Adoration: Eucharistic Texts and Prayers Throughout Church History Complied by Daniel P. Guernsey (Ignatius Press, 1999 250 pages, $14.95)

This book collects eucharistic texts and prayers from Scripture, from the Fathers of the Church, from the saints, the liturgy and other sources. Guernsey presents them for use in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and in preparation for Mass.

Excerpt

“How great was the charity of Jesus Christ in choosing for the institution of the Eucharist the eve of the day he was to be put to death! At that moment all Jerusalem is on fire, all the populace enraged, all are plotting his ruin, and it is precisely at that moment that he is preparing for them the most unutterable pledge of his love. Men are weaving the blackest plots against him, and he is occupied in giving them the most precious gift he has. They are only thinking of setting up an infamous cross for him that they may put him to death, and he is only thinking of setting up an altar that he may immolate himself every day for us.”

— St. John Vianney

Praying in the Presence of Our Lord: Prayers for Eucharistic Adoration by Father Benedict J. Groeschel, CFR (Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1999, 124 pages, $6.95)

Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Benedict Groeschel provides the reader with prayers that Christians, ancient and modern, have used for adoration of Christ in the Eucharist. Father Groeschel says, “Every canonized saint and millions of devout people have found the most profound consolation, reassurance and challenge to grow in faith, hope and charity before the Tabernacle.”

Excerpt

“Lord, stay with us.”

These words were spoken for the first time by the disciples of Emmaus. Subsequently in the course of the centuries they have been spoken, infinite times, by the lips of so many of your disciples and confessors, O Christ. …

I speak the same words today.

I speak them to invite you, Christ, in your Eucharistic presence, to accept the daily adoration continuing through the entire day, in this temple, in this basilica, in this chapel. …

Stay! That your presence in this temple may incessantly be reconfirmed, and all those who enter here may become aware that it is your house, “the dwelling of God with men” (Rev 21:3) and, visiting this basilica, may find in it the very source “of life and holiness that gushes from your Eucharistic Heart.”

— Pope John Paul II, prayer in Blessed Sacrament Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica,inaugurating perpetual adoration there in 1981