Pro-Tips for Making a Spiritually Rich Holy Hour
“Could you not stay awake with me one hour?” Jesus asked St. Peter and the apostles.
It can be considered the basis or reason why we Catholic make a Holy Hour: spending time with Christ before the Blessed Sacrament.
“The Holy Hour has a special significance. It means a continuous and unbroken hour spent in the presence of our Divine Lord in the Eucharist,” explained Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen in the anthology Lord, Teach Us to Pray.
Mother Angelica hosted televised Holy Hours; as recorded in A Holy Hour with Mother Angelica, from the hours’ broadcast in March 1988, she said, “The main point of this Holy Hour is for you to luxuriate in God’s presence. To forget all your problems and frustrations, and to just become aware of the awesome presence of God.”
She said the Holy Hour “means you dedicate an hour totally to God — praising him, loving him and saying to him, ‘Lord, I’m sorry that so many people don’t know you, love you, or praise you.’”
But how should we make a Holy Hour?
Father Jeffrey Kirby, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, and author — whose latest book is 40 Hours: An Adoration Companion — told the Register, “There are no set formats or prayers. It’s an opportunity to simply be in the presence of the Lord and let yourself know and feel his love. As such, almost anything can be read or prayed during a Holy Hour.”
He suggested that a great help “for many people who are making a Holy Hour is to read the Gospels from the New Testament. Being in the presence of the Lord Jesus and reading about his life and ministry can be a great help for us in knowing and encountering the Lord more deeply.”
While Catholics can focus on spiritual reading during a Holy Hour, they can also “simply close all their books and just talk to the Lord Jesus, as they would to a friend,” Father Kirby explained. “Oftentimes, we have a lot of things to complain about or process. A heartfelt, open prayer can go a long way in our lives. We shouldn’t be concerned about what we say to the Lord. We need to be honest and express to him what is actually happening in our hearts. If we’re angry, we need to say that. If we’re grateful, we should say that. We need to be as transparent as possible when we pray.”
