What Is A Holy Hour? How Is It Different from Adoration or Benediction?

A Holy Hour is the Catholic devotion of being in the presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist for one hour. This can be as simple as going to the local church or chapel to pray before the tabernacle that holds the Eucharist.

Some parishes have what is called the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction. In this ceremony, the Eucharist is placed in a special vessel called a monstrance that holds a consecrated Host. It’s often gold and has what looks like rays or sunbeams surrounding the host. It is placed where people can adore Jesus.

There are special prayers and songs when Jesus is placed in the monstrance. There are more at the end when the priest blesses the people with the monstrance containing the Eucharist. That is called the Benediction.

In churches where there is perpetual adoration, the monstrance is always displayed and there is always at least one person sitting with Jesus in the chapel. Some churches will have Eucharistic Exposition only during certain hours of the day or 24 hours only on First Fridays.

When the Eucharist is removed from the monstrance, it is placed back in the tabernacle.

When a person goes to pray before Jesus in the Eucharist, whether Jesus is in the monstrance or inside the tabernacle, you can say you are in Adoration. When you pray before Jesus for an hour, it is called a Holy Hour.

What Do You Do During a Holy Hour?

There is not a set plan. Everyone has their own preference. Some people follow books that guide you through the Hour and others just do whatever feels natural at the time.

The first time I tried making a Holy Hour it didn’t go well. After 10 minutes of praying I was distracted, fidgety, and completely losing focus. It was hard for me to sit in silence and even harder to quiet my mind.

To make things easier, I started to divide my Holy Hour into smaller chunks.

• Talk to God – I spend the first 10-15 minutes just talking to Our Lord. I poured out everything that is on my heart. I’ll pray about the things troubling me and for my family and friends. I’ll thank Him for my blessings. I’ll ask for forgiveness for my sins and praise Him for his mercy and love. It helps when I close my eyes and in my mind’s eye I see and interact with Jesus.
• Scripture, Rosary, or Chaplets – Secondly, I either pray the rosary, the Divine Mercy chaplet, read Scripture, or meditate on the Blessed Is She daily devotion. I use anything that helps me to think about or mediate on Our Lord and what He is doing in my life.
• Journal – At the half way mark, I write in my prayer journal. I always think better as I’m writing, so as I ponder what I had read or was praying about, and I write down my thoughts and sort through them. It usually helps me to realize what the Holy Spirit is speaking to my heart.
• Closing prayer and Litany – The last 10 – 15 minutes, I again speak to God from my heart telling Him how much I love Him and thanking Him for this time together. I close my Holy Hour with a recitation of the Litany to the Sacred Heart.

Everyone has their own method, but this is what works for me. And I have to admit that now that I make this a weekly practice, it has gotten easier and I don’t always need to “fill” my time to keep me focused. I am able to quiet my racing mind and just talk (and listen) to Our Lord. That is really the goal of making a Holy Hour – spending time with Jesus. There are days when I can’t wait to sit with Jesus. Admittedly, there are also days when it was a fight just to stay awake. Regardless, the main thing is that I’m showing up. Sometimes it’s when I’m struggling that I receive the most graces from the Holy Hour.

What If I can’t do a whole hour?

Before I started a full hour on a set day, I would do 15 minute chunks of time. Then I started Holy Half Hours, working my way up to an hour. In the past I’ve done two half hour sessions or 20 minutes three days in a row. If you are in a season of life where you simply cannot get to the Chapel for a whole hour, do what you can. Challenge yourself, but also be realistic. God knows your heart. He knows when you’re giving as much as you can and when you’re capable of doing more. Sincerely ask Him and He will show you what He wants.

What If I Can’t Leave the House?

There will always be times when you are sick or unable to leave the house with your little ones. On those days, I use the live feed of Perpetual Adoration from Catholify or from EWTN. I set up my iPad, light a candle, and them spend my quiet time with Our Lord.

What Do You Bring to Your Holy Hour?

I have a prayer tote that I carry all my prayer items, whether I am doing a Holy Hour in the chapel or spending time in morning prayer in my living room.

First, let me say that I’m one of those people who carries around way too much in her purse or overpacks her suitcase, so that’s why my prayer bag is full! 😉

Inside the tote (from a past Blessed Is She retreat) I keep my essentials (and extras) – Bible, prayer journal, petition book (where I write down the petitions I told people I would bring to the Lord,) prayer books, spiritual reading, rosary, prayer card pouch, and pencil pouch with pens and highlighters. I like having everything in one tote so it’s easy to grab whenever I want to spend time in prayer. Granted, when I make a Holy Hour, I’ll actually only use a 2-3 items, but I like having them available depending on how the Spirit moves me.

Tips to bringing kids to Adoration

This picture sums up what Adoration time should ultimately be, as St John Vianney once explained it, “I look at Him and He looks at me.”

1. Start Small -I strongly believe that young children should be exposed to religious practices, including going to Adoration. It should be a normal part of everyday life. However, where I may differ from other parents is that I don’t believe that it must be all or nothing. I’m a firm believer in baby steps.

I know some families who bring all their young kids to full Holy Hours. That is awesome and I applaud them. However, I never felt called to do that. Instead I started small. When my oldest was a toddler, I would often take her to the chapel to make a 5 minute visit to Jesus. I would have her kneel down at the front of the church and encourage her to say a little prayer to Jesus. Eventually, she got used to entering the church (relatively) quietly, blessing herself, and she would say her own sweet words to Jesus without my prompting.

As more kids came along and they were in preschool, which was across the street from a Catholic Church, we would go every day after school to make a short visit (5 – 15 minutes tops.) They got used to it being normal to go visit Jesus in the church.

It can feel frustrating to have noisy children in church or kids who complain that it’s boring, but one day they will be able to pray on their own and you may find they are asking you to take them to Adoration.

