will help many souls.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

St Brigid’s candlelit carols set to lift Christmas spirit

Next Post

European Union backflips on decision to ban ‘Merry Christmas’

Guest Contributor

Related Posts

Health concern forces Pope Francis to postpone Africa trip
Vatican

Let Jesus Christ feed the hungers of your life, Pope Francis says on Corpus Christi

20 June 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says
Faith

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Pope Francis greets elderly woman
Vatican

Elderly must set example of faith for young people, Pope says

5 May 2022
Next Post
Merry Christmas: Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin denounced the 32-page internal document named #UnionOfEquality.

European Union backflips on decision to ban ‘Merry Christmas’

Welcome: Pope Francis is greeted by young people as he arrives at the international airport in Larnaca, Cyprus. Photos: CNS

Pope arrives in Cyprus ‘as a pilgrim’ in the footsteps of Saints Paul and Barnabas

Nigerian priest kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen ‘narrowly escaped death’

Nigerian priest kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen ‘narrowly escaped death’

Popular News

  • Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography

    Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Netball Superstar: St John Fisher student Jayden Molo.
Education

St John Fisher College student selected for the Australian Netball U17 Squad

by Hannah Kennelly
1 July 2022
0

SAINT John Fisher College student Jayden Molo said it felt “very surreal” when she found out she...

Plenary task: “Reveal the face of Christ”

Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

30 June 2022
Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

30 June 2022
Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

30 June 2022
Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

30 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping