A 40 Hours devotion March 7-9 at Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Church in Southeast Washington was dedicated to the success of the upcoming national Eucharistic Congress to be held July 17-21 in Indianapolis, according to Msgr. Charles Pope, the pastor.

The parish is also working to send five to 10 people to Indianapolis to participate in the congress, Msgr. Pope said.

The U.S. bishops declared this to be the “Year of the Eucharist,” and Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian has gone all-in on the theme.

It started Sept. 17 with the feast of the parish patron, St. Cyprian, Msgr. Pope said. “We had St. Cyprian’s teaching on the Eucharist,” he added, followed by retreat days focused on the Eucharist and the Mass.

During Advent, the parish held a “family day” aimed at “focusing on one aspect of Mass and the Holy Eucharist, and a study day, with lunch, about the Holy Eucharist,” the pastor added. The family day and study day were repeated during Lent.

Msgr. Pope is in the midst of a 25-part series focusing on the Mass. He calls it “the Mass in slow motion” because of the series’s length. They appear weekly in the parish bulletin. The series, he said, “explains every little part of the Mass – what is it is, what it means.”

A separate series still being posted on the parish’s website focuses on Eucharistic miracles.

Between now and the parish patronal feast in September, Msgr. Pope said he hopes to have speakers talking on the Mass or the Eucharist.

Parishioners will also have their chance to get involved. On April 7, Divine Mercy Sunday, Massgoers will take part in what the pastor called “a small procession” around the block.

A larger procession is being planned for June 2, the feast of Corpus Christi, when Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian parishioners would join with three other nearby parishes – St. Dominic, St. Joseph and St. Peter – each parish processing from its respective Church and “meeting at the Capitol to pray for the nation,” with a final benediction at one of the Churches closer to the Capitol.

Planning for Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian’s events started a year in advance, Msgr. Pope said.

At midmorning March 8, there were but four people inside the Church for adoration; Msgr. Pope said he had gotten two people to sign up for each of the 40 hours of the devotion. But the numbers kept growing as parishioners kept trickling in, aided by the parish Sodality, which led a late-morning rosary prior to the lunch hour.

Sodality member Sharon Graham, who is also a member of the parish’s Ladies of Charity chapter, signed up for two consecutive morning hours, foregoing breakfast to get to the Church in time. What’s more, she stayed longer than the two hours she had signed up for.

“I’ve got a praise report: I can’t sit for long periods of time without getting very stiff and my body starts aching,” said Graham, who is in her 70s. But despite all that time in the pew, Graham declared, “I just feel great!”

Asked what she prays when with the Lord for two hours-plus, Graham replied, “There are so many prayers,” before listing some: the morning offering, the act of contrition and the rosary, not to mention her own conversation with God.

“Sometimes it’s not prayer that was written, but just my prayer that’s an opportunity to use my own expressions,” she said. “God said, ‘Come as you are,’ so I come as I am and I feel comfortable talking to him about things, really, and trusting him with things that I don’t feel comfortable talking to anybody else (about). ... It really sends chills up my spine, because he is so worthy, so worthy.”

Graham, who considers herself “practically a lifetime member” of the parish – she was part of St. Cyprian Parish before the merger with Holy Comforter Parish – can’t quite remember precisely when she was first drawn to Eucharistic adoration, but noted that it’s been for some time.

Nor does she limit herself to Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian for Eucharistic devotion. Graham’s residence in Northeast Washington is closer to St. Anthony Parish, which affords her an opportunity for weekday adoration after the parish’s morning Mass. She also volunteers at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land.

“Devotion to the Eucharist has really been for me been a wonderful experience. Devotion to the Eucharist has given me a peace and a joy that transcends comprehension in this world in which we live,” Graham said. “And it gives me so much hope, because I believe in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. That gives me so much hope and so much consolation.”