24 Hours for the Lord

Hello. This is Father Scott Uvard, and I'm the pastor of 2 parishes on the south shore of Boston, St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Cohasset and St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hull. And together these two parishes form the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative, and this is the 7th episode of our podcast.

Today, we're going to be talking with you about an initiative we have coming up on March 8th 9th called 24 hours for the Lord. It's not uniquely ours for this is something that Pope Francis started some 11 years ago, and I'll say more about that in a little bit. But today on the podcast, I'm joined by Jim Flanagan and Adrian McCarthy. Like to invite Jim to introduce himself and tell us about his work here in our parishes. Again, my name is Jim Flanagan. I am the coordinator of youth ministry for the collaborative. Under my umbrella is middle school faith formation and the confirmation preparation program and also for youth ministry that we have just started. And we have one program for middle school kids and one program for high school young people. I'm glad to be here.

Thank you so much, Jim. As I mentioned, we're also joined by Adrienne McCarthy. Adrienne, would you introduce yourself to our listeners and tell them about your work in our parishes? Sure. I'm Adrienne McCarthy, and I coordinate our grades 1 through 5 programs, which includes our new, family faith, grade 1 families, and that's a new program that started this year's off to a smashing start. So we are enjoying that. And then we have traditional, classes, which are grades 2 to 5 and in both of our parishes. And those are off to a well, they're doing really well as well. So we're at capacity in some cases and enjoying every minute of that. And she does a lot more than just faith formation. Now we'll see. That's it. Jack of all trades.

Well, thank you, Jim and Adrianne. I'm so glad that you could join us on this 7th episode of our podcast. Today, we're talking about, 24 hours for the Lord, which will take place in our parishes on March 8th 9th. Even though this is of particular interest to our parishioners and to the greater Catholic community here on the South Shore of Boston, It'd also be of interest to you and your parish, and I'll talk about ways that that might be as we proceed through this podcast.

As I mentioned, this is not our creation, this 24 hours for the Lord. We can thank Pope Francis for the gift of 24 hours for the Lord. For it was back in 2014 when he declared a holy year, a year of mercy, and in that year he held the first 24 hours for the Lord. 24 hours of Eucharistic adoration with the opportunities for confession, a chance to focus on the Lord's Eucharistic presence and the Lord's gift of mercy, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. And so he had the first 24 hours of the Lord for the Lord that year. And so that makes this year, 2024, our 11th, 24 hours for the Lord. And as he has done in previous years, Pope Francis has selected a theme for this year. And the theme for 2024 is walk in a new life. This comes from Paul's letter to the Romans 6th chapter 4th verse, walk in a new life. When we encounter the Lord's presence in the Eucharist, and when we encounter his mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation, we leave from those encounters able to walk in a new life.

And so the centerpiece of our upcoming celebration of this year's 24 hours for the Lord is of course Eucharistic exposition, adoration, and Benediction with, Mass to follow. I'd like to invite, Jim Flanagan to tell us a little bit more about the church part of our 24 hours for the Lord. For as you'll hear in a little bit, there is another part, but let's focus first on the church part. Jim, would you tell us more about our plans for 24 hours for the Lord? Sure. This is an exciting time for us as a collaborative. This is our 2nd time doing it. I also, in a former parish, the very first year that pope Francis offered this was part of it, and was in love with it then and just excited to be part of it again this year. We will start at 5 o'clock on Friday, March 8th, with the solemn exposition of the blessed sacrament. And for the next 4 hours, the sacrament of reconciliation will be offered. As Father Scott said, the, Eucharistic adoration will be for the entire time. But during the course of, the 24 hours, there'll be different forms of prayer to accompany that. It could be, the rosary. It could be the stations of the cross. At 10 o'clock on Saturday, there'll be a group that's going to do praying with the trinity, a group that's gonna do divine mercy chaplet at 3 o'clock on Saturday. For me, one of the highlights or one of the two highlights is the Eucharistic rally. That's from 7 to 9, and that's an opportunity to come together in a beautiful, special, powerful way. The, life team smash band from Hanover is going to lead the, the praise and worship piece, and they are wonderful. They do this all the time and really understand the importance of how praise and worship goes along with Eucharistic adoration. And then we get our pastor to be able to share with us some reflections, different prayers after hearing a song or giving us a question to to pray with. And so that will be exciting that he will be offering that. The other is, on Saturday morning at 9 o'clock, there'll be a holy half hour for families that goes with the breakfast. And, Adrian's gonna share with you a little bit more about that.

Thank you so much, Jim. Adrianne, would you tell us a little bit more about that Saturday morning, gathering, our holy half hour? Sure. Last year was our first attempt at doing a holy half hour with our youngest members and primarily grades 1 to 5. They, sign up and come to or they don't even have to sign up. They come with their parents or grandparent and join us for a half hour in the church in front of the blessed sacrament. Last year, it was quite a treat to watch these little ones really try to focus on the Eucharist as they will walk through with different prayers appropriate for their age. So they had some opportunity to reflect and think about Jesus' presence with us. And then after that, we treat them to doughnuts. Last year, we had so many attend with us that we ran out of donuts. So our promise this year is that we will not run out of doughnuts. We'll have lots of little treats for our little ones and to thank them for joining us and praying with us and coffee and juice as well for our adults and other members. But it is really a treat to watch the little ones really try to focus and be with Jesus.

