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July 12, 2020
By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free PressFather Adam Reid, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Webster made that comment after re-enthroning the Blessed Sacrament in the perpetual adoration chapel across the street from the church.
The regional chapel in the parish’s Emmaus Center at 17 East Main St. was closed in March due to coronavirus restrictions, as were some other adoration sites in the diocese. Still other places kept adoration opportunities available.
“We took advantage of the down time to do some renovation work, painting walls and ceilings, even some yard work,” said Raymond Guerin, Sacred Heart’s financial administrator.
After Mass June 14, on Corpus Christi (the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ), Father Reid carried the Host in a monstrance from the church to the chapel, and a few people came along to adore Jesus.
“Jesus is home!” rejoiced Mr. Guerin.
“Praise the Lord!” added his wife, Jeanne, one of the chapel coordinators.
“Blessings happen when you’re here,” said Nancy Kudzal, parish administrator.
Perpetual adoration started then; adorers are scheduled around the clock, Mrs. Guerin said. Other people stopping by must sign in with their telephone numbers so they can be contacted if someone is exposed to the virus, and all must wear masks and sanitize their hands. Six people may be in the chapel at once.
St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish, at 80 Union St. in Clinton, started having several hours of adoration again on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, said Father James S. Mazzone, pastor.
He said that for now they are using the main church, instead of the smaller lower chapel where adoration had been held Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Since the upper church is needed for weddings, funerals etc., adoration hours are currently Monday through Friday from 3-6 p.m.
During the more severe coronavirus restrictions, the Host was not exposed in the monstrance in the chapel, but the chapel remained open on weekdays so people could pray before the tabernacle.
Father Mazzone said they had adoration under the baldacchino (four pillars with a roof) outside St. John’s Gym from 1-2 p.m. Monday-Friday after public Masses resumed May 25. Now adoration there is for half an hour after the 12:30 p.m. Mass Monday-Friday.
The pandemic also changed things at other churches.
St. Joseph Parish, 10 H. Putnam Road, Ext., Charlton, stopped its indoor adoration, but later exposed the Host in a monstrance in a second-floor window of the church building. People can still adore Jesus there from the parking lot 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The adoration chapel at St. George Parish, 38 Brattle St., Worcester, remains closed, and will probably be closed for a long time, given the pandemic, Father Edward D. Niccolls, pastor, told The Catholic Free Press this week. Use of small chapels, such as that one, is not being encouraged now, he said.
“We never shut the chapel down,” said Father Stephen E. Lundrigan, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Gardner, in reference to adoration in the parish’s Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, 135 Nichols St. He said there is plenty of space there for people to spread out.
Scheduled adorers come from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. on Wednesdays (except during the 9 a.m. Mass). Others are welcome to stop in, using the ramp door on the side of the church.
The parish also has adoration from 7-7:30 p.m., after the 6:30 p.m. first Friday Mass, in its Holy Spirit Chapel, 50 Lovewell St.
The parish’s website, annunciationgardner.org, lists adoration times and places as well as some reasons to participate in the devotion.
“Knowing the power of prayer and trusting in the continued presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, we recognize that special times of prayer can be beneficial to all,” says the website. “Some of the greatest saints, who achieved great things for the Church and the world, spent a great deal of time … in prayer.” Jesus went to the desert to encounter the Father in prayer.
The website says adoration is a way to sacrifice an hour of one’s time praying for the needs of the community and world, a way to draw closer to God and be a more balanced person and a more effective minister to others.
Father Ronald G. Falco, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish at 266 Main St. (Route 20) in Northborough, made similar points this week.
Since the outbreak of the virus here, he has left the front doors of the church unlocked around the clock, he said. He said he does that for people with great devotion to the Eucharist, and for nurses, doctors and first responders, whether Catholic or not, some of whom work late shifts. This offers them a place to reflect and unwind during a very stressful time that can really affect people physically, emotionally and spiritually, he said.
Anyone can go into the adoration chapel inside the church, opening and closing the doors around the monstrance if no one else is in there when they enter and leave, Father Falco said. Diocesan guidelines for social distancing and wearing a mask are posted, he said.
“Right now the prayer of petition is pretty prominent in people’s minds,” petition for an end to the virus and its impact, he said.
The parish has posted different messages on a flashing sign, visible from Route 20, inviting people to stop in for prayer and to pray for frontline heroes, he said.
He said Jesus is inviting people to come to him – the invitation is always there.
Stained glass window brought to Webster
By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
What does adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament have to do with a CD cover, a man out of work, a stained glass window and a promise to a sick woman?
It’s all part of the story of how that window was made for an adoration chapel in Connecticut and came full circle, ending up near the adoration chapel in Webster that helped inspire the window’s design.
That’s the story Pauline Tetreault, from St. Mary Parish in Putnam, Connecticut, told upon seeing the window in its new home.
It was June 14, the feast of Corpus Christi. Miss Tetreault told The Catholic Free Press that Lord’s Day Masses had not yet resumed where she’s from. Coming to Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Webster, she learned that the perpetual adoration there, halted because of coronavirus restrictions, was resuming there that day.
She said she asked the pastor, Father Adam Reid, where the window was, and he showed her that it had been installed in the parish’s Emmaus Center, which houses the regional adoration chapel. Jeanne Guerin, one of the chapel coordinators, let her into a temporarily locked room near the chapel, to see the window from the inside.
Miss Tetreault said she was so happy to see where the window is and that it belongs there. Many people will be very happy to learn where it is, she said.
But that’s getting ahead of the story.
“The Lord had put it on my heart to do a CD,” Miss Tetreault said, beginning her story for The Catholic Free Press. “I’m a singer. I took a picture of the monstrance here. (She was an adorer at the Webster chapel.) … I knew that’s what the Lord wanted me to put on the cover of the CD.”
She said Jane Daigle, coordinator of the adoration chapel that was later opened at their parish in Putnam, asked if they could use the cover of her CD to design a stained glass window.
The coordinator then asked her nephew, Kenneth Daigle, to make the window, even though “he had never made any kind of stained glass.” He didn’t know if he could, as he was busy with work. Then he lost his job and made the window, which depicts a monstrance and roses, Miss Tetreault said.
“The Holy Spirit inspired him,” she said. “This window went in our adoration chapel,” a separate building which had formerly been a chapel for nuns.
When that building and the school were sold, “we needed a new home for the window,” Miss Tetreault said.
She said she promised Ms. Daigle, who was sick and concerned about the window, that she would find a home for it. Ms. Daigle died last year, not knowing where that home would be.
“I felt it should be here” in Webster, Miss Tetreault said.
