We have commenced in our parish church the “Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament” for 48 hours each week, beginning at 7:30am every Friday and ending at 7:30am the following Sunday. According to normal practice, parishioners who are interested in participating are invited to sign up beforehand. The following is a young parishioner’s response to my invitation to sign up for the adoration. It appears that young people nowadays seem to be even more mature than their adult counterparts.

“Fr. Leung,

Yesterday before Mass, you asked me to sign up for the adoration of the Eucharist, and I explained to you that there was no reason for me to do so. I doubted if you really understood what I meant then. Now I would like to take this opportunity to explain to you in detail so that you may have a better understanding of my position.

Honestly, I really don’t want to “sign up for the adoration of the Eucharist”. You are aware that I stay at the church for most of the time every Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, I would be in early in the morning, preparing for the Sunday school class that would take place in the afternoon. It has been my habit that I would first “discuss” with Jesus about what I would like to teach in the afternoon in the chapel, telling and sharing with Him my ideas. I would then read the relevant pieces from the Bible and seek God’s guidance in the course of reading and prayer. Such is what I do in preparing for the afternoon class, and all ideas of mine actually come from God. Prayer is indeed part and parcel of my preparation. I pray in the course of preparation and Jesus teaches me, enabling me to learn more and more. There is no time limit on such preparation work: Sometimes it is one hour and sometimes it is the whole morning. Therefore, there is no need at all for me to “sign up” and, in fact, I would not know how many hours I should commit to.

After I wrap up the Sunday class, I would tell Jesus about what happened in the class, and I would pray for my students and tell Jesus about how I am doing. This also does not have a time limit either.

I would make my own arrangement on when to pray, taking into consideration various circumstances. I would choose to pray when I feel no pressure because only then can I give my whole self to Christ. If, after the Sunday class, when parents come to me to enquire about how their kids are doing, could I then answer them that “Sorry, I need to pray at 4 p.m.” ? Or, if someone needs my assistance in other parish business, could I reply, “Oh sorry, I am not available because I am due to do the prayer from 11 o’clock to 12”? These are not desirable and, as such, I would not like to designate any particular time to pray. But I am extremely happy to communicate with Jesus at any time.

You may have in mind the question “If you have a high regard for Christ, should you not make sacrifice by spending one hour of your time staying with Christ?” I believe that Christ would rather be with me when I am free of worries and sorrow, than when with me when I am constantly checking my watch and worrying about something else. Also, I am of the view that Christ is not a petty person. For Him, time has no meaning and He would not count hours with me when and how long I pray.

I treat Christ as a friend and I see praying as enjoyment. It should be full of peace and comfort. I don’t see Jesus as a “responsibility”. You may perhaps consider signing up for the adoration as a responsible behaviour. But for me, if I am seeing a friend, I would not tell others when I would be meeting the friend. We would set up a time to meet but we would not determine a time when we should part beforehand. I like to make the atmosphere a relaxing one so we can enjoy the time together in a free and comfortable way.

It may be your opinion that one must be “duty-conscious” and willing to take the “burden” when following Jesus. However, I remember that Jesus’ burden is sweet. There would only be pressure for me if I were to “sign up for the adoration of the Eucharist” as I would be inevitably reminding myself over and over again of the time when I should be at the adoration of the Eucharist in order not to be late. It would be hard for me to taste any sweetness.

I believe that Christ would not like to put pressure on anyone, in particular for the exercise of prayer. If I should feel pressure in praying, how could I be persuaded that people could seek peace in God?

I understand very well that for the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, continuous and unbroken attendance of the faithful before the Eucharist is required. The faithful are also required to attend the Eucharist by rotation in an orderly manner. But I find myself not a suitable person for that. This is like the fact that different people have different ways of living their spiritual lives and interacting with God.

I appreciate that you are concerned about my prayer life. But you can be rest assured that, because I have been on very friendly term with Jesus and my early experience has taught me that Jesus is my most trusted friend, I always chrish our friendship and will never desert Him.

XXX”

Let us be the most trusted friends of Jesus.