Live with Fr. Josh Johnson: All about Adoration

We know that spending time in Eucharistic Adoration is an incredible thing, but it’s so easy to get distracted! And when it comes to the practicals, should you sit, stand or kneel? Should you read a spiritual book or write in your journal? What kinds of things should you pray about? How can you listen better and actually hear God’s voice?

Father Josh Johnson joins me live at the SLS20 FOCUS conference in Phoenix to share helpful advice on how exactly to spend your time in Eucharistic Adoration. In this conversation, Father Josh shares insights from his own Adoration experiences, the writings of the Saints, Church tradition, and Holy Scriptures that will help you focus on the face of our Lord in Eucharistic Adoration.
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** Snippet from the Show
If you wouldn’t look at your cell phone in the middle of your wedding ceremony, why would you look at your cell phone in the middle of your prayer time? _
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SHOWNOTES

What Should You Do in Adoration?

What we know:
Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity
In Adoration, we can encounter God in the Eucharist, in what’s normally called a “holy hour”
But the question is, what should we do in a holy hour?

Father Josh’s First Holy Hour
Fr. Josh first encountered Christ in Adoration at a Steubenville Youth Conference, and the experience was so powerful for him that he vowed to go to Adoration every single day after that. However, when he went to Adoration away from the conference, without the lights and music and incense that Steubenville had, Father found himself not knowing what to do.

Father realized that a lot of people are faced with this question in Adoration, which drove him to write his book, Pocket Guide to Adoration.

Tips from Father on what we should and shouldn't do in Adoration:

We should…
Pray vocal prayers: if you’re alone, take the opportunity to pray out loud
Bring our Bible: Fulton Sheen says that the Eucharist is the face of Christ, and scripture is the voice of Christ
Bring our thoughts and desires to the Lord, and listen to what he says: tell the Lord what’s on your heart and mind, but then stop and listen to what he has to say
Meditate on the Gospels: if you’re reading the Bible in Adoration, Fr. Josh recommends starting with the life of Jesus told in the Gospels
Have a resolution upon leaving Adoration: this is recommended by the saints and will help build upon the graces you received in Adoration
Be open to the Holy Spirit: it’s good to have a plan going into Adoration, but we have to make sure we’re allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us in our prayer

We shouldn’t...
Adore ourselves: know who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about
Ignore the way we live outside of prayer: the way we live outside of prayer affects the way we live in prayer
Have our cell phones nearby: if you have to have it for prayers, put it on airplane mode to avoid distractions
Turn Adoration into study hall: it’s okay to read in the presence of the Holy Sacrament, but we shouldn’t call it Adoration because we’re not adoring the Lord

Why go to Adoration?
Fr. Josh explains why Adoration is so important through the context of the mass. Not only does it intensify our relationship with God, but it causes us to long for him more. When we go to Adoration and see the Lord in the Eucharist, we are drawn to him more, so much so that we want to experience his love in a more intimate way, such as in mass. Adoration calls us to live a life of worshiping God in everything we do.

“Adoration leads to imitation.”
The more we hang out with Christ in Adoration, the more we become like him. You’ve heard it said that you become a combination of the three people you hang with most, and the same is true with spending time with God. If we want to imitate Christ in his thoughts, words, and actions, we have to spend time with him.
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Additional tips from Fr. Josh: If you struggle with...**
Getting distracted in Adoration
Sit near the front of the chapel: This will prevent you from being distracted by others
Focusing too much on the discomfort of kneeling
Sit down or lay prostrate: It’s better to focus fully on the Lord than to do what you think is “correct” or “normal”
Staying focused for a full hour
Start with 15 minutes: begin with either Lectio Divinia or a rosary, and stay longer as you build endurance

Resources
Pocket Guide to Adoration by Fr. Josh Johnson
He and I by Gabrielle Bossis
Check out Fr. Josh’s podcast, “Ask Father Josh”
Broken and Blessed: An Invitation to My Generation by Fr. Josh Johnson
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