On Sunday, December 6, we will begin our 40 Hours Devotion. The Eucharist will be exposed on the altar beginning after the 5:00 pm Mass on December 6 for Adoration continuously until Tuesday, December 8, at 7:00 pm. Sign up to participate here online or call the parish office at 703-836-4100. At least two people need to be present at every hour.

If you have not prayed a holy hour before, read this guide for suggestions on how to use your time.

About the Forty Hours

The 40 Hours Devotion is 40 hours of prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, where we come face-to-face with Our Lord. This devotion is also widely known as Forty Hours Prayer and Forty Hours Adoration. The selection of 40 as the number of hours the faithful pray and the Blessed Sacrament is exposed outside the tabernacle is likely because that was the number of hours Jesus spent in the tomb between His death and resurrection. The number 40 is found repeatedly throughout the Old and New Testaments, including: the number of days Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness, the days of rain causing the great flood during Noah’s time, and the years of journey the Israelites wandered in the desert. For over 500 years one of the most beautiful of all Catholic devotions has been the one known as Quarant Ore, or Forty Hours. The Blessed Sacrament is solemnly exposed for 40 hours outside the tabernacle and continuously adored by the faithful.

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