Adoration is the first act of religious virtue. Adoring God is recognizing him as God, as Creator and as Savior, the Lord is the Master of all that exists, infinite Love and mercy. “You will adore the Lord your God, and only him will you worship.” (Lk 4:8), said Jesus, citing Deuteronomy (6:13)
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the “nothingness of the creature” who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is his name.14 The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world. (CIC 2096-2097)
When the Angel of the Lord appeared in Fatima to the three shepherd children, bring in his hand a chalice with the Sacred Eucharist, he prostrated himself with his face on the ground and invited the children to repeat with him this prayer: My God! I believe, I adore, I hope and I love-You; I ask You forgiveness for those that do not believe, do not adore and do not hope and do not love You. (3 times)
The angel then taught them:
Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly and I offer you the precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation of the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences with which He himself is offended and for the infinite merits of Your Sacred Heart and through the intercession of the Immaculate H
eart of Mary, I ask You the conversion of the poor sinners.
After, getting up, he took the chalice saying:
“Take and eat the body of Jesus horribly offended by the ungrate men. Do reparation for your sins and console the Heart of Your God.”
Let us attend the grievances of the Angel, made with such tenderness and insistence, receiving Jesus frequently with a pure soul, visiting Him and making Him companion, for the Sacramental Jesus is found in many churches alone and abandoned as in the Garden of Olives.
This material is an excerpt from the book: “Uma Visita ao Santíssimo Sacramento” [A Visit to the Blessed Sacrament] published in Portuguese by Canção Nova
Translated from Portuguese