Students pledge time with Jesus in Blessed Sacrament

The program at Our Lady of Lourdes School encourages children to spend time in Eucharistic adoration.

MARLENE QUARONI | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Posted: 10.21.09

Adorer Abbigail Perez prays during exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Lourdes Church Oct. 2. The parish school is marking the fifth anniversary this year of its Children of Hope program, which encourages children of all ages to spend at least 15 minutes a month praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Adorer Abbigail Perez prays during exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Lourdes Church Oct. 2. The parish school is marking the fifth anniversary this year of its Children of Hope program, which encourages children of all ages to spend at least 15 minutes a month praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

KENDALL | Nicholas and Augustina Quesada, 12-year-old twins and seventh-graders at Our Lady of Lourdes School here, have made a pledge: At least once a month, they will spend 15 minutes praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

Around 125 of their classmates made the same pledge this year as part of the “Children of Hope” adoration program that has been in existence for five years at the Kendall school.

“Our dad comes to the chapel on Saturday mornings from 1 to 3 a.m. to pray and protect the monstrance,” said Nicholas. “We love Jesus Christ. He is the center of our lives.”

The young adorers at the 600-student body pre-K to eighth-grade school are asked to visit Our Lady of Lourdes’ perpetual adoration chapel at least once a month, either before school, from 7 to 7:15 a.m., or after school, from 3 to 3:15 p.m.

Melba Remoir and Nicole Cedeno, teachers’ assistants at Our Lady of Lourdes, introduced the program to the school in 2005. Cedeno said she discovered eucharistic adoration during a visit to Medjugorie, Yugoslavia, in 1998 for a youth festival. Remoir became involved when a friend took her to St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest, which has perpetual adoration.

“I grew up in Catholic schools,” Remoir said. “I never knew about adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.”

In 2004, Father Fernando Isern, Our Lady of Lourdes pastor, opened a perpetual adoration chapel. The following year, while browsing the Internet, Remoir found an adoration program for children which Father Antoine Thomas, a French priest, had developed in France. Father Thomas is a familiar face on EWTN, the Catholic TV network, and travels worldwide promoting the children’s adoration program.

On the first Friday in October, there is an international celebration dedicated to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. At Our Lady of Lourdes, the celebration, held Oct. 2, included a film on the adoration program, a Mass, and the induction of the children as adorers. Each of the adorers received a wooden cross inscribed with the words, “Body of Christ.” Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament followed the Mass.

Father Isern said he is very open to both perpetual adoration and the children’s program.

“It’s been a tremendous blessing for the parish,” he said. “People have really been in love with Our Lord, and the graces and the blessings have been so obvious.”

Remoir echoed Father Isern’s words.

“We have a bulletin board for intentions and prayer petitions,” she said. “We’ve had parents of young soldiers who’ve asked for intercessions for their sons and daughters.”

Remoir said she would like other Catholic schools to discover and start the program in their schools. She said Father Jordi Rivero, pastor of St. Timothy in Miami, another church that has perpetual adoration, has expressed an interest in starting the program at his school.

For more information on Children of Hope, go to the Web site.

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