Bishop Daniel Felton: Reflections for your own Holy Hour from the Eucharistic Congress

Believe in the Good News 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

WOW! The Holy Spirit was really moving among the thousands of disciples who gathered for the Star of the North Eucharistic Congress, sponsored by the dioceses of Duluth and Crookston. It was an incredible experience of healing, hope and joy. A special thank you to all the people from our diocesan Pastoral Center and parishes who volunteered to assist with the organizational and operational necessities for putting on an event of this magnitude. 

On the opening night of the Eucharistic Congress, I led a Holy Hour of Adoration and Benediction. Below, please find the reflections that I prayed in that Holy Hour. I would invite you personally to use these reflections as part of your next Holy Hour. 

Holy Hour Reflections 

Sing: Jesus, come to us, lead us to your light. Jesus, be with us, for we need you. 

1. As I come before the Lord to offer Him praise and adoration, He asks me to share with him areas of my life that need His healing. 

So, as I begin my Eucharistic adoration, I open my heart and soul to tell Jesus honestly of my brokenness, fears, suffering, and despair. I want to share with you, Jesus, my deepest desires for healing, hope, and joy. Like the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus, what is my greatest hunger and thirst in life? Allow the loving gaze of Jesus and His grace to draw you deeply into His presence, His love, His mercy … indeed His healing. (silent reflection) 

Sing: Jesus, come to us, lead us to your light. Jesus, be with us, for we need you. 

2. Now that I have lifted up to Jesus those areas of my heart and soul that seek His healing, Jesus asks me, as he did the man who was sick for 38 years and had been waiting for someone to lower him into the healing waters of the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” How do you answer Jesus’s question? Am I willing to surrender my brokenness, fears, suffering, and despair to Jesus so that He can heal me? Who or what am I clinging to that prevents me from this necessary surrendering and trust in Jesus? Am I clinging to anger, resentment, fear, pride, a relationship? What is keeping me from genuinely and honestly responding “yes” to the invitation of Jesus to be healed, so that Jesus can say to me, as he did to the man in Bethesda, “Rise, take your mat and walk.” (silent reflection) 

Sing: Jesus, come to us, lead us to your light. Jesus, be with us, for we need you. 

3. Lord, you know the hurt in my heart and soul that desires your healing. Yes, I want to be healed! “Good,” Jesus says, “but tell me, what do you want me to do for you? Do you think that I can do this? That I can heal you? As you surrender to me the hurt that needs to be healed, do you trust that I will heal you as I will it, not always as you want it?” What is keeping me from trusting Jesus with your hurt that desires healing? 

Like the two blind men who encountered Jesus as they cried out, Son of David have pity on us, may I also respond, “Yes, Lord. I do believe that you can heal me.” Then Jesus touched their eyes (as he is touching your heart in this moment) and says, “I do will it, be healed. Let it be done for you according to your faith.” (silent reflection) 

Sing: Jesus, come to us, lead us to your light. Jesus, be with us, for we need you. 

4. I praise you, Lord. I thank you for your desire to heal me of my hurt, to give me the healing, hope and joy that I am seeking as I spend this time with you in adoration. You are here with me, your Spirit is stirring among me, truly preparing me even now for that moment in the sacred celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when just before receiving you in holy Communion I will pray: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall BE HEALED.” 

Sing: Jesus, come to us, lead us to your light. Jesus, be with us, for we need you. 

Truly, the blessings of our Eucharistic Congress and Eucharistic pilgrimages will impact generations of faith for years to come. It will be remembered as a watershed moment in our diocesan Eucharistic Revival! 

Bishop Daniel Felton is the tenth bishop of the Diocese of Duluth.