My love for the Eucharist began when my family converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 2007 and started attending a parish in the suburbs of Washington D.C. After Sunday Mass, my parents would let my brothers and me wander around the church and look at the beautiful statues, crucifix, Stations of the Cross, and stained glass windows. It was in that context of examining and praying in the “house” in which Jesus in the tabernacle lived that I began to recognize the beautiful Mystery which I would soon be able to receive at my First Communion. My devotion to the Eucharist ebbed and flowed throughout my grade school years as my family made regular use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and spent lots of time praying, or at least trying to pray–which was often pretty difficult with a family of four young boys–in the church while waiting in line. One Lent in junior high I took a step towards pursuing Jesus in the Eucharist on my own. I asked my parents to drop me off at Ascension a few minutes before school every day so I could pray in the Adoration chapel. They enthusiastically agreed! Those few minutes spent alone with Our Lord every day during that Lent helped me to view any Adoration Chapel as a place of peace and refuge.
Throughout high school at St. James, I made daily Mass a priority with the encouragement of my parents, but didn’t really take much time for private silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, until I did a “lite” version of Exodus 90 with some of my friends the summer before our senior year. One of the obligations of the program is to take at least twenty minutes for silent prayer with Scripture before the Blessed Sacrament every day. Already familiar with the tried-and-true technique of Lectio Divina thanks to my Theology classes at St. James, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to pray with Scripture; I just needed to start doing it more! As I began to discern where God was calling me for college, I listened for answers or suggestions from Him in those times of silent prayer. After finishing Exodus 90, I did my best to continue with my new habit of Lectio Divina before the Blessed Sacrament and received a lot more grace, peace, and joy than I ever could have imagined, both in my discernment of my Vocation and in my regular day-to-day living. I ended up discerning into seminary at the end of my senior year and have been a seminarian ever since. Now Jesus has become my most intimate Friend, and chapels and churches which house Him in the Blessed Sacrament have become my deepest places of refuge. Regardless of what Vocation I choose, I know that my new habit of beginning every day with a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, armed with Sacred Scripture, will be one of infinite importance and lifelong practice.