St. Pius Parish in Redwood City has expanded First Friday hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in 2016 from a few hours to 24 hours.

Although well attended by the adult parishioners, time for adoration was not routinely offered to the children in the parish school. The prayer and worship commission identified the need for the children to be exposed to adoration in order to foster their participation in this means of worshipping Jesus Christ, and so a plan was developed for this to happen.

The adoration program built on an already existing “buddy system,” which has been in place for many years. The system links older parish school children with younger children to assist the younger children in various school activities.

The program includes an explanation of adoration, worship, benefits of adoration and theology of Jesus as the second person of the Holy Trinity. Adoration was followed by debriefings to provide the children with an opportunity to articulate their personal experience of the Real Presence.

All nine grades now participate in adoration, and feedback from the children to the coordinators has been positive, the parish said.

Full story at Catholic San Francisco.