Parish Holy Hours

In the fall of 2023, I proposed inaugurating a monthly holy hour for parishioners at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ. Our perpetual Adoration ministry had dwindled in the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic, and my hope was to restore zeal for Eucharistic Adoration at the parish. I shared the idea with Annie, and she took to organizing and implementing the holy hour right away. She produced booklets with all the prayers and hymns, and helped author different formats for the holy hour—for example, one format was a holy hour for vocations with Vespers included; another was a holy hour for families, with a children-led rosary. 

She also accommodated our strongly bilingual community by publishing texts and hymns in both English and Spanish, which made for a very beautiful prayer service in which members of both  communities could easily participate. She coordinated the readers, printed the booklets, and even sang for some of the holy hours; Annie’s initiative in the endeavor remains unparalleled by any other parishioner with whom I’ve worked, and I’m pleased to have done so. I would thoroughly recommend Annie’s help for anyone who is looking to implement a holy hour at their parish, and renew zeal for Eucharistic Adoration among their faithful.