The Archdiocese of Philadelphia this week opened a new perpetual adoration chapel, one that Archbishop Nelson P\u00e9rez said is meant to draw \u201cCatholics and non-Catholics for prayer before Christ\u201d 24 hours a day. <\/p>\n
The Sacre Coeur Perpetual Adoration Chapel was opened on the property of St. Denis Church in Havertown on the western edge of the city. P\u00e9rez was the principal celebrant at the Mass during which the site was dedicated an archdiocesan shrine. <\/p>\n
In his homily the archbishop called attention to the liturgy\u02bcs first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, in which Moses tells the Israelites that God \u201cset his heart on you and chose you.\u201d <\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez said the description of \u201cthe heart of God\u201d grants \u201ca very human attribute to a divine being.\u201d <\/p>\n
Christ himself \u201cis the very incarnation, the visible being, the manifestation of the very heart of God,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. <\/p>\n
The prelate also noted the example of the 17th century nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who was responsible for spreading the devotion of the Sacred Heart through the Western Church. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe had an incredible heart for the Lord from a very, very, very young age,\u201d the archbishop said. \u201cAnd at a young age, she promised Our Lady that she would consecrate her life to the heart of Christ.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a big heart,\u201d P\u00e9rez continued. \u201cBig hearts feel deeply. The biggest heart of them all is actually the heart of Christ, the heart of all hearts right from which all our hearts flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The archbishop predicted that the faithful \u201cwill come from all over the place\u201d to the Sacre Coeur chapel, where they will \u201cspeak to the heart of Christ so beautifully present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at that moment \u2014 watch out,\u201d he said. \u201cWatch out. Because God will do what God will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacred space will \u2018hopefully bring people to the Lord\u2019<\/p>\n
The chapel came about in large part because of the work of Ward and Kathy Fitzgerald, two Philadelphia residents who several years ago identified the need for such a site in the city. <\/p>\n
Ward, the CEO of the I Am the Vine Foundation \u2014 a capital charity initiative \u2014 told \u201cEWTN News Nightly\u201d on June 12 that his wife Kathy had realized that \u201cthere were 12 parishes in Philadelphia within about a three mile radius that did not have perpetual adoration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vision was to make a place that was beautiful and comfortable,\u201d he said. \u201c[W]e not only want people to be at peace when they\u02bcre talking to the Lord because of the beauty around them, [but] we also want to attract people that aren\u02bct [part of] the Church today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt that an adoration chapel was a way to bring meditation [and] conversation with the Lord without technically participating in the sacraments,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd many people that are either members of the Church and don\u02bct participate in the sacraments, or they\u02bcre not members of any church … still their hearts are restless.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the dedication on June 12, Archbishop P\u00e9rez commended Ward and Kathy for their \u201cbig hearts\u201d after their work to bring the chapel to life. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a gift,\u201d he said. \u201cGod will do what God will do, and only God knows right in his big, enormous heart what will happen in that chapel \u2014 how people will be touched, conversations will be had, [and] hearts will be healed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Archdiocese of Philadelphia this week opened a new perpetual adoration chapel, one that Archbishop Nelson P\u00e9rez said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95367,22362,16691,91335,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-218438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-adoration","tag-archdiocese-of-philadelphia","tag-catholic-news","tag-eucharistic-adoration","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}