A Beautiful Interruption

August 30th 2010
Monday

As campus minister, I have to help set up an adoration schedule in order for students to have time to pray during the school day in the chapel here. It is a pretty amazing concept. I have never heard of a high school that does this! Harry, who is a young candidate to the SOLT order, is in charge of adoration here. He has been a huge help for me as I am adjusting to work as a campus minister. Today was the first day of adoration and we remind the teachers of the classes scheduled to come and they bring their room full of students to adoration for 25 minutes out of their class time. This may seem like a nuisance at first because it interrupts the flow of a lesson, but in reality, it is a beautiful interruption because it helps us (staff and students) remember Who is the center of our lives! Christ is number one even over our work and school. This is definitely a tough concept because I think we are all so used to defining ourselves by our work and education and we put it in a very high place in our lives (which is a good thing). However, many of us (like myself at times) get carried away and kind of slide Jesus over to put "Career" or "Education" or whatever else it is in the center. Adoration in the middle of class is a very obvious placement: it is not squeezed in somewhere, it is smack dab at the beginning/middle/end of a class. This may make you wince at first, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Christ is more important than the Biology lesson we prepared or the poem we were going over, He is more important than our control and plan of the situation/class. (Mind you, we do have a schedule and tell the teacher ahead of time that they will have adoration).

Of course some of the students are still learning about the exposition of the Eucharist (when Jesus is in the monstrance) and may not “get it", but even if they don’t “get it” it is such an exquisite opportunity for them to sit and pray and for Harry to lead them in meditation and song. I was able to sit/kneel in the back and just pray for these young me/women the whole time. I know it is simple, but just being able to intercede for them was very moving. I have been praying for them all summer and part of the year so to be able to be there in the chapel with them was something else. Please keep all of these classes and their teachers in your prayers as we continue to bring them in for adoration Monday through Thursday every week!