Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is when a parish sets aside a little room, or chapel, that is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day with permanent exposition of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The more we limit the hours of Adoration, the more we limit the availability of Christ to His people. The more we expand the hours, the more we extend the opportunity to adorers. When a chapel is open all the time, then everyone in the parish can participate. Through Perpetual Adoration with exposition we proclaim to our parish and community that Jesus is here, truly present among us today. Pope John Paul II said, "Your faith will help you to realize that it is Jesus Himself who is present in the Blessed Sacrament, waiting for you and calling you to spend one special specific hour with Him each week."

The difference between spending time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance, rather than in the tabernacle, is the same as the difference between conversing with a friend face to face instead of having a closed door between you. Most adorers say that seeing Jesus under the appearance of the Sacred Host is much more conducive to intimacy than Him being hidden in a tabernacle. It helps adorers to be faithful to their scheduled hours, because they know that Jesus cannot be left alone in the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance. The scheduled adorers are guardians of the Blessed Sacrament, so their presence is necessary. Yet, the most compelling reason for exposition is because the Holy Spirit asks for it. During his Eucharistic discourse, Jesus made this unmistakably clear:

"Indeed, this is the will of My Heavenly Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. Him I will raise up on the last day." (John 6:40)

Each person that spends time in the presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament grows in holiness. Communally, increased Mass attendance, conversions, the return of the fallen away Catholics and vocations to the priesthood and religious life are among the many fruits of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. Through our Holy Hours of prayer, Our Holy Father declared that we are contributing to "the radical transformation of the world," the "establishing of everlasting peace," and the coming of Christ's Kingdom on earth.

The Holy Eucharist is the mystery of our faith. Jesus said that faith can move mountains. One person coming before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament represents all of humanity.

Every man, woman and child on the face of the earth receives some new, wonderful effect of God's goodness, of God's mercy, of God's grace and of God's love, when they put their faith into action and come to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

When you come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, He appreciates this so deeply that you release the power of His love and graces to all of His children throughout the world.

Vatican II emphasized the importance of lay involvement in the mission of the Church. Perpetual Adoration is coordinated by the laity, in cooperation with the clergy.

Many pastors have witnessed that since Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration has started in their parishes, the crime rate in their community has drastically decreased.

"We had prostitution and drugs being sold right out in front of our church. When we took on Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, this all stopped. When our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar, crime leaves the area. I am convinced of that." (Fr. James Swenson, St. Bridget Catholic Church, Las Vegas, NV)

On December 2, 1981, Pope John Paul II began Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and urged all parishes to do the same.

In his homily at the 45th International Eucharistic Congress in Seville, Spain, in June 1993, the Holy Father said, "I hope that this form of Perpetual Adoration, with permanent exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, will continue into the future. Specifically, I hope that the fruit of this Congress results in the establishment of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in all parishes and Christian communities throughout the world."

"Perpetual Adoration, Eucharistic Adoration offers to our people the opportunity to join those in religious life to pray for the salvation of the world, souls everywhere and peace on earth. We cannot underestimate the power of prayer and the difference it will make in our world." (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

The Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament share the Pope's dream. For many years, they have helped parishes begin and organize Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration worldwide. Perpetual Adoration has begun and is spreading across North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe.

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 17, 2003 (Zenit.org)

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who worked closely with John Paul II in the forthcoming encyclical on the Eucharist, has just published a book on this sacrament.

"In the crisis of faith we are experiencing, the critical issue seems to be increasingly the correct celebration and correct understanding of the Eucharist," the cardinal says in "An Intimate God" ("Il Dio Vicino," St. Paul Editions), which has just gone on sale in Italian.

Vatican sources say the encyclical on the Eucharist will be published in April.

"All of us know the difference between a Church that prays and a Church that has been reduced to a museum," explains Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"Today we run the risk of having our churches turned into museums and ending like museums: If they are not closed, they are pillaged," he says. "They have no life. The measure of the Church's vitality, the measure of its interior openness, will be reflected in the fact that its doors remain open, precisely because it is a church where there is constant prayer.

"The Eucharist, and the community that celebrates it, will be full in the measure in which we prepare ourselves in silent prayer before the presence of the Lord and become persons who want to communicate with truth."

The cardinal leaves room for arguments that are sometimes heard nowadays: "I can also pray in the woods, submerged in nature."

"Of course one can," Cardinal Ratzinger replies. "However, if it was only that way, then the initiative of prayer would remain totally within us: Then God would be a postulate of our thought. That fact that he responds or might want to respond, would remain an open question."

"Eucharist means: God has responded," the cardinal continues. "The Eucharist is God as response, as a presence that responds. Now the initiative of the divine-human relation no longer depends on us, but on him, and so it becomes really serious.

"This is why, in the realm of eucharistic adoration, prayer reaches a totally new level; only now it involves both parties, and only now is it something serious. What is more, not only does it involve the two parties, but only now is it fully universal: When we pray in the presence of the Eucharist, we are never alone. The whole Church that celebrates the Eucharist prays with us."

"In this prayer we are no longer before a God we have thought about, but before a God who has really given himself to us; before a God who has made himself communion for us, who thus liberates us from our limits through communion and leads us to the Resurrection," Cardinal Ratzinger concludes. "This is the prayer we must seek again."