Two or three times a week, Caitlin Nalda slips into the newly opened adoration chapel at Ss. Philip and James in Charles Village.
Sitting in silent prayer before a consecrated host exposed in a monstrance, the 21-year-old public health major from nearby Johns Hopkins University devotes her chapel time to nothing else but being in Christ’s presence.
“Adoration is one of the few times where I’m just able to sit and totally focus on God and spend time with him in prayer,” said Nalda, a native of Northern Virginia now in her senior year at Hopkins. “There’s just something about being able to sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament and contemplate the mystery of God’s love that I don’t really get praying anywhere else.”
Nalda is one of about two dozen people who visit the chapel regularly since it officially opened on the Solemnity of Christ the King in November. They are from all ages, races and backgrounds, according to Dominican Father Michael Weibley, pastor.
“We really want this chapel to be not only for the parish, but also for the wider local church of Baltimore,” said Father Weibley, whose parish also serves as the university parish for Hopkins students.
Father Weibley got the idea for an adoration chapel when he first arrived in Baltimore a year ago. A priest friend from Rhode Island had a positive experience with an adoration chapel in his parish and encouraged Father Weibley to establish a similar one in Baltimore.
With the support of Archbishop William E. Lori and parishioners of Ss. Philip and James, Father Weibley converted a chapel formerly used for daily Mass into a new adoration chapel. Daily Mass moved to the main church during the coronavirus pandemic.
Dominican Father Albert Duggan, a former chaplain at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a gifted woodworker, had previously crafted the chapel’s altar and ambo. He recently made a special wooden tabernacle that houses the monstrance. When someone is present for adoration, the doors to the tabernacle can be opened. When no one is present, they can be closed.
The new adoration chapel, one of the largest of its kind in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, includes a small library of devotional material. Newly installed art features an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and an image of St. Dominic in the presence of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The costs for preparing the adoration chapel and incorporating security features totaled about $10,000, the pastor said. The chapel is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a security access code provided to visitors who wish to visit at other times.
At a time when many churches in the city are unable to be open during the day, the adoration chapel provides a haven, the pastor said.
“My hope is that we can help promote devotion to the Eucharist and let the blessings flow from there,” Father Weibley said.
Email George P. Matysek Jr. at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org
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