BEGINNING THURSDAY MORNING: Adoration -- Temporary Change of Location

Dear Adorers, thank you for your dedication to Perpetual Adoration of the Lord at St. Monica Church.  As you know, we seek to create and provide an appropriate sacred space in the chapel for encountering the Lord Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament.  If you subscribe to the parish YouTube channel you may have already noted a recent video whereby Fr. Hamilton announces a remodelling project impacting several rooms adjacent to the main church sanctuary.  Remodelling work in the St. Anthony Room and the current lower (chapel) sacristy has begun and that work will get rather loud and noisy, thus negatively impacting the silence and reflective space for adoration in the chapel.

Thus, while no solution will be perfect or completely satisfy us, we will temporarily move the location of where Perpetual Adoration takes place.  It is the hope of Fr. Hamilton and the parish staff that moving adoration further away from the source of the noise will create at least a better space temporarily for prayer.  The solution, for the time being, is that adoration will take place in the narthex on a temporary altar area set up against the window that looks over the baptismal font.  Chairs are set up there in the narthex as well as two kneelers.  The temporary narthex adoration space will provide adequate room to spread out so that no adorer need to be concerned about social distancing in a smaller space.  The narthex will also permit adorers to see better through the glass around the outside doors on the north side, to be aware of who is arriving and entering the building.  Especially during late hours, the narthex use will allow (with some simple training) adorers to choose to lock the outer door and permit the next adorer to enter.  We are trying to provide the best reflective space available as well as affording space for social distancing and security for our valuable adorers.

This temporary adoration space will require some flexibility while the noisiest part of the remodelling takes place.  For example, each day when confessions begin and before each weekend Mass we will want to move adoration out of the narthex and probably onto the main altar in the main sanctuary.  It would be awkward for adorers to attempt to pray while people are arriving into the narthex for confession and daily and weekend Masses.  Again, this is not ideal, but it is probably the best we can do.  We have to accept the less than ideal situation and do our best to be flexible.  In time, we'll be back to normal and we'll have better use of the St. Anthony Room for our parish needs. If you haven't already, please watch Father Hamilton's latest video explaining the new protocols for Adoration. Also please remember to sign in so we can make sure that the Blessed Sacrament is never left alone. If you have any questions or need instruction on how to lock the doors for the overnight hours, please do not hesitate to contact the parish office. 359-2700.