Let the Little Children Come to Me: On the Importance of Eucharistic Adoration for Families

— St. Peter of Alcantara
 

Meet the Jaskos:

Elissa and Nick Jasko have had a devotion to regular time spent in adoration since they were dating, even before Elissa converted to the Catholic faith. Now married 12.5 years with six children ages 8 months — 11 years old, their adoration practices may look a little different, but they are no less important.

Their weekly adoration practice fell off as they started a family and moved. But after reading the book “A Mother’s Rule of Life” and discerning what their family priorities were, they decided to add adoration back into their routines.

“We first started doing family adoration when our kids were 5, 4, 2 and then shortly after had a newborn,” recalls Elissa. “We started with a goal of just five minutes and would use what we called ‘virtue rewards’ so if they practiced self-control for five minutes in the adoration chapel we would do something special like plan a treasure hunt or a treat of some kind. Eventually we worked up to 15-20 minutes as a family.”

According to the Jaskos, attending as a family is also a way of putting into action their family values; it shows their children that true belief guides actions, that the True Presence is real and is important and should change our actions.

Just because it’s a good and holy thing to do doesn’t mean it is easy.

“It’s such a sacrifice of time — it can end up being an entire evening every week — might even end up only being 7-10 minutes of interrupted prayer time — but deciding as a couple that this is a priority it helps us feel we’re in this together, it’s our goal and it’s important to us,” says Elissa.

“I can remember being afraid of what other people might say about our kids just being kids— they’re not misbehaving, they’re just being kids — you know, talking, dropping the books, banging a kneeler — but we’ve gone to adoration in several other places and we’ve always been greeted with smiles and people so glad to see young kids in adoration.”


Meet the Kohlers:

Tina and Adam Kohler have been active in the organization of the adoration chapel at St. Joseph Parish in St. Joseph since it started in 2007.

“I was raised Baptist but I remember going to a Catholic church with a friend when I was 12 or 13, not really knowing what a Catholic church was,” Tina recalls. “I remember being really struck by how ornate it was and the motions of the kneeling and everything. It all felt distinctly beautiful in a way I hadn’t felt before. Then years later, I attended Catholic Mass with Adam for the first time and as soon as we walked into the church I had a kind of flashback to that deep, intense feeling of beauty.

“It wasn’t until later, when I was going through RCIA, that I realized my heart was recognizing the True Presence of Jesus Christ within those Catholic Churches, even though my head didn’t know he was truly there - my heart knew.”

The Kohler’s children, now grown, still continue an Adoration practice, which Tina credits to the fact that they started this as children.

“Even when they’re in other countries, they know when they are having a difficult time or needing a space of peace and comfort, they go find an adoration chapel,” says Tina.

When they were little I would bring things for them to draw on,” she recalls. “We would talk about Jesus and how we were going to spend time with Jesus and think about what Jesus might be telling them or helping them feel and we encouraged them to draw whatever came to their minds.”

For Adam, time in adoration is the pinnacle of peace. “I used to hike and camp and go out into the wilderness and relax, but even that wasn’t as peaceful and emotionally and mentally restful as spending time alone with Jesus in a chapel,” he says.

“There was something pivotal for me in signing up for an hour, signing your name on the line and saying I will be here for that hour,” says Adam. “ That responsibility was really an honor. I took the 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. for a long time.”

“Being in the adoration chapel is just the best place to pray,” says Tina.  “Whenever someone tells me they’re going through a hard time or struggling with a difficult decision, or even times of great joy, I always tell them ‘take it to the chapel’.”


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