Three parishes in the Diocese of Gary are increasing and enhancing opportunities for Eucharistic adoration thanks to the first grants awarded by the Eucharistic Adoration Endowment available through the Catholic Foundation for Northwest Indiana.
While the official announcement of the grants is scheduled for June 28 during the Pilgrims of Hope and Freedom event at St. John the Evangelist in St. John, Holy Family Parish in LaPorte, St. Helen in Hebron and St. Paul in Valparaiso are already in the midst of making the improvements to their worship spaces.
“I could not be happier,” said Allison Maciejewski, who established the endowment last year with her husband, Jim Maciejewski. “Any opportunity to bring people closer to Jesus in adoration makes me happy, since that’s my goal.”
Maciejewski said a committee met to consider seven grant applications and selected three to fund. “We wanted to focus on items we could handle in providing and beautifying the adoration experience or allowing it to occur,” added Maciejewski. “Since the fund is so new, my husband and I funded these first grants, but we hope the endowment grows. We thought it was important to go ahead with the grants this year.”
Donations to the endowment can be made at the June 28 event or by visiting EucharisticAdorationEndowment.com.
“Eucharistic adoration is a true gift to the Church and brings us closer to Jesus,” said Judy Holicky, coordinator of the Catholic Foundation for Northwest Indiana, which administers the endowment. “This endowment is very exciting for the Diocese of Gary, for our spiritual growth. Jim and Allison Maciejewski enable our parishes to improve the adoration experience and allow each one of us to walk closer to Jesus.”
At Holy Family Parish, the adoration chapel in the former convent on the St. Joseph church campus is getting a makeover with help from a $1,500 grant.
“I’m very excited; we are trying to encourage more participation in adoration,” said Lynn Johnson, director of mission engagement at Holy Family.
She explained that carpeting will be cleaned in a lounge/meeting room, a quiet study room and the chapel, while area rugs will be added.
“The walls throughout the rooms, which were brown, are being painted a color named ‘serene green,’ which is more homey and peaceful,” said Johnson. “The old kneelers are being re-stained and while we thought we would need to replace the kneeler pads, our custodian/maintenance head, Tom Burns, said he will be able to redo them with new vinyl material.
“It’s going to look beautiful and provide a totally quiet and peaceful place for adoration,” she noted.
Father Nathaniel Edquist, pastor, said the chapel is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and by appointment with a key code. “This grant is great, since it will help us create a more welcoming and cleaner space in the chapel, which was established in 2014,” he said.
St. Helen in Hebron, said priest-in-residence Father Ian Williams, is using its $1,200 grant to purchase a chapel monstrance that is small enough to store in the tabernacle of the church, as well as a new cope and humeral veil used by the priest in Eucharistic adoration and benediction.
“The chapel monstrance is placed on a tabor, or base, to elevate it and draw attention to it,” explained Father Williams. “The cope and humeral veil will replace a mismatched set that has seen better days, and will add to the reverence and dignity of adoration. After all, in the Eucharist we are fed by the very body of Christ.
“One of our goals is to increase eucharistic adoration at the parish,” he added. “I truly believe that with Eucharistic adoration comes blessings and grace.” Father Williams intends to use the new items to expose the Holy Eucharist at the main altar at 7:30 a.m. before morning Mass which is celebrated at 8:30 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays at St. Helen, and also use them for adoration on special occasions.
“I have a very Eucharist-centered spirituality and I want to develop a more regular devotion to the Eucharist,” he added. “It’s wonderful that they’ve established this endowment. We often say parishes should do something, like increase adoration, but this actually provides the support to do it. I applaud them.”
Father Thomas Mischler, pastor of One Catholic Family parish that includes St. Helen, also praised the Eucharist Adoration Endowment grants. “This is a wonderful endowment, and we are happy to receive this funding,” he said.
The Queen of Apostles Chapel at St. Paul parish will increase adoration opportunities by adding a tabernacle provided by parish donors, allowing the Holy Eucharist to be present at all times,” said Father Douglas Mayer, pastor. The $500 grant will enable the current altar to be repositioned as an altar of repose, while a newly-created wood altar will be topped by a marble slab found in storage and placed as an altar of sacrifice to display the tabernacle.
“People will be able to go to the chapel on first Fridays for adoration during the school year,” said Father Mayer. “We are not sure where the marble altar top came from, but the late Msgr. (John) Charlebois may have acquired it.
The grant, he added, “is wonderful, because it is allowing us to provide a new altar of sacrifice for the donated tabernacle. It will make people very happy to have a place to pray before the Holy Eucharist.” New altar linens and candles will also be acquired.
Maciejewski said Glen Upchurch, a member of the Carpentry Ministry at SJE, has offered to build the new altar for St. Paul with donated lumber. “This will help save St. Paul money to complete their unique project, offering an adoration chapel,” she said. “At St. Helen, the new monstrance will make adoration available before morning Mass … and at Holy Family, the grant will create a more comfortable atmosphere in their (adoration chapel) space.”
Caption: Eucharistic adoration is held at St. Paul in Valparaiso, but the opportunities for adoration will be increased when the altar in the photo becomes an altar of repose and a new, second altar of sacrifice is added to hold a new tabernacle. Renovations to the chapel is being partially funded by an Eucharistic Adoration Endowment grant through the Catholic foundation for NWI. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)
