During the last year I have had wonderful opportunities to delve into the treasures of the Catholic Church, to rediscover the ‘genius’ of Catholicism, and grow in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  As Catholic Christians we are greatly blessed to have the traditions, beauty, wisdom and communion of a 2,000 year old church, which offers “the source & summit” of Christian life (the Eucharist) to us on a daily basis.

One of the treasures that I have ‘rediscovered’ this year is Eucharistic Adoration.  For most of my Catholic life – which began at infant baptism, I had not experienced ‘adoration’.  I remember twelve years ago visiting the Community of the Beatitudes in Leithfield, as part of the preparation for attending World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.  We were ‘plunged’ into a time of Eucharistic Adoration (a time of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament – Jesus, exposed on the altar) in their chapel.  I didn’t know what was happening, or what to do.  Was this really my first experience of this, at the age of 28?  Why had I not been exposed to this treasure before?

I think this was the time I really started to understand that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.  It is Him we receive at communion, not bread and wine.  I understand now that we all need to have that moment.  Imagine if all Catholics truly believed and understood this ‘truth’ of the Church; Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

Recently I signed up again to the roster for the Perpetual Adoration Chapel at St Gregory’s in Bishopdale.  I had given an hour of my week for a time when the chapel first started, but life took over when our family unit began to expand.  Presently I go every Sunday morning from 5am-6am, and one thing that has surprised me is how not hard it is, and how quickly the hour goes. 

I spend an hour alone with Jesus.  I read a little.  I pray a little. I kneel, I sit, I walk around.  Sometimes I close my eyes and nod off.  I ask Jesus to help me understand what God’s plan is for my life.  I tell him I am sorry for my sins and ask for his help to not sin again. I talk to him, sometimes aloud, sometimes in my head.  I ask for his blessings on my wife and children.  Sometimes I ask, ‘are You really there?’, and wait for a beaded and scarred man in a robe with a halo to appear beside me. 

I know, that even though I am alone in that chapel, I never feel alone.  I feel no anxiety, I feel peace and I feel loved.  My wife tells me that I am somehow different; my faith, Jesus, Catholicism, is leading my life more visibly.  Even though I sometimes still ask ‘are you there?’, I can see that He must be there, looking back at me and loving me.   

Phillip Bell