On August 1, 2025, the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur will celebrate 140 years of Perpetual Adoration. To prepare for the anniversary, the basilica will hold a novena of 140 adorers per night before the great celebration, beginning on July 24. We'll talk about this on Monday, July 21 as the next in our Son Rise Morning series of 2025 anniversaries. As usual, I'll be on the air about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.
If you want to book a flight to participate, you also need to book a room in the hostel, especially for August 1, because the events start at 3 p.m. and end after Midnight:
August 1, 2025
3:00 p.m.: Solemn Mass presided over by Cardinal Christophe PIERRE, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, with Apostolic Blessing granted by Pope Leo XIV.
4:30 p.m.: Grand Eucharistic Procession (bring multicolored rose petals)
5:30 p.m.: Meditated Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
6:00 p.m.: Solemn Vespers
6:30 p.m. Teaching on the Consecration to the Sacred Heart (At the Crypt. Mandatory, including for renewals of consecration.)
8:30 p.m.: Vigil of Consecration
9:30 p.m.: Compline
10:00 p.m.: Solemn Mass to give thanks to God
11:00 p.m.: Meditated Adoration until midnight
Midnight: Blessing of the faithful and the city with the Blessed Sacrament. Sung Te Deum.
In 2020, Solène Tadié wrote for the National Catholic Register about the perpetual adoration at Sacre Coeur:
Day and night since Aug. 1, 1885, the Body of Christ in the Holy Sacrament has been exposed and adored inside the basilica (except for Good Friday), whatever the external conditions, even the most extreme. This is remarkable, as the history of France hasn’t exactly been calm since that time, including for the Catholic Church, which is also facing an unprecedented wave of secularization at every level of society.
“The adoration hasn’t stopped even for a minute, including during the two world wars,” Sister Cécile-Marie, member of the Benedictine Sisters of the Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre and responsible for the nights of adoration at the basilica, told the Register. “Even during the 1944 bombing, when some fragments fell right next to the basilica, the adorers never left.”
Adoration continued throughout the COVID shutdowns with the Benedictine Sisters taking all the hours until others could enter the basilica. Sister Cécile-Marie highlights the bombing of the basilica in 1944 and that's appropriate because Sacre-Coeur was built after France lost the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and after the uprisings of the Paris Commune.
The selection of the site for the basilica dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, Montmartre, is where Saint Denis, one of the patron saints of Paris, was martyred. The church, built with travertine limestone that exudes calcite when it rains, is bright and white. It's architectural style is Byzantine and the interior is filled with chapels and beautiful mosaics.
Since it was built with the purpose of reparation for the sins of the French nation, many, like Clemenceau and Zola, opposed its construction, but it was finally completed in 1919. In 2022, Sacre-Coeur was named a national historical monument.
Whenever Mark and I visited Sacre-Coeur, we noted the contrast between the square outside the basilica, with souvenir hawkers and tourists just looking out over the vista of Paris beneath, to the quiet and hush of the church inside, with ushers urging men to take off their baseball caps, and muffled sounds of footsteps around the church.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
No comments:
Post a Comment