The Bishop of Shrewsbury has inaugurated a historic Stockport church as a Eucharistic shrine of perpetual adoration in a major initiative of prayer for priestly vocations.
The Rt Rev. Mark Davies has dedicated St Joseph’s Church in the town centre of Stockport as “a place of continuous Eucharistic adoration with a special mission to intercede for new and generous vocations to the priesthood and the sanctification of priests”.
Catholics are being invited to sign up to participate in a schedule of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that there may be sufficient numbers for this prayer to continue from morning till evening.
The Eucharistic Shrine of St Joseph was formally inaugurated at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Davies on Saturday, October 22, the Feast of Pope St John Paul II, a Pontiff who encouraged the practice of Eucharistic adoration.
The Bishop spoke of this new Eucharistic mission as being in continuity with the long story of the Catholic faith in Stockport. Bishop Davies thanked the Sacred Heart Fathers who had cared for the church during the past four decades and formally welcomed Father Sean Davidson as the new Parish Priest.
In his homily at the Mass of inauguration, Bishop Davies said: “This new Eucharistic mission stands in the long continuity of the witness of this church set on a hilltop.
“Father Sean Davidson was led to Saint Joseph’s along a path as unexpected as the fulfilment of my own hope that a church might be dedicated as a ‘Eucharistic Shrine’ fostering renewed love for the Holy Eucharist, worthily celebrated and continuously adored.
“This mission of adoration and intercession is a response to Pope Francis’s invitation for the young to be attentive to the silence of the Eucharist in order to discover their unique vocation in life. And that of his predecessor, Saint John Paul II, whose memory we celebrate today, who invited the whole Church to rekindle ‘Eucharistic amazement’ at the dawn of this new millennium; and to understand the Catholic Priesthood in the light of the Eucharist declaring that, ‘Without the Eucharist we do not exist, we are reduced to lifeless shadows. The priest can never reach fulfilment if the Eucharist does not become the root and centre of his life …’.
“Today, I ask you to pray that Saint Joseph’s will continue to be the Emmaus we have always known, a church with open doors. In Pope Francis’s words, may all come through these doors also come to a new and personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
“For here we ask that all eyes may be opened to recognise Jesus Christ anew in the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist. And many heart burn once more in responding to their unique call, especially the call to the Priesthood, the vocation on which all other Christian vocations depend.”