As they got older, we added on the time we would spend in Adoration. It can be hard when you have many kids at various ages. Your solution is really going to depend on your family situation and what you feel God is asking of you. Here are a few tips that I’ve used or moms I know have used.

• Start with short visits to the chapel. Show them how to bless themselves and genuflect (on both knees if Jesus is exposed in the monstrance). Explain to them how this is a holy place and we should be quiet. Tell them that Jesus can’t wait to see them and that when He speaks to them it is done silently in their heart so they need to quietly listen to Him.
• Bring a tote bag of prayer items. (See below.)
• Assign an older sibling to a younger sibling. The older one can quietly read a bible story to the younger one or look at a picture book of saints.
• Swap babysitting with another mom. Make short visits with your toddlers and preschoolers, but for longer visits with your older kids, have a mom friend babysit the little ones while you take your (and her) older ones to Adoration. The next time, swap.
• Go as a family. Designate a shorter time for the littles then one parent takes them back to the car to wait. The other parent, completes the hour (or 1/2 hour) with the older kids.
• I’m not above bribing my kids to stretch and do harder things. (ie. “We are going to Mass and Adoration today but afterwards, we’ll get ice cream if I hear no complaints.”) Some parents may disapprove but I want this to be a positive experience that both draws them closer to God and strengthens our bond as a family.

I don’t believe there is a one size fits all. Although I do a weekly Holy Hour and Brian visits the Adoration chapel every day during his lunch break, as a family we more often do Holy Half Hours since their days are full with traditional school and after school activities and our church is not open in the evening. We fit in Adoration before monthly confession, we arrive for weekly Mass a half hour early to pray, and we make a First Friday Holy Hour since locally that is the only time there is evening Adoration and we can go as a family. However, during the summer months when the kids are out of school, then we are able to make a weekly Holy Hour during the day. It’s during the school year that we have to adjust.

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the wisdom to know what is right for your family and the strength to do it. If you feel God is asking you to commit to a full hour with your little ones, then humbly resign yourself to spending a good portion trying to keep them relatively quit and contained.  You may feel like you got nothing out of it, but trying not to lose your temper or sanity, is a prayer in itself. God will shower graces upon you for your sacrifices.

More importantly, you are building a foundation of love for the Eucharist in your children. When it feels especially rough, just remind yourself that your little noise maker will one day be able to sit and pray quietly as their love for our Eucharistic Lord deepens.

Lastly, I just want to add that as important as it is to bring your little ones to Adoration, you as a mom also need alone time with Our Lord. Ask you husband, a family member, hire a babysitter or babysit-swap with a fellow mom to watch the kids so you can go pray alone, even if it can’t be for an hour. Momming is hard work and you need to be able to spiritually recharge!

2. Bring a Tote Bag of Prayer Items – Just as I have my tote of spiritual material, so do my kids. From the youngest to the teen, they take their prayer book, rosary, Bible or saint book, journal and pens or pencils. I have them kneel and pray to Jesus in their heart first.  Afterwards, they can read their book, Bible or journal. As they get older, they pray the rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet or their own special devotional prayers.

Photo credit: Somedaysaints.com

Last year we each purchased the Kids Adoration Journal and Tote Bundle from Someday Saints.com. Technically this is for kids ages 7-12, which is great for my boys, but the rest of us over that age loved it too, so we all got one and have been using it. (Reference the previous photo.) 🙂

3. What books to you recommend for kids?

Each of my kids choose their own books. They usually bring a prayer book, their journal, and a bible or saint book.

Matthew loves looking up passages in a regular Bible so I bought him Lara Casey’s Write the Word Journal for Kids. (I use the adult version and love it.)

Although, it is written for Christians and isn’t specifically Catholic, he looks up the Scripture in our Catholic Bible, writes it out, and either journals or draws a picture. Other times he likes to look up his favorite verses in the Bible and he copies them into his own Scripture notebook.

For one of my sons, who was reluctant to go to Adoration, I bought him the Minecraft Bible. It kept his interest and he was still learning about God’s word. Catholic graphic novels about the saints have also been a big hit with my kids. (I did an post about them here.)

Now that some time has passed, my reluctant son is used to going to Adoration and he doesn’t bring these with him anymore. He uses a more traditional bible or he’ll pray part of the rosary or he’ll read a saint books or use his Adoration journal. I consider that progress!

If you need some inspiration, here is an Amazon list of books my boys enjoy – Books for Kids to Take to Adoration.  You don’t need to bring mounds of books, just one or two is fine.

If you have younger kids, check out the Adoration Pack for Families from Catholic Sprouts. I love the board book and coloring book, but my kids have passed that stage. I did however, order their parent guide book and a set of holy cards. 🙂

(Update: The bundle is not longer available, but you can order the items individually. I received A Parent’s Guide to Adoration after writing this post and read it. I still found it very helpful! I especially loved Nancy’s tip on teaching her kids how to do private silent prayer at home.)

4. What if I can’t afford special journals and tote bags?

You don’t need to buy an special Adoration items. You can go to the craft store and get a plain inexpensive tote. Or check the dollar section at Target or your local Dollar Store for totes and lined journals. When Bella was a toddler/preschooler I bought her a blank unlined journal and let her draw pictures of Jesus, Mary, or God’s creation. She felt like she was “journaling” too.

You can print out favorite prayers online and cut them out and tape them inside their inexpensive journals to make their own prayer books. Matthew did this when he saw Brian make one. He taped one of this favorite prayer cards to to the cover. Or you can staple the prayers together and let them make their own book. Use your imagination and they can create something special without spending a lot of money.

I hope that answered some of your questions and inspired you to try something new or keep up with what you’re doing. If you have other questions or tips that have worked for you or your family, please share them!

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