Forty Hours Devotion

Annual Forty Hours Devotion
Held annually in honor of the feast of St. John Paul II

Saint Maximilian Kolbe Church
150 Black Point Road
Scarborough, Maine 04074
 

The Forty Hours Devotion involves 40 consecutive hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar for Eucharistic Adoration. The devotion finds its origin in 16th Century Milan and Vicenza, Italy with St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, and was later promoted by St. Ignatius Loyola and his fellow Jesuits. St. John Neumann, then-Bishop of Philadelphia, first introduced the Forty Hours Devotion in the United States of America in 1853.

The number forty draws on a number with varied layers of significance: forty is the number of hours Jesus spent in the tomb, the number of days it rained while Noah was on the arc, the number of years the Israelites spent in the desert, and finally the number of days spent by Jesus fasting and being tempted in the desert.

Our parish patron, St. John Paul II, wrote, “Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and contemplation full of faith.” By hosting the Forty Hours Devotion in Saint John Paul II Parish in anticipation of our patronal feastday on October 22, it is our hope that Forty Hours helps to foster and increase the love we have for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as we strive to live and proclaim the Gospel.