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Healing the Land on Election Day

Group behind nationwide Eucharistic Processions organizes all-day Eucharistic Adoration for November 3rd.

Unite Our Nation hopes to recruit at least 1,000 parishes to offer all-day Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Election Day, Nov. 3. (Photo by Joseph M. Hanneman)

A group that sponsored 140 Eucharistic Processions nationwide since mid-August is calling for all-day Eucharistic Adoration at more than 1,000 parishes on Election Day, to implore God’s help in electing just leaders who foster a culture of life.

Unite Our Nation, which began with one Eucharistic Procession on the riot-scarred streets of Wisconsin’s capital city on August 15, has since completed 140 such processions in places including San Diego, Calif.; Bothell, Wash.; Tyler, Texas; Gainesville, Va.; and Breezy Point, N.Y. Organizers now plan to arrange all-day Eucharistic Adoration at more than 1,000 churches while voters across America go to the polls for the presidential election.

“Can you imagine having a thousand parishes or more up and running with Eucharistic Adoration all day, begging God, asking God to open up the hearts and minds of people that they vote in a well-formed way, and that God send us holy and just leaders?” said Kevin O’Brien, co-founder of Unite Our Nation and the leader of the Men of Christ apostolate. “What a unifying thing.”

O’Brien said with so much anxiety over the country’s future, continuing violence in the streets and a bitter presidential election campaign, the group wanted to give people something positive to do on top of casting their vote on Election Day.

“When you work you eliminate worry. Action relieves anxiety,” O’Brien said. “This is a spiritual battle we’re in. We need spiritual weapons to fight this battle. That’s why we’re so hyper focused on Christ, glorifying God in everything we do, begging Him for mercy to heal our nation. This upcoming election is so important. We have nowhere else to go but to God.”

Unite Our Nation is asking parishes to offer Adoration after morning Mass and continuing until the polls close, followed by Benediction. The goal is to have 1,000 participating churches. So far, 645 have signed up based on very little publicity. As the group has done for the processions, Unite Our Nation has a web site offering pre-designed publicity materials, bulletin announcements and posters.

“We wanted to make it as easy as possible,” O’Brien said. “We took the same model that we used for the processions and said, ‘what do they need?’ They need a flyer that allows them to put their information in, they need an adoration sign-up sheet. They need to know what are the steps they need to go through? They need a bulletin insert.”

Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is the perfect answer for the anger and violence that has plagued America for much of 2020, O’Brien said. “What does the devil do? He divides. He causes you to be full of anxiety. He’s driving destruction,” he said. “What does Christ do? He unites, he brings us together, he teaches us to forgive. It’s ringing in a culture of life versus ringing in a culture of death. Liberty and freedom versus tyranny and destruction.”

O’Brien said some of his own prayers on Election Day will be that more Catholics and other people of goodwill be shown the truth by the Holy Spirit of what is really happening in society.

“Let’s ask God to open up hearts and minds, because there are good people out there who really don’t understand what is really taking place,” O’Brien said. “How can somebody decide abortion is okay and call themselves a Catholic? It can’t be done. It just absolutely can’t be done.”

“We are interceding for those who have been blinded whether they’re living in mortal sin or cut off from that grace of God. We’re begging God to open up their hearts and minds, to show them the truth so they can see reality for what reality is.”

In just the first few days of the Unite Our Nation program, over 640 parishes signed up to offer all-day Adoration on Nov. 3. (Map courtesy of Unite Our Nation)

Fr. Richard Heilman, pastor of St. Mary of Pine Bluff Catholic Church near Madison, was already planning for all-day adoration when he heard about Unite Our Nation’s program. He adjusted the hours to match what the national program suggested. Fr. Heilman said he sensed entering 2020 that prayer would be very important with a presidential election on the horizon. Adoration has been offered frequently at St. Mary, even during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fr. Heilman organized a Eucharistic Procession to the Wisconsin Capitol Building on June 14, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

“Adoration is extremely powerful,” Fr. Heilman said. “Here’s just how powerful it is. In my 32 years of priesthood, the vast majority of conversion stories I have heard revolved around someone finding their way before the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration, and that changed everything.”

In mid-January, Fr. Heilman announced he would lead a Rosary procession with the Blessed Sacrament around the Wisconsin Capitol Building. The procession took place on Jan. 31, the feast of St. John Bosco. It also ended up being the day President Trump announced a travel ban from China due to the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

“I thought we needed to pray going into this year,” he said. “I called upon the faithful to do what was called the two-pillars march around the state Capitol. That meant St. John Bosco’s two pillars. To march the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Mother around the state Capitol as we’re going into this brutal year.”

