The Forty Hours Devotion

As Catholics, our faith is principally nourished by regularly celebrating the two great sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation (Confession). But we also have in our tradition a great wealth of other devotions that can help to deepen our Christian life. Where do these devotions come from? Aren't some of them just human inventions, even superstitions? Actually, all of them are firmly based in Holy Scripture or the earliest traditions of the Church. Take our week of seven days, for example. The first chapter of Genesis is all about the seven-day week (more than it's about creation, I think). Sunday is especially holy because it is the day of the Lord's resurrection, and so we are obliged to celebrate the Lord's Supper on that day above all others.

The Rosary is a prayer that uses prayers straight out of the Bible (the words of the Angel Gabriel, Elizabeth, the Lord's Prayer and the sign of the cross) during which we meditate upon episodes from the life of Jesus. Traditionally, the whole rosary used 150 Hail Marys - echoing the psalter of 150 psalms. Whenever we pray a novena we recall that first novena (nine days) between the Ascension and Pentecost that the Apostles spent in prayer. When we fast during Lent or on Fridays we recall the time Jesus spent fasting in the desert. When we put ash on our heads we remember the sign of repentance that Jonah preached in Nineveh. When we splash ourselves with water on the way into church we call to mind our baptism with water and the Holy Spirit. When we genuflect we are obeying the words of St Paul that 'every knee shall bow' before Jesus.

This coming week at St Dominic's we shall be celebrating the "Forty Hours' Devotion," sometimes called by its Italian name, Quarant'Ore. Beginning on Thursday evening at the 6 o'clock mass and ending on Sunday morning, the feast of Corpus Christi, we will spend forty hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The number 40 has always signified a sacred period of time: the rains during the time of Noah lasted 40 days and nights; the Jews wandered through the desert for 40 years, our Lord fasted and prayed for 40 days before beginning His public ministry. The Forty Hours' Devotion remembers that traditional '40-hour period' from our Lord's burial until the resurrection. Actually in the Middle Ages, the Blessed Sacrament was transferred to the repository, "the Easter Sepulchre," for this period of time to signify our Lord's time in the tomb.

The Forty Hours Devotion begins with a Solemn Mass of Exposition, which concludes with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and a procession. The Blessed Sacrament remains on the altar in a monstrance. During the next few days, the faithful gather for personal or public prayer in adoration of our Lord. The Blessed Sacrament is reposed in the tabernacle for the daily Mass, and then returned for exposition after Mass. On Friday all the Masses are celebrated particularly for the sake of peace in the world. On Saturday we celebrate the feast of St Dominic, the titular feast of our church. At the end of the devotion, the Mass of Corpus Christi is celebrated, again concluding with a procession and benediction (after the 10 o'clock Mass) and the final reposition of the Blessed Sacrament (after the 12 noon Mass).

The Holy Father especially commended this devotion in his recent letter on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis. There he said that worship is a natural response to our reception of the Eucharist. Pope Benedict quotes Saint Augustine: 'no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it.' The very act of receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive; so our adoration will enhance our reception of, and understanding of, this precious gift.

A rota for watching before the Blessed Sacrament is at the back of the church. Jesus asked his disciples on Holy Thursday to watch with him 'just one hour'. Please try to sign up to cover a period of one hour at some point between Thursday and Sunday.

Timothy Gardner OP