(LifeSiteNews) — With all the things going on in the Church and in the world, Jesus wants to revive and heal us through His Real Presence in Eucharistic adoration.
Having pursued an apostolate promoting Eucharistic and perpetual adoration for many years, we of the Eucharistic Adoration apostolate are delighted that a diocese has attained perpetual adoration in every parish and school. Sandy Rongish, a co-founder and international coordinator of “Children of Hope” promoting adoration for children and families, informed us that almost every parish of the diocese of Wichita, Kansas, reached round the clock adoration. (A few offered partial perpetual hours. Since COVID, some parishes have reduced their hours, but every school still has adoration.)
Wichita is a city of modest size (with a reported population of under 400,000 in 2020), where Catholics form a minority (under 100,000), with ninety parishes and thirty-four Catholic elementary schools. The local diocese has only one bishop with no auxiliaries.
Another long-time adorer from Wichita diocese, Ronnie Gittrich, started perpetual adoration almost forty years ago at St. Francis of Assisi parish. A coordinator from another parish helped her to get it going in 1986.
“It’s like being in heaven for an hour, soaking Him in,” Ronnie said at an adoration renewal weekend at her parish.
“If people would forget about all the reasons they can’t go and just try it! Once you try it, you want it. The Holy Spirit puts that seed into your heart. It’s a commitment… and people have responded to it. My hour is at midnight on Fridays. The couple [who adore] after my hour have had the same hour since 1986! With adoration, the parish got better and kept growing.”
“Many of our parishioners have been adoring for an hour a week for almost forty years,” she continued. “Your hour is not just benefitting yourself but helps towards the salvation of souls throughout the whole world.”
Bishop asked for adoration as part of parish stewardship
How was this enormous success achieved? In a short YouTube video the late Bishop Eugene Gerber of Wichita diocese speaks on “The History and Importance of Eucharistic Adoration in the Diocese of Wichita.” He explains that there is no better connection we can make with Christ than in the Eucharist and Eucharistic adoration. Bishop Gerber promoted the devotion by asking people to come and invest in spending time in with Our Lord as a part of “stewardship,” and perpetual adoration spread as part of a natural progression.
Sandy had originally thought that in the 1980s Bishop Gerber had told every pastor that he was mandating perpetual or Eucharistic adoration in every parish. Indeed, according to canon law, bishops can mandate adoration. Canon 387 states that the bishop is to give an example of holiness and is the principal dispenser of the mysteries of God. He is to seek in every way to promote the holiness of Christ’s faithful
“The bishops need to require adoration in every parish!” Sandy said.
Another adoration coordinator who helped parishes in the diocese to start adoration confirmed that it wasn’t mandatory. Other bishops were impressed, and asked Bishop Gerber how he got perpetual adoration in so many parishes. Originally a visiting missionary priest had helped with adoration sign-up weekends, but he became so busy that he was unable to return. He gave a blessing to laypeople to open more chapels on their own. They asked people to join them in praying and fasting or doing some type of mortification and visited parishes that wanted adoration sign-up weekends.
Bishop Gerber invited a few laypeople into his office to explain how they were managing to open so many chapels. He requested photos of every adoration chapel started. A photo album with three hundred photos was prepared, and Bishop Nauman spoke about it on EWTN.
Ronnie links the success of getting adoration in all parishes also to their “stewardship” way of life. Parishioners are asked to donate their time, talents, and treasure, and this includes helping with Eucharistic adoration. Her parish had double the number of people needed for 24-hour adoration at their sign-up weekend. When the COVID lockdowns were over, they had even more adorers. Ronnie first heard about perpetual adoration in the diocesan newspaper when it featured a front-page article promoting the first parish in the diocese that started it. She and her husband became inspired and convicted that they needed to start perpetual adoration at their own parish.
Growth in number of priestly ordinations
This small diocese had ten ordinations each year for two years in a row, 2016 and 2017.
“Everyone attributes this to the fact that we have perpetual adoration in every parish,” Sandy said. “I truly believe it is the adoration, it is time spent before Jesus that nourishes [boys’] souls.”
Ronnie agrees and adds that before perpetual adoration began in the 1980s, the number of ordinations was low, only around two or three a year.
READ: Nearly 1,000 Catholics join Traditional Eucharistic Revival with Latin Mass, procession
Parish stewardship instead of government funded schools
Before adoration began, the diocese started their parish “stewardship,” so that the diocese has full control over Catholic education. Without any government funding, the diocese has thirty-three Catholic schools offering free Catholic education. How can they afford that? Parishioners are asked to dig deep and tithe eight percent of their income to the church if possible, and this stewardship pays for the Catholic education. A pastor in the diocese said he would give every penny back if they could not afford it. Parish stewardship and Eucharistic adoration are thriving. People are asked to give of their time, talents, and treasures. The result is that every parish has adoration, and donations from parishioners of all parishes provides free Catholic education.
Adoration for children in every school
St. Padre Pio said the prayers of children would save the world. We need adoration for children. Once perpetual adoration began in every parish, Sandy found parents were rarely taking children along. She felt “called to take the children to adoration.” When they first started children’s adoration, it was on the weekends, and few came. Then they got adoration started in the schools on weekdays. Since 2014, children’s adoration has taken place at least once a month in every school.
In 2000, Sandy started working with Father Antoine Thomas, a member of the Community of St. John. She helped him to promote adoration for children on EWTN’s Mother Angelica Live show and created a website in 2002.
Around 2003, Sandy’s group donated materials in English and French to each of the active Canadian bishops. She sent a DVD to every bishop in the USA. Her group travelled to many other states. She promoted the devotion at a Eucharistic Congress in Rome during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the 50th Eucharistic Adoration Congress in Ireland, in France and in Belgium at the Venite Adoremus Belgique Eucharistic Crusade for sixteen days one year where thousands of kids came to adoration. In 2024, as regional chair for National Catholic Committee for Scouting, Sandy also promotes holy hours and adoration for Catholic Scouts. A different group, “Children of the Eucharist,” hosts an annual World Day of Prayer for children which promotes the message of Fatima and praying the Rosary with children during adoration.
READ: Bishop Strickland: Pause and listen for the beating of Our Lord’s Sacred Heart
The Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration apostolate
Our apostolate is approved by United States Catholic Conference of Bishop’s national Eucharistic revival. We would like to see adoration in every parish and every Catholic school worldwide and to help expand, maintain, and revive Eucharistic or perpetual adoration in Canada, the United States, and beyond. We also promote the Eucharist, Eucharistic miracles, and daily Mass. Parishes are welcome to contact us for help organizing an adoration sign-up weekend. We assist remotely, with comprehensive Do It Yourself resources, and in some locations we can provide or facilitate an in-person missionary visit if desired. On the weekend, clergy preach a “sign-up sermon” (we provide samples), or laity deliver instructions after Holy Communion. During each Mass, invitations (sign-up forms) to commit to a weekly holy hour are handed out to the faithful, completed, and collected. We provide the organizational documents in a digital format and an adorer scheduling database. A coordinating team of two or more people from within each parish is recruited. We lead or provide instructions for an organizational training meeting by phone, email, or video conference.
People are amazed to see 25-60% of adult parishioners sign-up for a weekly holy hour. Hours around daily Mass are popular. The response from the sign-up and the parish priest’s decision, determine the number of days and hours that exposition will take place, either partial hours or round-the-clock adoration.
We can be reached through our website, www.perpetualeucharisticadoration.com, or at 1-800-784-9550.
This article was written by staff of