Editor's Report

Someone’s Always Praying at St. Gregory’s

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The parish community of St. Gregory Barbarigo in Garnerville had a good reason for celebrating in recent weeks. It’s marking 10 years of constant prayer at the parish’s Perpetual Adoration Chapel that’s served as a source of inspiration and spiritual growth for those who have done the praying and also boosted the parish itself.

Parishioners who serve as volunteers, or guardians, of the chapel marked the occasion by speaking about their work to fellow parishioners at weekend Masses this month. About a dozen volunteers signed up after hearing those talks. A potluck supper in the parish school Jan. 16 drew more than 100 participants. Auxiliary Bishop John O’Hara, who came for supper, stayed on to celebrate Mass and led a morning of recollection in the parish church for many of the volunteers the next day.

The bishop couldn’t have handpicked a better audience for his talks on the power of the Eucharist, as demonstrated in the lives of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Neumann. During his homily at Mass, the bishop spoke about the conversion experience Mother Seton had while witnessing a Eucharistic procession in Italy, which profoundly altered the course of her life as well as the Church here in New York, America and the whole world.

“He chose her, and she responded,” Bishop O’Hara said of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

“He’s chosen all of us…to be the living tabernacles of His Presence.”

The Perpetual Eucharistic Chapel is located in the rectory building, which formerly housed the convent of the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill. The sisters’ chapel is now used for Perpetual Adoration.

The Adoration chapel came into being when an International Eucharistic Congress was being held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in conjunction with the Year of the Eucharist. It was opened Oct. 10, 2004.

Earlier, the chapel’s founding coordinators, Roy and Betty Pedersen, had their first experience of Eucharistic Adoration during a vacation trip to Florida. “I said, ‘This would be nice in St. Gregory’s,’” Roy told me last Saturday morning.

They spent time studying and learning more about Eucharistic Adoration. With the permission of the pastor at the time, Father Bob McKeon, they conducted a nine-month campaign to sign up adorers, who agreed to spend one hour per week in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Two guardians are required for each hour.

(Today, the chapel has 300 to 350 regular guardians as well as another 250 to 300 visitors each week. Father Joseph LaMorte, the current pastor, said the chapel is a magnet for seminarians who serve at the parish and is well known throughout the area, drawing many visitors from nearby parishes.)

The chapel, with the monstrance containing the Eucharist as the focal point, is a peaceful place where guardians can pray before the Blessed Sacrament in a quiet setting disturbed only by the occasional passing car on Cinder Road. It has brick walls and comfortable seating for more than 30 people, perfect for when classes of students come from St. Gregory’s elementary school next door. A rocking chair in the back is set up next to a shelf containing spiritual books and across the aisle from candles in glass jars.

Along with Pedersen, I also spoke with his friend, Bobby Zottoli, who ultimately succeeded him as the chapel coordinator along with his wife, Jessica.

“My kids have grown up in the chapel,” he said of ToniAnne, 15, and her brothers, Robert, 13, and Mateo, 6. He spoke with a father’s joy at recalling his kids coming, sometimes in their pajamas, to be with him as he did his 5 a.m. hour of Adoration on Sundays.

Adoration has made a big difference in his family’s life, he says now, thinking back to the time when he first volunteered to serve, without having any idea of what Eucharistic Adoration was but figuring he could set aside an hour a week.

The first minute he entered the chapel he said he experienced “a complete reversion into the faith.”

“I got the message that I was home,” said Zottoli, 48.

Zottoli and Pedersen emphasized that many hands help with the chapel’s responsibilities, including a team of 24 hourly captains as well as section captains who handle a number of hours each day.

During the morning of recollection and in our interview, Zottoli addressed a topic he holds close: the idea of setting up Perpetual Adoration for children and teens at St. Gregory’s. He’d like to see many other families benefit from praying before the Blessed Sacrament the way his has.

“It’ll ensure a good family bond,” he said. “They’ll need to be driven by a parent or guardian. That person will also be in front of the Blessed Sacrament.”