St. Cecelia perpetual adoration chapel celebrates 22 years

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
July 13, 2006

ALGONA - Perpetual adoration brings Catholics in some parishes and religious communities to chapels to pray before the Blessed Sacrament 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The perpetual adoration chapel at St. Cecelia Parish in Algona was established July 1, 1984, so people have been participating in Algona for 22 years now.

"I know that at that time there were several (perpetual adoration chapels) started around the country," Lorri Larsen, pastoral associate at St. Cecelia Parish. "The information that I have is that there are only 644 perpetual adoration chapels in the United States."

Larsen and her husband Deacon Robert Larsen have belonged to three parishes including St. Cecelia's that have perpetual adoration chapels.

"I think our parishioners feel the benefit from the prayer," said Larsen. "It calls us together as a community to be responsible to one another."

Larsen commented that a lot of good responses come out of the chapel and the prayer time.

"I think so many good things have come to the parish as a result of the perpetual adoration chapel," said Father Paul Eisele, pastor at St. Cecelia Church. "We have 24-hour, all year long prayer for various petitions that parishioners put in there all the time. There is a book that has the petitions written in it. Eucharistic adoration is an important part of the church. We need to continue to do that. It has been very much of a blessing for the parish."

He continued that perpetual adoration is an important ministry in the United States.

"It is a good time to be quiet in the presence of the Lord and listen to what God has to say to us," said the pastoral associate. "When we were renovating our church and a little in the chapel, one of the phrases that I came across was 'to place yourself in the divine presence of the divine healer.'"

She continued that this is one of the issues that they try to bring before people - "to come and be quiet and let that quiet heal your spirit."

"He knows where we need to be healed even before we do," said Larsen.

The perpetual adoration chapel at St. Cecelia's is located in the church on the east side where the east sacristy used to be. It has been renovated into the chapel.

"Because of illness, health or retirement, we always have some rotation of positions," said Larsen. "Our goal is to get two people in for every hour that way they can shift back and forth."

Communities that have established perpetual adoration of the Eucharist are expected to assure that there are always some members present in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

At St. Cecelia's, there are often times prayer partners in the chapel and sometimes whole families, noted Larsen. People from surrounding communities also go to the chapel to pray.

"The benefit of the chapel the parishioners and the community is a definite healing power that we don't possess. It is a bond of community in our parish. We have people that come that are not Catholic that spend time in there," said Larsen. "It is open 24 hours a day if people need to, in a crisis situation, go and pray and know that they are in a safe place. There is always someone there."

The chapel has some safety features because people are there around the clock. There is a self-contained restroom with a telephone, so if anything would happen - emergency, health issues, someone could make a call.

"We have installed locks on all of the doors, so if someone is not comfortable being there, you can lock the door and feel secure," said Larsen. "We have made it as safe as we could. We encourage people to sign-up for an hour for those open hours and for hours that only have one person - to have the flexibility of being away."