Augustinians across the world joins a 24-hour on-site Adoration on the occasion of Corpus Christi

Next Thursday, 8th June, to celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Order will broadcast an on-site Adoration which, for the first time ever, will see our friars connect with laity and sisters on the four continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas

Under the banner "24 hours with Him", this initiative - coordinated by the Commission for Apostolate and Evangelisation, in collaboration with the communication office of the General Curia - aims to unite the whole Order in, for us, a unique event: 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration.

Although it will be a face-to-face adoration, it will also be broadcast from more than 12 sites of the Order in South America, North America, Africa, Asia, Northern Europe and Southern Europe, through the StreamYard platform, connecting the existing social media channels of the different parishes and churches.

Divided into two-hour blocks, each participating community will offer their own mixture of vocal prayer, songs, silences and readings.

Open to all apostolic works and communities

Participation is open to everyone - communities do not need to have the technological resources to broadcast their own live Adoration, or to receive the broadcasts from elsewhere, in order to take part.

Those parishes, churches, shrines, schools or communities who wish to join in and tell us the time when they will celebrate Eucharistic Adoration can do so by clicking on the following link. During the broadcast, we will run the names of those places that are celebrating adoration at that time, uniting everyone in a spirit of ongoing fraternal worship.

"We prostrate ourselves before Him"

"The idea is to ensure that, by at least one of its members doing so, the Order, which is a living body, remains in continuous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament over the 24 hour period," says Fr Javier Pérez Barba, General Councillor for Southern Europe and coordinator of the Commission for Apostolate and Evangelisation. "We want each parish to express its devotion in its own language, and in its own way.”

So far, the circumscriptions of Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Spain, Belgium, Tanzania, Italy, Cebu, California, India, Japan and Chile have signed up for this initiative, nominating their own “host” community. “It is important that adoration takes place in person. Broadcasting it online is just a way of making the unity of the globally dispersed Order more visible, by prostrating itself at the same time before the Lord," Fr Javier points out. "In my opinion, Eucharistic adoration outside Mass, which is a form of worship that the Church has cultivated since ancient times, is in our days a visible sign of God with us. The Blessed Sacrament, elevated in the monstrance as He was on the cross, exerts a captivating force for many people, including a great number of young people. It is a sign of Him fulfilling His promise to us.”