As the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when he was a Cardinal, this Pope supported all efforts in the establishment of Eucharistic adoration. As Pope he has established Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration for the laity in each of the five Dioceses of Rome. Here are some of his quotes on the importance of Eucharistic Adoration in our lives:
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“(Eucharistic) Adoration is not opposed to Communion, nor is it merely added to it. Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by Adoration.”
Sept. 2003 – “God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart Of Life” (Ignatius Press)
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“Let us take time, in the course of the week, in passing, to go in and spend a moment with the Lord who is so near.”
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“This is what is lovely about Catholic churches, that within them there is, as it were, always worship, because the Eucharistic presence of the Lord dwells always within them.”
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“Let us beseech the Lord to reawaken in us the joy at his presence and that we may once more adore him. Without adoration, there is no transformation of the world.”
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“The adoration of the Lord in the sacrament is also an education in sensitizing our conscience. “Christ comes into the hearts of our brothers and sisters and visits their consciences’. When the conscience becomes dulled, this lets in the violence that lays waste the world.”
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“Only within the breathing space of adoration can the Eucharistic celebration indeed be alive. … Communion and adoration do not stand side by side, or even in opposition, but are indivisibly one.”
April 20, 2005 – Homily At Vatican
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“I ask everyone to intensify in coming months love and devotion to the Eucharistic Jesus and to express in a courageous and clear way the real presence of the Lord.”
Aug. 28, 2005 – Address After Angelus
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“(Eucharistic) Adoration is not a luxury but a priority…”.
Oct. 15, 2005 – Catechitical Meeting With Children
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“…(Eucharistic) Adoration is recognizing that Jesus is my Lord, that Jesus shows me the way to take, and that I will live well only if I know the road that Jesus points out and follow the path he shows me. Therefore, adoration means saying: “Jesus, I am yours. I will follow you in my life, I never want to lose this friendship, this communion with you”. I could also say that adoration is essentially an embrace with Jesus in which I say to him: “I am yours, and I ask you, please stay with me always”.”
Oct. 25, 2005 – Message To Dutch Youth
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“Go to the encounter with Him in the Blessed Eucharist, go to adore Him in the churches, kneeling before the Tabernacle: Jesus will fill you with His love and will reveal to you the thoughts of His Heart. If you listen to Him, you will feel ever more deeply the joy of belonging to His Mystical Body, the Church, which is the family of his disciples held close by the bond of unity and love.”
Dec. 22, 2005 – Address To Roman Curia
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“The development of Eucharistic Adoration in the Middle Ages was the most coherent consequence of the Eucharistic mystery.”
March 2, 2006 – Comments In A Meeting With Priests Of The Rome Diocese About Their Efforts In Establishing Perpetual Adoration
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“Perpetual (Eucharistic) Adoration is a neurological point of the life of faith.”
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“I only wish to thank God…(that Perpetual Eucharistic) Adoration has been reborn everywhere in the Church.”
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“Adoration is to enter into profound heartfelt communion with the Lord, who makes Himself bodily present in the Eucharist. In the monstrance, He always entrusts Himself to us and asks us to be united with His Presence, with his risen Body.”
May 25, 2006 – Address To Priests In Poland
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“There is a need for silent adoration of Jesus concealed in the Host. Be assiduous in the prayer of adoration and teach it to the faithful. It is a source of comfort and light, particularly to those who are suffering.”
June 15, 2006 – Homily On The Solemnity Of Corpus Christi
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“When, in adoration, we look at the consecrated Host, the sign of creation speaks to us. And so, we encounter the greatness of his gift; but we also encounter the Passion, the Cross of Jesus and his Resurrection. Through this gaze of adoration, he draws us toward Himself, within His mystery, through which He wants to transform us as He transformed the Host.”
Sept. 11, 2006 – Homily in Alloting, Germany
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“Only by adoring this presence do we learn how to receive Him properly. … Let us love being with the Lord! There we can speak with Him about everything. We can offer Him our petitions, our concerns, our troubles. Our joys. Our gratitude, our disappointments, our needs and our aspirations. There we can also constantly ask Him: ‘Lord send laborers into Your harvest! Help me to be a good worker in Your vineyard!’.”
