Eucharistic Adoration: The Best Marriage Prep
/KATHERINE FINNEY
When I was in college, I took a class called Christian Marriage. There are many nuggets of truth I still remember from that class, almost nine years after I took it, and one of those is the reality that marriage preparation begins way before engagement.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MEL WATSON PHOTOGRAPHY
This is not a really novel idea. In fact, even if you’ve never heard this statement before, you could probably understand why and how it can be true. Marriage preparation begins as early as (and even earlier than) infancy.
From the beginning of our lives, we are given opportunities to accept and understand our vocation to holiness. Our parents or the people who raise us teach us what love is (and often, what love is not). Our surroundings and the people we know all contribute to our preparation for our vocations to single, married, religious, or ordained life (and ultimately to our greatest vocation of holiness and unity with God in heaven).
That is why I’m suggesting that all of us, particularly those of us who are single and discerning our vocations on earth, do our best to make Eucharistic adoration the foundation of our everyday lives.
Here’s what I’m thinking--if our surroundings and our actions leading up to our vocation to marriage all contribute to our marriage preparation, it would only make sense to make Eucharistic adoration the center of all of it.
We certainly can (and probably should) try to educate ourselves on the theology and philosophy behind Christian marriage. We should also do our best to really try to understand the challenges and blessings that arise in the life of a Christian married couple.
But ultimately, the one thing that will truly center us on our vocation to heaven is spending time with Jesus.
If the Eucharist is really the source and summit of the Christian life, there is nothing that can prepare us better for our particular vocation to married life than spending time in the presence of the Eucharist. It’s that simple.
I don’t feel like I need to give you a lecture about why or how you should make time to spend with Jesus in the Eucharist (partially because I’m not always great at this, and partially because we’re still in the middle of a pandemic and many of us can’t even be near Jesus in the Eucharist), but what I can offer is my own experience.
Eucharistic adoration has always been what has brought me back to a thriving relationship with God.
When I was a freshman in high school, I experienced my first Eucharistic adoration, and the instant Jesus was brought onto the altar I knew my life was never going to be the same.
When I was in college, if I was homesick or stressed, going to Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist always made me feel like I was home. It was the one place I could go to ease my anxiety.
Almost every morning for the first year of my first job as a teacher, I stopped to pray in the Eucharistic chapel; I needed to start my day centered and feeling calm, so it was the perfect place to fill up for the day.
When I got engaged, it was in front of Jesus’s Eucharistic presence exposed in the monstrance. I think my husband knew that I’d want to make what would probably be the biggest decision of my life in front of Jesus.
It didn’t bother me that it seemed like a Catholic cliché to get engaged in adoration. It was just what my heart wanted and needed.
My husband and I decided that for the night of our wedding rehearsal, we would start the night off in Eucharistic adoration. Thankfully one of his best friends and groomsmen was a deacon at the time and was able to expose the Eucharist for us.
All of our closest friends and family, the people who would be standing next to us on the altar on our wedding day, were there before the Lord that night. We prayed together and were all gathered with the intention of truly centering our hearts on the real reason for the love we were about to celebrate.
Our love for Jesus in the Eucharist has carried over into the way we live out our Sacrament of Marriage.
It makes sense that the decisions we make and the surroundings we have growing up all play a part in our preparation for our earthly vocation. If Eucharistic adoration isn’t yet a part of your routine, I highly recommend that you make it a regular part of your life.
Whether you’re single, married, discerning religious life, or confused about what is the right path for your future, spending time with Jesus and soaking in his presence will always be just what you need.
About the Author: Katherine (Schluter) Finney is proudly from New Orleans, Louisiana, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee while her husband Jonathan finishes fellowship training. She and Jonathan have two daughters, Miriam (3) and Joan (18 months). Kat taught high school religion for four years and has worked for Catholic high schools for six years. She currently stays at home with her two daughters, and she spends most of her time styling hamster play-doh hair and cooking some kind of creole dish for dinner.