Offering one hour for Jesus

Deandra Kaiser’s head rested in her hands which were grasping white rosary beads.She was kneeling in quiet prayer as sunlight cast light through the stained glass windows.It was Wednesday of Holy Week and Kaiser had made a personal commitment to come to the Adoration Chapel, just inside the Church of the Holy Cross, every day of the week before Easter. 


She was dressed in her scrubs headed to work as an X-ray technician.“Here they have the Eucharist,” Kaiser said. “The Lord is here and during Holy Week I want one-on-one time with him.”Catholics, Anglo-Catholics and Lutherans believe Jesus Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist. But, not all have adoration chapels, where the chain of prayer is never broken except for 72 hours during Holy Week. 

That’s the only break in the constant prayer at the Adoration Chapel at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Guadalupe.St. Teresa has a chapel but it isn’t 24/7. At the other two they shut the door at 6 p.m. on Maundy Thursday and don’t open again until 6 p.m. Easter night.Father Joe Eckberg entered the chapel at Holy Cross and in a private moment removed the monstrance, a vessel in which the consecrated Host is exposed for the adoration of the devoted. Then following the Maundy Thursday service Eckberg and the acolytes, followed by the congregation, proceeded out of the church, as he carried the Eucharist. They entered the gymnasium of the Holy Cross School where a make-shift adoration chapel had been set up, allowing members of the congregation to come and pray until midnight.At Holy Cross on Wednesday afternoon there were two other people in the chapel. They were there for their hour of prayer, part of a rotation that keeps someone always in the chapel in silent prayer for the sick and sorrowful in the community and for the church and all of God’s family.There has been someone praying day and night since 1989. 

While those on the adoration schedule for Thursday evening through Sunday evening had a reprieve, it would be back to silent prayers Sunday evening.Like monks who have taken a vow of silence, those in prayer offer their petitions quietly.When they are done praying and the hour isn’t up there are devotionals to read or the Bible.There is a blanket for anyone who might become chilled.After all, sometimes in the middle of the night it might get chilly in the chapel.But the commitment to pray comes from Jesus, Eckberg said.While Jesus was going through his agony in Gethsemane he found his disciples sleeping, and he asked could you not pray with me for one hour?In this hectic world it is sometimes difficult to find one hour to devote to prayer, especially in the middle of a cold, dark night.But, Deborah Castaneda said that at Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is humbled by some of the elderly parishioners who come at 2, 3 or 4 in the morning.“The elderly are so devoted. They find the strength to get up and go,” she said. “Some of them can do three or four hours.”In the past she has prayed the midnight hour and really liked it. She liked the total silence.“The town is asleep and you are in the moment. 

It’s just you and God late at night,” she said.She had to change her schedule, however, because she doesn’t have a car and the middle of the night is a difficult time to find a ride.“My time is 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” she said.If someone is going to be away they must find a replacement.Sometimes people trade hours, but there are people who only want to be substitutes.Castaneda says she needs the spiritual time she gets from her adoration hour.“I love Mass, but sometimes I need to be alone. At home there are distractions. Sometimes when you learn to be quiet you can hear answers from God. I can feel so beat down sometimes and I might not feel worthy of sitting in front of the Eucharist. But, I can go in there and let it all out.”She said staring at the painting of Jesus on the wall is like looking him in the eye.“I leave all my troubles and petitions there and go out the door with renewed strength to fight the good battle.”Ref: http://www.hutchnews.com/lifestyle/religion/offering-one-hour-for-jesus/article_d6ca2cec-15a9-518c-9ee2-a7b92e4f3317.html

My first Post

Hello this is my first post.

How to Write an Essay: 10 Easy Steps

Why is writing an essay so frustrating?

Learning how to write an essay can be a maddening, exasperating process, but it doesn't have to be. If you know the steps and understand what to do, writing can be easy and even fun.

Brief Overview of the 10 Essay Writing StepsBelow are brief summaries of each of the ten steps to writing an essay. Select the links for more info on any particular step, or use the blue navigation bar on the left to proceed through the writing steps. How To Write an Essay can be viewed sequentially, as if going through ten sequential steps in an essay writing process, or can be explored by individual topic.

1. Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching your topic, making yourself an expert. Utilize the internet, the academic databases, and the library. Take notes and immerse yourself in the words of great thinkers.

2. Analysis: Now that you have a good knowledge base, start analyzing the arguments of the essays you're reading. Clearly define the claims, write out the reasons, the evidence. Look for weaknesses of logic, and also strengths. Learning how to write an essay begins by learning how to analyze essays written by others.

3. Brainstorming: Your essay will require insight of your own, genuine essay-writing brilliance. Ask yourself a dozen questions and answer them. Meditate with a pen in your hand. Take walks and think and think until you come up with original insights to write about.

4. Thesis: Pick your best idea and pin it down in a clear assertion that you can write your entire essay around. Your thesis is your main point, summed up in a concise sentence that lets the reader know where you're going, and why. It's practically impossible to write a good essay without a clear thesis.

5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it out. Use one-line sentences to describe paragraphs, and bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain. Play with the essay's order. Map out the structure of your argument, and make sure each paragraph is unified.

6. Introduction: Now sit down and write the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's attention, set up the issue, and lead in to your thesis. Your intro is merely a buildup of the issue, a stage of bringing your reader into the essay's argument.

(Note: The title and first paragraph are probably the most important elements in your essay. This is an essay-writing point that doesn't always sink in within the context of the classroom. In the first paragraph you either hook the reader's interest or lose it. Of course your teacher, who's getting paid to teach you how to write an essay, will read the essay you've written regardless, but in the real world, readers make up their minds about whether or not to read your essay by glancing at the title alone.)

7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single idea that supports your thesis. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences, support assertions with evidence, and expound your ideas in the clearest, most sensible way you can. Speak to your reader as if he or she were sitting in front of you. In other words, instead of writing the essay, try talking the essay.

8. Conclusion: Gracefully exit your essay by making a quick wrap-up sentence, and then end on some memorable thought, perhaps a quotation, or an interesting twist of logic, or some call to action. Is there something you want the reader to walk away and do? Let him or her know exactly what.

9. MLA Style: Format your essay according to the correct guidelines for citation. All borrowed ideas and quotations should be correctly cited in the body of your text, followed up with a Works Cited (references) page listing the details of your sources.

10. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've polished your language by correcting the grammar, making sentences flow, incorporating rhythm, emphasis, adjusting the formality, giving it a level-headed tone, and making other intuitive edits. Proofread until it reads just how you want it to sound. Writing an essay can be tedious, but you don't want to bungle the hours of conceptual work you've put into writing your essay by leaving a few sloppy misspellings and poorly worded phrases.

You're done. Great job. Now move over Ernest Hemingway — a new writer is coming of age! (Of course Hemingway was a fiction writer, not an essay writer, but he probably knew how to write an essay just as well.)

My Promise: The Rest of This Site Will Really Teach You How to Write an Essay

For half a dozen years I've read thousands of college essays and taught students how to write essays, do research, analyze arguments, and so on. I wrote this site in the most basic, practical way possible and made the instruction crystal clear for students and instructors to follow. If you carefully follow the ten steps for writing an essay as outlined on this site — honestly and carefully follow them — you'll learn how to write an essay that is more organized, insightful, and appealing. And you'll probably get an A.

Now it's time to really begin. C'mon, it will be fun. I promise to walk you through each step of your writing journey.