Forty Hours: An Appeal

Unrest and Rumours of War
At the risk of sounding alarmist and apocalyptic, I am compelled to make this appeal. The distressing events in Egypt are but one manifestation of a tension that seems to be growing all over the globe. Many souls have a presentiment of impending horrors: civil unrest, attacks upon the Church, violence, spiritual darkness, natural disasters, and wars spinning out of control.

Our Lord Waits to Show Us Mercy
In the face of such threats, Bishops and Priests charged with the care of souls need to enthrone the Most Blessed Sacrament, open wide the doors of their cathedrals and parish churches, and summon the faithful to adore and make humble supplication in the radiance of Our Lord’s Eucharistic Face. Do this, and the faithful will come. Do this, and the impending tribulations will be mitigated. Do this and the delay of mercy will be prolonged, allowing a greater multitude to lift their eyes to the Lamb, and be saved.

Before the Throne of the Eucharistic King
Are not these few weeks before Lent the most suitable time to organize the Sacred Forty Hours Devotion in cathedrals and churches everywhere? To delay under the pretexts that it is too difficult to plan, or that the faithful will not come, or that it will raise issues of security is to shut one’s ears and eyes to the signs of the times. Invite the faithful to kneel before the throne of the Eucharistic King; His Heart will be touched, and He will show His mercy and His power to the world.

Less than two years after the beginning of the Forty Hours Devotion, or Sacre Quarant’Ore, in May 1537, at Milan, Pope Paul III, replied to a petition soliciting indulgences for the devotion. This is what Pope Paul III (1468-1549) wrote:

Since Our beloved son the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Milan at the prayer of the inhabitants of the said city, in order to appease the anger of God provoked by the offences of Christians, and in order to bring to nought the efforts and machinations of the Turks who are pressing forward to the destruction of Christendom, amongst other pious practices, has established a round of prayers and supplications to be offered both by day and night by all the faithful of Christ, before our Lord’s Most Sacred Body, in all the churches of the said city, in such a manner that these prayers and supplications are made by the faithful themselves relieving each other in relays for forty hours continuously in each church in succession, according to the order determined by the Vicar . . . We, approving in our Lord so pious an institution, confirm the same by Our authority . . . .

The most significant papal document addressing the Forty Hours Devotion is the Constitution Graves et diuturnae of Pope Clement VIII (1506-1635), dated 25 November 1592. Conscious of the numberless dangers threatening the peace of Christendom, the Pontiff strongly commended the practice of uninterrupted prayer before the Blessed Sacrament:

We have determined to establish publicly in this Mother City of Rome (in hac alma Urbe) an uninterrupted course of prayer in such wise that in the different churches . . . on appointed days, there be observed the pious and salutary devotion of the Forty Hours, with such an arrangement of churches and times that, at every hour of the day and night, the whole year round, the incense of prayer shall ascend without intermission before the Face of the Lord”.

As in the case of the previously cited Brief of Pope Paul III, the motive for that of Pope Clement VIII document is the threatened devastation of Christendom:

Pray for the concord of Christian princes, pray for France, pray that the enemies of our faith the dreaded Turks, who in the heat of their presumptuous fury threaten slavery and devastation to all Christendom, may be overthrown by the right hand of the Almighty God.

Canon Law
The 1917 Code of Canon Law required that the Forty Hours Devotion should be held annually in every Catholic church or other place where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved:
Can. 1275. Supplicatio Quadraginta Horarum in omnibus ecclesiis paroecialibus aliisque, in quibus sanctissimum Sacramentum habitualiter asservatur statutis de consensu Ordinarii loci diebus, maiore qua fieri potest sollemnitate quotannis habeatur; et sicubi ob peculiaria rerum adiuncta nequeat sine gravi incommodo et cum reverentia tanto sacramento debita fieri, curet loci Ordinarius ut saltem per aliquot continuas horas, statis diebus, sanctissimum Sacramentum sollemniore ritu exponatur.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law simply recommends an annual exposition for an “appropriate” but undefined time, and this only if a “fitting” attendance of the faithful can be assured:

Can. 942. It is recommended that in these churches and oratories an annual solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament be held for an appropriate period of time, even if not continuous, so that the local community more profoundly meditates on and adores the Eucharistic Mystery. Such an exposition is to be held, however, only if a suitable gathering of the faithful is foreseen and the established norms are observed.

What is Made Optional Disappears
As is nearly always the case, once something that has be positively prescribed by law is made optional or merely recommended, it quickly falls into disuse. The near disappearance of the Forty Hours Devotion in dioceses the world over attests to this. Is it not time to shake off the lethargy that has overcome us and return to the Eucharistic Lord, the King of Peace, with all our hearts?

It Can Be Done This Year
Septuagesima Sunday occurs this year on 20 February; Ash Wednesday occurs on 9 March. It seems to me that it would be possible to organize the Forty Hours Devotion in cathedrals and parish churches during the intervening three weeks. What better response can there be to the crisis threatening the Church and the peace of the world?