After having put ourselves to the school of Saint John the Baptist, to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus, then to the school of Mary and Joseph to welcome him into our hearts; after following the shepherds who rushed to the manger, we now want to follow the wise men.

The wise men came to prostrate themselves, to adore the Child God. Prostration is a physical attitude, which expresses an attitude of the heart which is adoration.

Oddly enough, although there is a return to worshipful prayer, many people today have not yet discovered it. Even the word “worship” is used in the wrong way. While the first commandment tells us: “You shall worship God alone and you shall love him above all things”, we hear the word adoration almost everywhere: for football, chocolate, or any other thing to which we give place to God! Let us help each other to keep this word, so beautiful and so profound, only for Him who is worthy of it: the Lord our God.

If we discover or rediscover the prayer of adoration, our life will be more beautiful, more joyful. I was in the parish of Notre Dame de Bourg, when in the years 2007-2008 perpetual adoration began. Very quickly we saw fruit. Adoration allowed many people to return to the sacrament of reconciliation and also to put themselves at the service of parish life.

This is what we could call the “spring effect” of prayer. The closer we get to the Lord, the more He sends us back to others, to love them, serve them and bear witness to Him.

Let us not believe that the Lord calls us to worship Him for Him. God is self-sufficient and in total fullness. It is for us, it is for our good, it is so that we receive his graces that Jesus gives us the grace to pray to him, to adore him.

The prayer of adoration is forgetting oneself to turn resolutely towards God, who is life, joy, peace and happiness.

A bit like dipping a tea bag in hot water, prayer of adoration allows the Lord to infuse his Love in us. If I soak my bag for too short a time, the hot water won’t have much taste!

Just like in a car, we must regularly fill up with gas, let’s do an hour of adoration every week to fill up with God’s love, so that this Love overflows from our hearts to our brothers.

We have the grace of having a chapel of adoration in Ars, which unfortunately is no longer permanent but, if everyone mobilized, it could become so again. And then we also have our Benedictine sisters who, every month when awakening to the prayer of adoration, teach the children to adore. Do we think about giving this beautiful gift to our children? Because a child who learns to pray from an early age takes the surest path to being saved.

Let us put ourselves in the school of the Virgin Mary and the Magi to learn how to worship. It’s quite simple, you just have to take the time. Then like the wise men, we will be able to get back on the road by another path, because each hour of adoration changes a little something in our hearts and allows us to get back on the road by a better path. Let us pray, if you are willing, for each other, with this intention.