St. John Bosco (1815-1888), founder of the Salesian Society, once told of a dream he had involving a great majestic ship that was buffeted by waves and attacked by many smaller ships. He saw two giant columns rise from the waves, one bearing a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a sign that read Auxilium Christianorum (Help of Christians), the other a great Host with a sign that said, Salus Credentium (Salvation of Believers). The captain steered the ship between the pillars and secured it with chains hooked to anchors atop each pillar. The ship signified the Church and the captain represented the Holy Father.

“There remain only two means to save ourselves in the midst of so much danger and confusion,” Bosco said when recounting the dream in 1862. “Devotion to Mary Immaculate, frequent Confession and Communion. It is necessary to use every means and try our best to practice them and have them practiced everywhere and by all.”

Fr. Heilman said he has often thought of St. John Bosco during this troubled year. “Here we are now, understanding by way of the Holy Spirit, that the way out of this, to heal our land, to seek God’s supernatural power and strength, is exactly through those two columns,” he said.

Parishes wishing to participate in the Unite Our Nation program can register on the group’s web site, which also contains downloadable publicity templates. O’Brien said he believes the effort will yield great fruit. “We all have friends and family that are full of anxiety right now,” he said. “Bring them to the Prince of Peace and they will find that peace and God will bless our efforts. I have complete confidence that God will answer our prayers.”

Fr. Richard Heilman carries a relic of the True Cross and leads girls in their First Communion dresses in a Eucharistic Procession to the Wisconsin Capitol Building in Madison on June 14. (Photo by Joseph M. Hanneman)

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About Joseph M. Hanneman 101 Articles
Joseph M. Hanneman writes from Madison, Wisconsin.

3 Comments

  1. BIDEN HARRIS 2020 FOR THE WIN…i know that Joe Biden is not pro-life but neither is trump….Joe Biden has much better policies than trump and would make a much better president

    • Seriously? What are you ON? Trump IS pro-life; he nominated three Supreme Court justices who are, and his Vice President Mike Pence is also pro-life. His policies have promoted the general welfare of America and all her citizens. Biden has had many years as a politician and has accomplished diddly-squat, while simultaneously thumb-nosing the Catholic Church’s teachings. Bishops have denied giving him Communion because of this, plus his VP pick is a Marxist. What is he going to do as President? Zero – we have a Republican Senate. Biden will spend most of his days napping and his evenings with a blanket and some warm milk.

  2. The Presidential election has pressed us to reflect on how much we know God and our relationship with Him. It revealed what our priority is in this world.In times of a crisis, most people should turn to God. We read in the Scriptures: ” the cry of the Israelites has now come to me, I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.” (Exodus 3:9). God sees all the injustices we humans commit against others, such as the bullying, discrimination, abuse etc
    ” for their wickedness has come up before me.”

    We also find a similar situation where God perceives our actions, for we cannot hide it from Him.

    ” And before Him no creature is hidden , but all are naked and laid bare and stretched fully open to the eyes of the one to whom we trust and give account of ourselves.” (Hebrews 4:13).

    I saw little of the soul searching and putting OUR sins before God. Most Bishops and Priests and their flock used their voices to campaign for a mere human being. How flawed is that outlook!!
    ” For though they know God, they did not honour Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. ”
    (Wisdom 7: 15-22)
    God is in every agenda we accept or NOT, He directs us.”The earth is in the Lord and everything in it.”( Psalm 24:11). So why are people fighting for what will eventually perish when they should be praying on a Sunday?

    They are many decent people doing a lot of God but God is not the CENTRE of their lives. During the presidential election We became the accuser and passed judgement of others to try and have an outcome that please US and yet division separated us.
    We should learn from the Scriptures, Joseph was sold by his brothers and sent to Egypt. For we read in the Scriptures:
    ” I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”(Jeremiah 29:11).

    We should trust God for He never changes His plan. He is same to all generations. I trust in God and His plan for He said,
    “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians shall know I am the Yahweh.” (Exodus 14:4).

    We must learn not to be carried away by our emotions and practical aspects that are not important, but instead we should desire to repent, ourselves first, and pray for conversion of all our brothers and sisters whom we perceive to be going astray, like we all do. We should be looking up to Heaven but not be earthly bound. For
    “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”
    (Matthew 24:13)

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

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