Oct. 16, 2006 – Speech
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“(Eucharistic) adoration must precede our every activity and programme, that it may render us truly free and that we may be given the criteria for our action.”
Nov. 2006 – Benedictus: Day By Day With Pope Benedict XVI (Ignatius Press)
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“Today we run the risk of having our churches turned into museums and ending like museums: If they are not closed, they are pillaged. They have no life. The measure of the Church’s vitality, the measure of its interior openness, will be reflected in the fact that its doors remain open, precisely because it is a church where there is constant prayer. The Eucharist, and the community that celebrates it, will be full in the measure in which we prepare ourselves in silent prayer before the presence of the Lord and become persons who want to communicate with truth.”
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“The Eucharist means God has answered: The Eucharist is God as an answer, as an answering presence. Now the initiative no longer lies with us, in the God-man relationship, but with Him, and it now becomes really serious. That is why, in the sphere of Eucharistic adoration, prayer attains a new level; now it is two-way, and so now it really is a serious business.”
Feb. 22, 2007 – Sacrementum Caritatis (The Sacrament Of Charity) Post-Synodal Exhortation
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“I heartily recommend to the Church’s pastors and to the People of God the practice of Eucharistic adoration, both individually and in community.”
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“(Adoration) enables the faithful to experience the liturgical celebration more fully and more fruitfully.”
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“The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself.”
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“Only in adoration can profound and genuine reception (of the Eucharist) mature.”
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“This personal encounter with the Lord…strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another.”
Oct. 6, 2007 – Address After Angelus
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“In life today, often noisy and dispersive, it is more important than ever to recover the capacity for inner silence and recollection. Eucharistic adoration permits this, not only centred on the “I” but more so in the company of that “You” full of love who is Jesus Christ, “the God who is near to us”..”
May 22, 2008 – Homily On The Solemnity Of Corpus Christi
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“Adoring the God of Jesus Christ, who out of love made himself bread broken, is the most effective and radical remedy against the idolatry of the past and of the present.”
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“Adoring the Body of Christ, means believing that there, in that piece of Bread, Christ is really there, and gives true sense to life, to the immense universe as to the smallest creature, to the whole of human history as to the most brief existence. Adoration is prayer that prolongs the celebration and Eucharistic communion and in which the soul continues to be nourished: it is nourished with love, truth, peace; it is nourished with hope, because the One before whom we prostrate ourselves does not judge us, does not crush us but liberates and transforms us.”
Nov. 17, 2010 – Speech At General Audience At Vatican
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“Faithfully encountering the Eucharistic Christ at Sunday Mass is essential for our journey of faith, but let us also seek to visit the Lord frequently, before His presence in the Tabernacle. …By gazing at Him in adoration the Lord draws us to Him, to His mystery, in order to transform us as He transforms the bread and wine.”
Dec. 22, 2011 – Speech At General Audience At Vatican
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“(Eucharistic) Adoration is primarily an act of faith – the act of faith as such. God is not just some possible or impossible hypothesis concerning the origin of all things. He is present. And if he is present, then I bow down before him. Then my intellect and will and heart open up towards him and from him. In the risen Christ, the incarnate God is present, who suffered for us because he loves us. We enter this certainty of God’s tangible love for us with love in our own hearts. This is adoration, and this then determines my life. Only thus can I celebrate the Eucharist correctly and receive the body of the Lord rightly.”
Oct. 12, 2012 – Message To Young People
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“I also encourage you to practise Eucharistic adoration. Time spent in listening and talking with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament becomes a source of new missionary enthusiasm..”
Other Pope Benedict XVI Eucharistic Adoration Quotes
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“We cannot live, we cannot look at the truth about ourselves without letting ourselves be looked at and generated by Christ in daily Eucharistic Adoration.”
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“From (Eucharistic) Adoration compassion is born for all men, and from this compassion the thirst is born to evangelize.”
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“There is another aspect of prayer which we need to remember: silent contemplation. Saint John, for example, tells us that to embrace God’s revelation we must first listen, then respond by proclaiming what we have heard and seen. Have we perhaps lost something of the art of listening? Do you leave space to hear God’s whisper, calling you forth into goodness? Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness, listen to God, adore Him in the Eucharist. Let His word shape your journey as an unfolding of holiness.”