Thank you so much, Adrianne. I look forward to that holy half hour on Saturday morning, March 9th. To say a brief word about Eucharistic adoration because this may not be familiar to everyone, and it wasn't familiar to me certainly as a child. I was born in 1962 and raised in the years following that in the Catholic Church and was not exposed to Eucharistic Adoration. And, in fact, the first time that I experienced Eucharist adoration was when I entered the seminary, Saint John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. And many people might be confused about, Eucharistic adoration or just not sure what it is. I'd like to refer to it, as a time out for adults or anybody really. Adrianne was just speaking about, the children, our families with elementary school aged children, and certainly one common disciplinary technique with children today is a time out. Now in my elementary school days, I don't remember time outs being a thing, but today they are a thing. And what is a time out when we use that technique with children? It really is to take away what distracts them, what disrupts them, to allow them to refocus themselves, to recenter themselves a time apart. And in many ways, Eucharistic adoration can be compared to this. In the end, all analogies fail, but I think this one works pretty well where we see our time with the Lord in Eucharistic adoration not as a disciplinary technique for ourselves, but rather a gift. It's a gift for us to be able to do the same as adults, to be able to strip away all that distracts us, all that disorients us, all that disrupts us, and to spend time in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord, it allows us to refocus ourselves, recenter our lives on him to remember what is truly important in our lives. And so this is an important thing and that's why I think whether you're a listener from our parishes, a listener from the general South Shore area of Boston, or a listener from someplace else, these opportunities will be available in your local Catholic church, opportunities for Eucharistic adoration, opportunities to experience the Lord's mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation.

Well, I mentioned before that there are really kind of 2 parts. There's a church part, which is very important, the time in the church with Eucharistic exposition, adoration, and benediction, and mass with all that we have planned for those 24 hours. But there is another part to our upcoming celebration of 24 hours for the Lord, and that is right next door in the hall, there will be the international exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles based on the work of blessed Carlo Acutis. And I'd like to invite, Adrianne to talk with us more about, this exhibit because she has become our local expert on how to put up and how to manage this rather impressive, large, and wide spanning exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles. Adrienne, would you tell us more about the exhibit?

Sure, Father. Well, we're fortunate enough that actually Father Scott, we as a parish, we own the exhibits. So I've that's how I've become an expert because I've put it up and down so many times. But it is a massive exhibit which will take place in our hall, with just rows of about a 136, Eucharistic miracles. Now this display comes from a passion of this young man, blessed Carlos. What's really interesting to me and to others is that this young man, when he was a child at the young age of 6, he actually dragged his mom to and begged her to take him to church. And so you know that he was called. You know that he the Lord was telling him, this is this is, very important, and this is what you are going to do with your life. So through his through his time, he felt that he learned about these Eucharistic miracles and felt that we should all, get to know them. And with the Internet, since he he is a 21st century or will be a 21st century saint. And so he actually, what was amazing is he only lived on our earth with us till he the age of 16, and he was able to, collect and pictures and all the information about this 136 miracles that varied from across, the world and across the centuries. I'm sure there's many more miracles, but these are the ones that he had focused on. And if you come to this exhibit, there is bound to be a miracle either in from your country of origin or just that you've heard about but never really got to dig into. You'll be able to see pictures that will inspire you to learn more. And blessed Carlos is going to be the patron saint of the internet and social media so that, we have now someone young, a 21st century saint, that even, our younger students and families can be amazed by his works all before the age of 16, which is amazing unto itself. So hopefully, you'll be able to, go to Eucharistic adoration and either before or after or both come into the hall, meander. There's no or both come into the hall, meander. There's no time limit. You can come back the next day. We are gonna have this available from Friday at 5 pm, and, it will go all the way through the Saturday, 24 hours for the lord, but we are gonna also keep it up on Sunday knowing that some people will wanna come back or some people if they're they can't make it to the, adoration event, they'll be able to come in on Sunday and see this, amazing display.

Thank you so much, Adrianne. I think between these two parts of our 24 hours for the Lord, of course, in the church, the Eucharistic exposition, adoration, benediction, and all that we have planned for those 24 hours along with the international exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles in the hall, will make for a wonderful 11th, 24 hours for the Lord. Again, if you're a listener from outside of our area, seek out your local Catholic church for opportunities for adoration, the sacrament of reconciliation, look up on the Internet, the international exhibit, of Eucharistic miracles. In fact, in the notes for this podcast down below, we're going to leave a registration link for our 24 hours for the Lord. We request, but don't require registration. We request it only in the sense that we want to make sure that we have people in the church, praying before the Eucharistic presence of the Lord during the whole 24 hours, and registration will help us to ensure that. Also in the notes for this podcast, we'll leave some information on the Vatican's 24 hours for the Lord as well as the international exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles. We hope that you'd be able to join us. We want to thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast. We thank Jim and Adrian for joining us today. And until our 8th episode, you stay well and may God bless you and those who are dear to you.