was established in our parish when the new church of St Bernards opened in 2002 The Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar from 9.00AM until 6.00PM Monday to Saturday. Parishioners have committed to specific hours of adoration to ensure that all the hours each day are covered, as it is a tradition of Eucharistic Adoration not to leave the Blessed Sacrament unattended.
Just over 3 years ago members of the parish cell groups, (see Cell Group leaflet) decided to set aside a special day of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament, to intercede for all the needs of the priests of our parish, who had some health problems at the time. Word spread about this initiative and very quickly we were contacted by various other parish groups who wanted to participate. We discerned through prayer that this was to be a much bigger event than we had originally planned. We then decided to promote our Eucharistic Prayer Vigil widely throughout the parish and through our parish schools and it was most encouraging to see the large number of people who turned up on the day. This original prayer initiative has now turned into an annual event and has become one of the highlights of the parish calendar.
It follows a very simple format. For example, it takes place on a Saturday to allow as many parishioners as possible to participate. Cell group members organise the programme under the spiritual guidance of our Parish Priest. A theme is discerned through prayer and ultimately selected to be the main focus of the day. In our first year we prayed for our priests, in our second year for a deeper conversion to Jesus for all parishioners and in our third year we prayed to deepen our awareness of the Real Presence of Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament.
This year the purpose of our 24 hours of adoration will be to pray for the needs of all our faith community, including our diocesan priests. Posters and programmes have already been printed. Each of our parish groups and in some cases groups outside the parish, participate in the Vigil by leading a selected Holy Hour in their own preferred style. One of our cell group members writes a beautiful book of prayerful reflections each year, designed specially to help people pray on the day and this years book, entitled Our Holy Hour is available for parishioners, after each of our Sunday masses at the moment and on the day itself.
One of the highlights of our programme is always the children’s Holy Hour, in which a representative number of children from our combined parish primary schools participate and it is wonderful to see their reverence and love for Jesus in The Blessed sacrament as they pray and sing through their hour.
Our parish masses take place as normal but reflect the theme of the day. Bishop Treanor has again agreed this year to concelebrate and preach at one of our masses (6.00PM) We also have midnight mass and having kept watch with Jesus throughout the night, our Eucharistic vigil will finally conclude with solemn Benediction before the 9.00AM Sunday mass.
We are of course praying that one of the blessings of our 24 hours of Adoration before the Blessed sacrament, will be to increase awareness of the great gift that we have in our midst and so increase the number of adorers who come to our church. We are confident that our parish will be greatly blessed on this day.
So let us respond to God’s enormous love for us by sitting in front of him for even a little while on this day, thanking him for all his blessings, including his Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, telling him all that concerns us and knowing that he is sufficient for all our needs
Patricia Wade (Parish Cell groups)
The Parish 24 Hour Vigil 2010 was a great success. Thank You to everyone who participated. We look forward to 2011. See 2010 Vigil programme below.
Saturday 6th March 2010 9.00AM to Sunday 7th March 2010 9.00AM
St Bernard’s Church
9.00 AM
Welcome and Introductory hour of adoration Parish Cell Groups
10.00 AM
Intercessory Rosary for Priests St Agnes Prayer group
11.00 AM
Prayers, Reflections and Music Combined Parish Primary Schools
12.00 Noon
Holy Mass supported by SPRED Group and 11am folk Group Fr Dan Whyte
1.00 PM
Stations of The Cross from Mary’s perspective 1st Friday Stations of The Cross Group
2.00 PM
Adoration, Reflection, Prayer and Worship St Marys On The Hill Prayer group
3.00 PM
Divine Mercy Chaplet EWTN Sung Chaplet
3 .20 PM
Adoration, Prayer and Reflection St Marys On the Hill S.V.P.
4.00 PM
Mothers Prayers Parish Mothers Prayers Group
5.00 PM
Adoration through a mini cell group Carrickfergus Cell Groups
6.00 PM
Vigil Mass with Children’s liturgy And St Mary’s on the hill 12 noon choir Bishop Treanor
7.00 PM
Adoration, Scriptural Reflection, Prayer and Worship Koinonia John The Baptist Community
8.00 PM
The Bread of Christ St Malachy’s Grammar School Adoration Group and Music Dept
9.00 PM
Our Holy Hour
(booklet)
Parish Cell Groups Stations of The Cross Parish Third World Group
11.00 PM
Solemn silent Adoration
12.00 PM
Holy Mass supported by StPatrick’s Church Senior Choir Lisburn Fr Dan Whyte
1.00 AM
An Hour of Music and Reflection on Christ Louis Mc Veigh Choirmaster St Patricks Lisburn
2.00 AM
Adoration, Reflection and Prayer Fr Dan Whyte
3.00 AM
Divine Mercy Chaplet Family of Mary Community
4.00 AM
Our Holy Hour
(Booklet)
Parish Cell groups
5.00 AM
Prayer and Reflection Parish pioneers Group
6.00 AM
Prayer and reflection Legion of Mary Marian Group Bangor
7.00 AM
Music Prayer and Worship
7.30 AM
Prayer and Reflection and The Divine Office led by our seminarians St Joseph’s Young priests Association
