Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator.

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Pope Francis is calling the Church to return to Adoration.

“Today we have lost the meaning of adoration a little bit and we need to get it back,” he said last week.

“Let us dream. Let us dream of such a Church: a Eucharistic Church. … Let us return to Jesus, let us return to the Eucharist,” he said at this time last year.

“Filling with tenderness the wounds and voids produced by sin in man and society, begins by getting down on one’s knees before Jesus in the Consecrated Host, and remaining there for a long time,” he said in August.

The Catechism says that adoration “is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator” (2628).

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary

Every second Tuesday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., there is a Eucharistic Holy Hour in St. Peter’s Square.

The time of prayer is part of the plan of pastoral activities organized by the Basilica, and began in March. It allows those who will be at St. Peter’s on Wednesday morning for the general audience to have an hour of Adoration the evening before.

St. Peter’s “is the place of catholicity,” reflects the pastor, Fr. Agnello Stoia.

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Faith: faith comes to our aid; with an act of faith we believe that it is the body and blood of Christ. It is ‘the mystery of faith,’ as we say after the consecration. ~Pope Francis

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

One cannot know the Lord without being in the habit of adoring, of adoring in silence … To waste time — if I may say it [like this] — before the Lord, before the mystery of Jesus Christ. To adore, there in the silence, in the silence of adoration. He is the Lord, and I adore Him. ~Pope Francis

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Eucharistic Adoration prayer St Peter's Square

Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA

Read more:Celebrating St. Peter at St. Peter’s Square and Basilica

Read more:What is a holy hour?