Middle and high school students lead younger children in monthly adoration
Children sat and knelt on the floor near the steps to the sanctuary of St. Ambrose Church as Deacon Joseph Arnone placed the body of Christ into the monstrance on the altar.
The white host in the center of the monstrance is really Jesus, Packie Ertmann explained to them.
“We’ve come to spend a special time of prayer in the eucharistic presence, to love Him, receive Him and listen to Him,” the sophomore at St. John Vianney High School said.
Each month, the St. Ambrose youth group hosts a children’s adoration specifically designed to let the little children come to Him. Middle and high school students sit in the front with younger children, guiding them in prayer, songs and small activities like coloring sheets while their parents have a chance to pray behind in the pews.
After about 20 minutes of adoration, they concluded with a simple prayer of spiritual Communion before Benediction, repeating after the leader: “Jesus, I love you. I know you are here in the Eucharist. Come to my heart. Come to my heart.”
The children’s adoration started about a year ago when Packie was searching for a meaningful service project to fulfill the requirement for his Beyond Sunday Education Fund scholarship.
“I thought about, what is the biggest way I can help the faith lives of people at St. Ambrose? And I thought that little kids don’t really have much of a time that they can really sit with Jesus,” he said. “So I thought a children’s adoration would be a great way to give them that space.”
Adoration has played an important role in developing Packie’s own relationship with Jesus. Besides the perpetual adoration chapel at St. Ambrose Church, Packie likes to spend a few minutes in eucharistic adoration when it’s available during free period at Vianney, he said.
“Being able to sit in a space and really feel connected to God, having Jesus Himself up there on the altar, and knowing I can talk to Him and let my worries go with Him has been great for helping me with some of my doubts, some of the questions I have,” he said.
His father and stepmother, Pat Ertmann and Annie Daub, lead the parish’s youth group, made up mostly of middle schoolers with a handful of high school mentors. Packie recruited the youth group to facilitate and plan each month’s adoration with a different spiritual theme; this month’s focused on the Blessed Mother.
“It helps me gain the responsibility of watching these children,” sixth grader Quinn Franceschi said. “And watching them grow in Christ helps me grow.”
“I think it’s really great they’re able to go and experience Jesus in the Eucharist, and really, some of them are getting introduced to church, so I think that’s really helpful,” seventh grader Aria LoRusso added.
After adoration, everyone heads outside to the playground for treats and social time. Emily Fragale and her four children (or at least a couple of them) have attended the event every month since it began. Youth group leader Annie Daub also teaches PreK-4 at St. Ambrose School, and Fragale’s youngest is in Daub’s class now, she said.
Her children look forward to adoration every month as a chance to spend time in church outside of Mass. Reverence is certainly still expected, but it’s relaxed enough that no one is worried about kids’ normal murmurs and fidgeting — they can just be themselves, she said.
It helps them understand that “you can have a lot of respect for God and still be a kid, too,” Fragale said. “We hang up their (coloring) pictures when we go home. They get put on the walls, and they’re very proud to show us. We often talk about what songs they sing and what they mean.”
As a preschool teacher, Daub has seen how even very young children have a longing for Jesus waiting to be discovered and nurtured.
She recalled one preschool student who was baptized Catholic but didn’t regularly attend Mass or know much about faith. “The more she was in school, the more she just wanted to be with Jesus. So now she requests to make visits (to the chapel), she loves going to Mass, and now her parents are attending Mass on Sunday,” she said. “…The more I talk to them about it, the more they just thirst for it.”
Children’s adoration is typically held once a month at St. Ambrose Church. All are welcome. For upcoming dates, visit stambroseonthehill.com or the parish’s Facebook: St. Ambrose Catholic Church.
