It was last August and long before he knew anything of the December 8th letter from the Congregation for the Clergy’s Prefect, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, asking that special “Eucharistic shrines” be created, that Fr. Joseph Gallardo, Pastor of St. Benedict, set plans in motion to establish just such a shrine.

At that time Father announced that the old circular baptistry—to the right as one enters the church’s vestibule—would be refurbished and converted into a Eucharistic chapel, where the Blessed Sacrament would be enshrined open to all each day. He declared that ‘there is every certainty that the Lord will bless us abundantly for our increased devotion to His sacramental presence. There is no doubt either that we will see a great increase in the number of priestly and religious vocations from St. Benedict.”

The Cardinal’s letter asks that Eucharistic adoration be introduced in parishes, seminaries, religious houses and other Catholic facilities so that Catholics from every corner of the world, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may spend time before the Eucharist to pray for vocations to the priesthood. The idea is to stress the “ontological link” between the Eucharist and the priesthood, as well as “the special maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for each priest.” Its initiative is styled as a response to a call from Pope Benedict XVI in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, which urged wider practice of Eucharistic adoration.

Fr. Joseph inaugurated and formally blessed the parish shrine on November 25th, the feast of Christ the King. To assure a goodly number of committed adorers, parishioners had been previously asked to indicate what hours, weekly or monthly, they could devote to prayer before the Eucharist. Since then, the shrine, which is adorned with an artistic, oxidized-silver, ruby-studded adoration tabernacle as well as a gracefully delicate, hand-carved alabaster statue of Our Lady of Consolation, the work of Salamanca’s Artesanía Orejudo, has been filled to overflowing with devotees.

Fr. James McGuire, OAR