Mags GarganMags Gargan speaks to the Cloyne diocesan director of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
For over 25 years, people in parishes across the Diocese of Cloyne have shown dedicated commitment to Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.
Fr Patrick Winkle, the diocesan director of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration for 12 years, says it all began as a diocesan initiative in December 1988. “While many parishes had holy hours and periods of prolonged adoration, this apostolate was something new in that it was adoration of the Lord 24 hours a day, seven days a week by lay people,” he says.
In the first year, nine parishes, and in the following year one more, began this apostolate by setting aside a special chapel or room for Eucharistic adoration. These then became Eucharistic centres throughout the diocese and people from many parishes supported them and availed of this opportunity to adore the Lord night and day.
Each centre has a co-ordinator who maintains the schedule for adoration, and each year they meet Fr Winkle on a diocesan level. There is also an annual day of prayer and reflection for all the parish adorers.
Since last December, the Diocese of Cloyne has been holding celebrations in each Eucharistic centre on the anniversary of their foundation. Bishop William Crean has celebrated the anniversary Mass and this is followed by a parish celebration to recognise the importance of the work of the apostolate in the parish and the diocese, and to thank them for their dedication.
Apostolate
Today, Eucharistic adoration takes place in most parishes for a prolonged period, either every week or month, and Fr Winkle says the apostolate “fills the diocese with prayer and joy.
“Through the celebration of the Eucharist, we enter into the joy of the Lord and we are touched and nourished in the Eucharist by Jesus. In spending time with the Lord in the Eucharist we encounter Jesus who loves us, loving us with the same love that the Father loves him.
“This love, this encounter, fills us with joy. Receiving the Eucharist is to receive the joy of the Lord, to be in the presence of the Lord is to be in the rays of joy.”
Throughout this year of celebration, Fr Winkle says one of the things he has been reflecting on is the “Eucharist as the sign and source of Christian joy. In spending time with the Lord in the Eucharist, we can be filled with his joy, and we are trying to make that connection this year that to be joyful people is to be Eucharistic people,” he says.
“Pope Francis speaks about the joy of the Gospel and the importance of intercession and I think that is the role of the adorers today; to be intercessors for the Church and the world today.”
He says that parishes see the apostolate as an important part of their prayer life – to have time in Eucharistic adoration. “It is a question of giving something to the Lord and a lot of people are not doing it for themselves but for their family, friends or parish. They are contributing to the Church in a prayerful way, and working for the Church not for themselves,” he says.
Peace
However, Fr Winkle says that in Eucharistic adoration, people find peace. It is an opportunity to have a personal encounter with Jesus and to have a conversation with him. “We can converse with him and pour out our hearts, troubles, worries, concerns, fears, hopes and joys: there we can bring before the Lord all those who asked us for prayer and those we wish to pray for.”
The apostolate of Eucharistic adoration is a silent work going on in many parishes around, not only the Diocese of Cloyne, but in dioceses around the island of Ireland, perhaps unknown to many people.
“There are many wonderful people in the diocese who, over the years, have spent an hour a week in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament; they have inspired many through their prayer and commitment,” Fr Winkle says.
“I thank them for their work of prayer and thank God for all those who are adoring the Lord in the Eucharist today. I thank the coordinators who work tirelessly to ensure that every hour of adoration has someone present for the hour; these coordinators do so much behind the scenes to keep the Eucharistic adoration chapels open and fitting places for worship; without them this apostolate wouldn’t work so wonderfully.
“I also thank the bishops and priests for their encouragement and support of the apostolate over these years,” he says.
Looking to the future, Fr Winkle says that the diocese is indebted to all those who have been giving an hour of prayer to the Church each week, but it is “now time for a new generation to continue this great work of the apostolate.
“Many of those who started with us 25 years ago are now getting older and it is time for a new generation to take up this apostolate of prayer,” he says.
To find out more about starting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish or to volunteer to be involved, contact Fr Patrick Winkle on 024 92270.