Friday, December 4, 2009

Come Closer


The door to the hall was opened. As I looked around, I could see that the floors were still damp from being mopped. Somebody had to be close at hand because one of the closet doors was also opened, with a bucket and mop sitting close by.


“Hello”, I called out. “Is anyone in here?” A small gray haired man walked out from behind the closet doors. “Yeah, what do you need?” he asked me. “I read on the Internet that the church here has adoration on First Fridays, is that right?” “Yeah, you enter the church through those doors over there”, he grumbled at me. Then he went back into the closet to attend to whatever he had been doing before I had interrupted him.

As I entered the doors to the church however, I immediately felt a much warmer response, though I was the only person there. It was in the quiet of that moment, that I looked up at the altar and saw the body of my Lord exposed in the monstrance. As I knelt before Him, it was as if I heard Him say to me, “I’ve been waiting for you; come closer.”

I walked up to the front pew, genuflected, then lowered the kneeler to pray and pay Him homage. A simple Advent wreath stood next to the altar. The altar cloth itself , had four small banners hanging down the front of it. One banner read peace, the other love, and the two that followed read hope and joy.

As I prayed I whispered to Him, “I feel your peace and love right now, thank you Lord”.


I said my rosary, then read some pages from a book I have on St. Louis de Montfort’s, True Devotion…., and just relaxed in this much needed time with the Lord.

As I  got up to said goodbye and started to leave, I realized the He had given me a gift. He had given me the gift of hope and joy that I would need to finish this day.


"Thank you",I said.

7 comments:

me said...

It's nearly 5.a.m here,your post was beautiful to find in the cold early hours. Thanks for posting, and all your prayers.

Daily Grace said...

Thank you! God Bless.

Victor S E Moubarak said...

Thanx so much for posting this.

God bless you.

breadgirl said...

Hello Daily Grace
Thanks for a lovely post. In my parish, we are very fortunate to have Exposition every Friday from 7o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock at night. We have a rota to make sure that there is always someone in the church with Our Blessed Lord. My hour every Friday is from 11 o'clock to noon. It is, as you said, a time of peace and such a wondrous gift to us. I think Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament brings great graces on the parish, too. I love my weekly hour before the Blessed Sacrament and I look forward to it. How blessed I am!

Anne said...

This is beautiful! You tell a great story! It's interesting that you found the janitor to be grouchy. If only he could have the gift of a few minutes in adoration, he may have been warmed with the love of Christ enough to respond kindly to questions from guests of the Lord.

Gabriella said...

Hi, It's already just past midnight here in Italy so for me it's already the 8th December and I have started this day by praying for you. I will think of you often today on your consecration day. Our Lady must be so so happy today!

God bless you.

Michael said...

This was a beautiful post. Its so wonderful that you just took some time be alone with God. Good inspiration for me!