Dear Parishoners
This coming week our Parish Family will be hosting our Lenten Mission centered around 40 Forty Hours Devotion. It will be “old home week” here at the Parish as we will be inviting back priests who have served here at St. Patrick: Fr. Shibi Pappan, OIC (2014 – 2018), Fr. Doug Arcoleo (1998 – 2003) and Fr. Sean Magaldi (2015-2019).
The Forty Hours Devotion is a special forty-hour period of continuous prayer made before the Blessed Sacrament in solemn exposition. Naturally, the emphasis of this devotion is on the Eucharist.
40 Hours Devotion comes from the 40 hours that Christ’s body traditionally rested in the tomb. In addition, the number forty has always signified a sacred period of time: the rains during the time of Noah lasted 40 days and nights; the Jews wandered through the desert for 40 years, our Lord fasted and prayed for 40 days before beginning His public ministry, and there are 40 days between Christ’s resurrection and ascension,
The practice of 40 Hours Devotion dates to as early as 1527, introduced by St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria in Milan and Vicenza. 40 Hours Devotion was also spread by the work of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Philip Neri. In 1539, Pope Paul III wrote to the Archbishop of Milan granting a plenary indulgence for those attending 40 Hours and Pope Clement VIII brought the practice to Rome in 1592.
Here in the United States, St. John Neumann, the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, was the first church leader in America to practice the devotion. At the time, Catholics faced great opposition in his home city of Philadelphia during the Know- Nothing Riots of 1844. Anti-Catholic protesters even burned two churches and continued to foster animosity towards the Catholics.
Bishop Neumann wanted to institute 40 Hours Devotion, but some of the priests in the diocese were hesitant, believing that it might ignite further anti-Catholic sentiment and even result in the desecration of the Eucharist. One evening, Bishop Neumann was working late into the night when he fell asleep at his desk with his candle still lit. As he slept, the candle burnt down and caught the papers on his desk. Miraculously, he awoke before a large fire broke out. Neumann thanked God for His protection and Neumann heard the voice of the Lord speak to him, telling him not to fear about having the devotion. The first Forty Hours Devotion was held in St. Philip Neri Parish, and then expanded throughout the diocese and then being approved for all America.
While the Forty Hours Devotion nurtures the love of the faithful for our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, three special dimensions have also surrounded this devotion: the protection from evil and temptation; reparation for our own sins and for the Poor Souls in Purgatory; and deliverance from political, material, or spiritual calamities. The faithful are encouraged to implore our Lord to pour forth His abundant graces not only for themselves, but their neighbors, not only for their own personal needs, but for those of the world.
The Forty Hours Devotion provides a wonderful opportunity for the spiritual growth of each person and for the parish as a whole. In a world where temptation and evil abound, where devotion to the Mass and our Lord in the Holy Eucharist have declined, where the practice of penance and confession have lessened, we need the Forty Hours Devotion more than ever.
Please come by and spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament. I especially encourage you to be present when our guest priests will give their Lenten reflections.
Remember: Together, we can do something beautiful for God.
In Christ,
Fr. Brian