A Testimony of Eucharistic Adoration

Eucharistic Adoration changed my life for the better, all praise & glory to God!  After committed time spent in the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I now know, without a shadow of doubt, that Jesus is truly living and present among us in the Eucharist, and He desires to enter into an ever-deeper union with us.  This is a game-changer, and it reoriented my life to Christ.

I am a cradle Catholic and attended Mass every Sunday.  While I believed in God, I’ll have to admit that Christ was not the center of my life, and church was something that I fit into my busy schedule once a week.  I didn’t know that there is infinitely more to spiritual life than just showing up for church on Sunday (not fully understanding or participating in the Sacrifice of the Mass).

In the fall of 2010, a friend gave me a CD of a talk by Jim Gruden recorded at a Catholic Men’s Conference titled “The Saving Power of the Eucharist.”  He spoke about miraculous events that transpired in his life after he began regular Eucharistic Adoration.  He first began Eucharistic Adoration by going to a nearby church on his lunch hour during Lent. Having never experienced Eucharistic Adoration in my life up to that point, I filed that testimonial away with the thought that it would be a good thing to do during Lent.

Early the next year in 2011, I remembered that testimonial and thought that I would try to stop in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel once or twice a week on my way to work during Lent, which is always during the hectic “tax season” (I’m a CPA).  I found that I was more at peace during the workday after adoration, and I truly enjoyed the quiet & peaceful time in adoration.  Then Lent ended and the busyness of life took over, and I forgot about going to adoration until the next Lent in 2012.  I remembered what a nice and peaceful time I had during adoration the prior year. That year, I had the determined determination to stop into the Blessed Sacrament Chapel every day on my way to work. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I realized several months after Lent was over and I was still in the habit of daily prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, that my priorities had shifted dramatically. I had a deep thirst to go deeper in my prayer life and began attending daily Mass and Bible studies. I realized that my focus had shifted, and instead of fitting church, prayer and adoration into my busy life filled with work, family and social obligations, I found myself placing Christ at the center of my life, and all other obligations fell into place around daily Mass & the Sacraments, Eucharistic Adoration & prayer, Bible studies, scripture & spiritual reading. Time spent in Eucharistic Adoration was instrumental in helping me recognize a vocational call to the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order.

I encourage everyone to commit to the commitment to spend precious time in the Real Presence of Christ in Eucharistic Adoration, and to not wait until Lent to do so. Spending time with Jesus may very well change your life for the better, all praise & glory to God!