As many
know, I have been researching a forthcoming volume on sacramental theology,
with a focus on baptism and the Eucharist. One issue that will be discussed in
the volume will be the development of Eucharistic Adoration (the giving of the
highest cultic [latria] devotion to
consecrated hosts). One recent work I read on this issue gives us the following
information (including an admission it is a “gradual development”):
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Faith in the enduring presence of Christ in
the Blessed Sacrament prompted the gradual development of devotions to Christ
in the Eucharist even apart from Mass.
In the earliest centuries of the Church the
chief reason for preserving the Sacred Species was to assist those unable to
attend the liturgy, especially the sick and the dying. The Sacrament of the
Lord was reverently taken to them so that they too could communicate.
With the passage of time, reverent reflection
led the Church to enrich its Eucharistic devotion. Faith that Jesus is truly
present in the sacrament led believers to worship Christ dwelling with us
permanently in the sacrament. Wherever the sacrament is, there is the Christ
who is our Lord and our God; hence He is ever to be worshiped in this mystery
(cf. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical, Mysterium
Fidei [September 3, 1965] nn. 56-62). Such worship is expressed in many
ways: in genuflections, in adoration of the Eucharist, in the many forms of
Eucharistic devotion that faith has nourished.
In the thirteenth century, when the charisms
of saints like Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had intensified the Church’s
gratitude for the enduring presence of Jesus, the feast of Corpus Christi (“Body
of Christ”) was established. The popularity of this feast, with its joyful
hymns and public processions, encouraged further developments of Eucharistic
devotion.
The Blessed Sacrament is at times removed
from the tabernacle in which it is ordinarily kept, and placed upon the altar
for adoration. Usually the Host is placed in a monstrance, so that the Sacred
Species can be seen by the faithful adoring their present but unseen Lord.
These periods of exposition are sometime extended into the Holy Hours. Catholic
parishes often celebrate Eucharistic Days, or the Forty Hours Devotion, in
which the Sacrament is exposed upon the altar continuously for a full day or
longer, to intensify the Eucharistic life of the parish. When such exposition
is terminated, the priest raises the Sacred Host before the people in blessing.
From this closing act has come the name “Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.”
In some dioceses and certain religious
communities perpetual adoration is maintained before the continuously exposed
Host. But every Catholic Church is a place in which the faithful are invited to
worship the present Christ. Visits to the Lord in the tabernacle are still
another form of devotion to the Real Presence that the Church warmly commends
(cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction, Eucharisticum Mysterium [May 25, 1967] part III).
Since the latter half of the nineteenth
century, Eucharistic Congress have drawn Catholics to international gatherings
marked by liturgical functions, conferences, and other events. All these are
designed to render our united gratitude and praise or the Father’s great gift
to us in this life: His beloved Son present among us under the appearances of
bread and wine. (Ronald Lawler, Donald W. Wuerl, and Thomas Comerford Lawler,
eds. The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic
Catechism for Adults [Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1976], 437-38)
