„Come, you who are blessed by my Father.” - More than 6,700 locations in 121 countries joined the Worldwide Prayer Chain

At the invitation of Cardinal Péter Erdő, Primate of Hungary, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and the Secretariat organizing next year's International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, tens of thousands of people around the world adored Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament on the vigil of the Feast of Christ the King on 21st November. It was the seventh occasion of the Worldwide Adoration and Prayer Chain. Almost all European countries joined.

The number of participating countries and locations was much higher this time than ever before, with more than 6700 locations joining from 121 countries, including Pakistan, Togo, Panama, but among the participating countries we could also find China, Kazakhstan, Benin, Iceland, Chile, New Zealand, and many other countries the world over.

„Silence had the strongest voice and greatest strength. It’s a wonderful feeling that can’t be expressed by words.” – reported one of the Hungarian worshipers. A Belgian participant wrote, “In the silence of adoration, Jesus himself shapes our hearts, shapes our innermost beings. For a long time, when I heard the word ’adoration’, the time of seemingly endless boredom came to my mind from my childhood. Then I met people who couldn’t wait to go to church even when there was no Holy Mass. They were happy to sign up for an hour of prayer or adoration. There was serenity and peace in their face. All of us, even non-believers are looking for the opportunity of recharging from “above,” from “greater forces,” from the cosmos, nature, or external energies. We try to quench our thirst in many ways, but sometimes we go past the real source. Adoration offered me an astonishing discovery! After all, the aim here is to establish and maintain a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, who loves every one of us individually, unconditionally, irrevocably, with passionate love, and can’t wait for us to love him back.”

Many joined the adoration chain from their homes. To help them get involved, there was a live broadcast from churches and chapels in Hungary and in many other countries, including Spain, Chile, Italy and Mexico, just to name a few. At one venue the live broadcast was followed by nearly two thousand people, many shared their prayer intentions in comments below the video.

„Jesus Christ, when saying farewell to His disciples, sent them into the whole world to proclaim the gospel. He promised to be with them „always, until the end of the age”. He is with us in his teaching, in his mercy, in his sacraments, but most specially in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Blessed Sacrament that we adore outside the Holy Mass, too.” – invited us Cardinal Péter Erdő to the adoration chain.

Nuns in Tierra del Fuego broadcasted the Eucharistic adoration from their own chapel because the parish churches were all closed down. The Bishop of Bermuda personally thanked for the opportunity to participate. Another feedback was sent that although only a few dozen people had gathered at the local little church, but it was good to embrace the world with a community of this size and bring all the hardships and joys of today to God. A journalist from France wrote: „I have seen that more than 6,700 places have announced their participation. It is a vast Eucharistic movement, the beneficial effect of which we desperately need in a time when circumstances tend to physically distance us from the Eucharistic presence. It seems so good to me to give the People of God the opportunity to become ‘more Eucharistic’ at a time when circumstances would make us less Eucharistic. Thank you for this great initiative on the road to the Congress of 2021 in Budapest!”

The organizers ask the participants to send a short report, feedback, photo of the site of the adorations to corpus@iec2020.hu.

The Worldwide Adoration Chain continues. In preparation for the 2021 International Eucharistic Congress, the IEC Secretariat invites all believers to join the Worldwide Adoration Chain next time as well: