Father John A. Hardon, S.J. is considered one of the most prominent Roman Catholic theologians of our century. As an author, speaker, retreat master, and consultor for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, his name is well known. He, as does Pope John Paul II, advocated the laudable practice of Eucharistic Adoration.

"One practice of Catholic Piety that represents a real development of doctrine in the history of the Church is the practice of praying before The Blessed Sacrament, either exposed on the altar or reserved in the tabernacle. Jesus Christ is really, truly and substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament not only during the Mass or at Communion time but all the time, as long as the sacred elements remain.

The most fundamental reason why prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is so meritorious is because it is prayer arising from faith in the cardinal mystery of Christianity which is faith in the Incarnation...

So the first reason why prayer before The Blessed Sacrament is so important is because it is an expression of faith in the divinity of Christ, that is, in the Son of Mary who is the Son of God, who is here, right here and now before me, as close and perhaps closer than were the people on the hillside near the Sea of Galilee when Jesus first predicted the Holy Eucharist.

Another reason why prayer before The Blessed Sacrament is so praiseworthy is because it is a profession of faith in the real bodily presence of Jesus under the sacramental veils...

A third reason why prayer before The Blessed Sacrament is so efficacious is because, all through the Gospels during His public life, the humanity of Christ was the instrument of great power that went out from Him to work signs and wonders such as the world had never seen... This humanity operates in many ways but it acts nowhere more effectively (and I wish to add, miraculously) than through the human nature that is substantially united to the divinity in The Blessed Sacrament."

(With permission from an article titled, "Prayer Before the Blessed Sacrament", by Father John A. Hardon, S.J.)