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Is it more effective to pray in front of the Consecrated Host?
How do you do that?
I'm thinking about leaving my Baptist Church and becoming Catholic (or Orthodox).
Someone told me, as I'm pondering this, I needed to pray in front of the Consecrated Host. It was in a comment section and I haven't gotten a response for more information.
Are your prayers more effective (that might not be the right word) in front of the Body of Christ?
How do I find a Consecrated Host to pray in front of?
Is there a specific prayer or do I just pray from my heart?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you and God bless.
Deacon Dan
{
Are prayers more effective in front of the Consecrated Host and, if so, where do I go to pray? }
Eric replied:
Dear Deacon Dan,
Look for a Catholic Church that has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or just Adoration as it is often called (even better is Perpetual Adoration which happens 24 x 7, though there may be some access restrictions).
In this rite, you will see what we call a monstrance containing a consecrated Host. The monstrance is a display portraying gold rays of holiness and glory emanating from the Host in the center. (You can see one in the pictures below.) People do pray in front of this Host in the monstrance and yes, it is considered a particularly effective form of prayer, because Jesus is present in a very special way in the (Consecrated) Host — His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity are there under the form of bread. It is a physical presence rather than merely a spiritual one. Because we believe It to be the Body and Blood of Christ in a real sense, we call it the Real Presence.
We believe that we can worship the Host. This might take a bit getting used to, but if Jesus were physically present, you would worship Him in His Body, and so we believe that the Bread of the Host is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass, and so we worship It just as we worship Christ in other ways. This is the same Host that we receive in Communion, and we believe that we receive tremendous grace and life by consuming Jesus Himself.
He becomes a very part of our body!
We receive him not only into our hearts, but into our whole bodies!
When you find an adoration service, and pray, you can do whatever you feel comfortable with, but most people at some point look at the Host as they would look at Jesus, as if He were there, because He is! You are seeing Him face to Face so talk to the Host like you would talk to Jesus as a friend.
If you cannot find such a service, you can just go into any open Catholic Church, and find what we call a tabernacle, which is usually a gold box or cylinder that contains consecrated hosts. You can't see them, but if there is a red candle lit next to it, it contains hosts. (As shown to the right.)
You can pray before the tabernacle as well.
There is also online Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament . . .
although personally I am not convinced it is as efficacious as much as going in person to a chapel or church. The jury is still out in my mind :-) but at least, watching the video, you can get a feel for what it's like and what it looks like.
I hope that you can find Adoration locally or at least an open church to pray before the tabernacle.
