The Church of the Holy Innocents will start its Forty Hours Devotion THIS COMING FRIDAY NIGHT.

FIRST DAY: The opening Mass will be this coming FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017 at 6PM, and it will be a Votive Mass of the Most Blessed Sacrament. At the end of the opening Mass, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed, there will be a solemn Eucharistic procession inside the church, and the Pange lingua, the Litany of the Saints, and some other special psalms, versicles, and prayers will be chanted.

SECOND DAY: Then, on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 at 1PM. we will have the traditional Votive Mass Pro Pace.

THIRD DAY: The CLOSING MASS WILL BE ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 at 10:30AM, which will also be the 1st class FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING (1962 liturgical Calendar), celebrated “coram Sanctissimo.” At the end of this Mass, the Litany of the Saints and other special psalms and prayers will be chanted and we will have another Eucharistic Procession inside the church. This Procession will end with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Divine Praises, and the Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

While in the Roman Catholic Church there are many Feasts and devotions throughout the year, the Forty Hours Devotion is always awaited and received with extreme joy. “Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament,” according to Fr. Faber, “is the queen of all devotions. It is the central devotion of the Church. All others gather round it and group themselves there as satellites; for others celebrate His Mysteries; this is Himself.”

The Forty Hours Devotion is surrounded with three special dimensions:
1) The protection from evil and temptation;
2) Reparation for our own sins and for the poor souls in purgatory; and
3) Deliverance from political, material and spiritual calamities.

All these petitions (for ourselves, for our neighbors, and for the entire Church) are expressed in detail in the beautiful Litanies of the Saints that are chanted as part of the opening and the closing Masses for the Forty Hours. The Forty Hours Devotion was permanently established by Pope Clement VIII “in order that day and night the faithful might appease their Lord by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament solemnly exposed, imploring there His divine mercy.”