Perpetual prayer endures 10 years at chapel

Jun. 5—A light is ever glowing at night inside Holy Spirit Parish's Adoration chapel across from St. Mary Church, and no matter what time of day or night it is, someone is inside praying.

Always.

Sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of the start of what the Catholic churches in New Castle call the Eucharistic Adoration — 24 hours, 7 days a week of never-ending prayer that only recesses on Saturdays and Sundays during mass times. In observance of the decade anniversary, the Holy Spirit Parish is planning a renewal of the Adoration on Sunday, and there will be an explanation to the congregation before mass of what to do when you go to the chapel to pray, and why it's important to go there, explained Vickie Onufrak.

Onufrak, an originator of the perpetual observance, organizes the prayer schedule so there no shifts are left open.

The Adoration started on June 11, 2013. That date was also the Feast of Corpus Christi, celebrating the Real Presence of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the elements of the Eucharist.

Next month there will also will be a Eucharistic procession on that date, from St. Vitus Church to the chapel with the Blessed Sacrament to commemorate the decade anniversary.

"That's how we started it," Onufrak said.

Dr. Terence P. Meehan, superintendent of Neshannock Township and Wilmington area school districts, is one of the original prayer warriors who has helped uphold the vigil, going twice a week for all of those years.

"We pray all year, 12 months a year, 24 hours a day," Meehan said.

His prayer shifts at the chapel are for an hour every Sunday beginning at midnight, and every Friday at 12:30 a.m. while most people are sleeping.

When his prayer hour is over, another worshipper who has signed up for the next hour's shift takes over and continues the prayers. And so on to the next person, then the next, all the time.

"With all of the bad in the world and in this community, the good thing is, people are praying while everybody is sleeping," Meehan said.

He said he takes the night turns because he prefers the early morning solitude for his matins.

Onufrak keeps a list of substitutes, in case someone can't show up, and a committee helps to coordinate shifts.

The chapel, located next to the Mary Mother of Hope Parish Center on North Beaver Street, is always secured and locked for security purposes. The person praying will let in the next prayer at night when that person rings the buzzer. During the daytime, the chapel is open to anyone who wants to pray, but it closes and locks at dusk.

At night, Meehan has to be buzzed in, and the person praying ahead of him lets him in.

"I'm always there by myself, but during the day, other people come and go and other people can go ring the doorbell and go in and say a prayer. After dark it's just for a person scheduled there," he said.

"We know who they are," he said of people who ring the buzzer, and if someone comes looking for help or for other reasons, the people praying will talk over the intercom and try to direct them to where they can get help. Sometimes people are just asking for money.

Meehan and Onufrak both expressed the spiritual importance of not interrupting the devotional link.

Meehan said a person who signs up to pray can't leave if the person behind him or her doesn't show up.

"You have to stay on because you don't want to break the prayer chain," he said. "Someone has to always be there to take over and pray."

Onufrak explained that in the Catholic faith, the host is the body and blood of Christ and the true presence of the Lord, and the Sacrament is exposed there, she explained.

"The blessed Sacrament can never be left alone when it's exposed on the altar, because Jesus cannot be left alone. When the Host is on the altar, that's the Lord," she said."You can't leave the building if no one else is there. You can talk to God anywhere, but there, when you expose the Blessed Sacrament, you're talking right to Jesus. That visual is an experience of, 'I know this is you, and here are my problems. You give adoration to the Lord.'"

"It's a powerful thing," she added. "So many people have told me it's changed their lives."

"It's very, very special," Meehan agreed. "I think it's really neat that while everybody's sleeping in this town, somebody has us covered with prayer. When I drive over the bypass and see the lights in that chapel, it's comforting to me."

"That hour goes quickly," he added. "It's like going to your best friends' house. I'm a deeply spiritual person and it works for me."

Onufrak said the idea for the nonstop Eucharistic Adoration started from her prayer group of women who decided to look into having one locally. They consulted other churches, including Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Youngstown.

A priest suggested they start big, with perpetual adoration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When the informed the congregation about it, "people wanted to do it, I didn't even ask," she said. "They loved going there because it's so peaceful.

"You commit to an hour a week, and some people commit to two or three hours because they love having a place of refuge and peace," Onufrak said.

The organizers had to ask permission from the priest and the bishop and ensure that details such as restrooms and security were available.

"Miraculously, it just fell into place," she said. "It took seven to eight months for us to be ready and present this to the people in church."

At first, 200 people had signed up, she said, and it was right after four churches were combined into one. Now there are seven churches but fewer people. The number has dwindled as people have died or left town, but more than 100 people still participate.

We hope we can get more people involved," she said. A lot of the people have died, and she sees the need to get younger people involved.

She added that anyone can sign up to pray, and those who sign up don't have to be of the Catholic faith. A man of the Jewish faith prayed there for a couple of years, then he converted to Catholicism, she said.

"All of the priests have supported this and are so glad we have this," she said.

Onufrak has prayer duty there from 8 to 9 a.m. on Saturdays, plus she will fill in for others who signed up but cannot go for some reason.

It's her mantra that everybody has one hour out of a week that they can give to God.

"When you first go in, you should kneel on two knees, but people can sit or do whatever they want. The chapel has a bookcase with books and Bibles. People go in there with walkers and canes, and sit and pray. It's all on one level. You can sit there and not say a word, it's whatever you feel in your heart to do," she said.

"I feel like God directs this and wants this, and we are doing something good and holy," she said. "I believe this is something from God, and nobody can stop it."

Meehan said he prays for many things during his hours.

"It's usually thankfulness of all of the blessings, and I pray for people in need," he said. "I pray for what's on my mind, the schools, my family.

"When I think of my life in the past 10 years, my mother died, I was in between jobs, and I prayed about what should I do, and I've been able to go there to find strength," he said. "It's not that I couldn't find that in my own living room, but it's a matter of removing myself from all of the distractions.

"I'm just so inspired there," he said. "It's a time of peace for me, and I'm taking time to block out the world and go there in silence."

"There's also something very peaceful to me about the middle of the night," he said. "It's become a very special part of my life."

Onufrak shared similar sentiments.

"I get peace when I'm there praying, and it helps me through the rest of the week," she said. "You get a lot of peace in your soul. You feel like you've been with the Lord, so what am I afraid of? It just makes life easier."

Her prayers, too, also are for various causes — her family, her church, her grandchildren growing up.

"You feel like you leave it all there and the Lord will take care of it," she said. "You get peace in knowing that your life is in His hands."

dwachter@ncnewsonline.com