A holy hour is a continuous hour spent in adoration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity under the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist. During holy hours at Saint Paul and Holy Family, we expose the sacred Host in a monstrance, which is a disc shaped vessel that allows the one adoring to focus on Jesus' personal presence in the Blessed Sacrament. You will typically find the times for holy hours printed in each week's bulletin. The hours for this week are listed below. These are also the usual hours, but check the bulletin each week for any updates.
Sunday: 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm at St. Paul
Monday: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm at St. Paul
Tuesday: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm at St. Paul
Wednesday: 7:30 am - 8:30 am at St. Paul
Thursday: (Holy Family) 8:30 am - 9:30 am at Holy Family
Friday: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm at St. Paul
Saturday: 10:00 am - 11:00 am at St. Paul
What does one do during a holy hour? One may pray the rosary quietly, read Sacred Scripture, or simply place oneself in the presence of God and open one's heart to Him.
Why should we make a holy hour? For priests and seminarians, a daily holy hour is a way of growing in special friendship with Jesus, our great high priest. It is also a way of drawing near to Jesus in the agonies that He experiences in the life of His Body, the Church, today. Finally, by his daily holy hour, the priest grows in fraternal charity for his brother priests throughout the world, especially those who are suffering from discouragement and temptation.
On the evening in which Our Blessed Lord instituted both the Christian priesthood and the Sacrament of the Altar, He went into the Garden of Gethsemani and asked His three closest apostles, Peter, James, and John, to pray with Him during His agony. The three apostles quickly began to sleep while Jesus begged His Father to let the cup of suffering pass from which He was about to drink. When Jesus saw them sleeping, He said "Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:37b-38).
The lay faithful who make a holy hour do so for similar reasons that the priest or seminarian does, even if they do so once a week rather than every day. Holy hours help one to grow in friendship with Jesus Christ and to draw close to Him as He suffers in the Church today. Another important reason that the laity should make a weekly holy hour is to pray with and for their priest. In an analogous way to Jesus' Agony in the Garden, the pastor of souls in a parish likewise comes before the Father not just with his own trials, but also with the trials of all of those in parishes closest to his own heart and begs the Father, if it be possible, please let this cup of suffering pass.
Thank you to all of those who already join me once a week for a holy hour. It does more than you can know to console my heart.