Religion
Adoration
By Emily Green ('22)
I had never had a connection to adoration, or the Blessed Sacrament, before this moment I am about to talk about. To begin I am going to set the scene, I am in the middle of Louisiana with over two thousand teens at a conference called Steubenville. This conference is a weekend of talks, mass, worship, fellowship, and music. The big moment of this conference is the Saturday night adoration. Everyone talks about it and comes out of it changed or impacted in some way. Saturday night is what is said to be a life-changing night, people experience Jesus in a way that they had never before. I found that a little hard to believe and my first Steubenville I did not experience this “life-changing” experience everyone had had during Saturday night adoration, I had a preconception and expectation of that night. Regardless, I decided to go back the next year and try to not have any expectations going into adoration because that hindered my experience in the previous year. So I went into this adoration with zero expectations of what is going to happen and just let myself be in the presence of God. They entered the doors of this huge conference room, dimmed the lights a bit, and had a huge spotlight on the monstrance, which is the pretty vessel that Jesus is held in. The amount of peace I felt at that moment was unmatched. The rest of the two hours consisted of helping others and praying with others around me while talking to Jesus. At one point in those two hours, the priests were bringing the monstrance around to everyone and then came up to me, I got to touch Jesus which I cannot fully put into words how that felt besides invigorating. I had never felt like this before and ever since that moment I have had a special connection with adoration. I love going. It is such an intimate moment with Jesus and how cool is it that we get to be in the very presence of the person who created the world and you?? And it is a sacrament and opportunity that is so readily available to us to go to. I have grown in my relationship with the Lord substantially through adoration. It is something that has changed me as a person. Steubenville will forever be a part of my faith journey. Adoration brings so much peace and I wish everyone would take the opportunity to go to adoration. They are not all going to be life-changing moments which I have learned. However, being in the presence of God in the silence is how I nurture a relationship with the Lord. It gives me a moment to sit with Him and hear what he has to say without all the distractions of the world. I could not recommend adoration enough and hope everyone gets to experience the peace and sheer love of the relationship with the Lord that can be nurtured in this sacrament.
Blessed Vincent R. Capodanno
by Itzel De León ('23)
Vincent was born on February 13, 1929 in Staten Island, New York. He graduated from Curtis High School and Fordham University before entering the Maryknoll Missionary Seminary. He was then ordained a Catholic priest in 1958 and was sent to serve in a parish and school with the Hakka people in Taiwan. Six years later he arrived back in the US and volunteered to serve as a military captain in Vietnam. During his time in the military he requested to serve with the Fleet Marine Force in Vietnam and served for 3 years as a lieutenant. On Labor Day, during Operation Swift, Capodanno and his battalion were outnumbered and surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army. There were many US casualties and Capodanno requested reinforcements yet they were still outnumbered. When Capodanno heard that most of his battalion were killed or overrun by the Vietnamese, he started helping them and giving them last rites. He was wounded in the arms, legs, and hands however he refused a medical evacuation for himself to help a seriously wounded Navy corpsman and two wounded marines. While he was helping, Capodanno was shot 27 times by a machine gun and was killed in action. He received the highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor and many more medals for his actions. After a year-long investigation, Capodanno was credited with the miracle of a woman in Florida that was suffering from multiple sclerosis in 2019. The effort for his canonization has grown as well as his popularity among those in the Catholic Church.The USS Capodanno was commissioned in 1973 and was the first ship in the US fleet to receive a papal blessing by Pope John Paul II in 1981. Saint Vincent Chapel, located in Capodanno’s mission territory in Taiwan was also chosen as a memorial for him. Even before his death, Capodanno was known for his willingness to help his fellow marines during times of hardship and his companions stated he was “Radiating Christ” and was even given the nickname “Grunt Padre.”