Solemn Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is celebrated at 5:15 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Chapel on the first Fridays of the month during the school year. The period of adoration includes readings, prayers, and silence and concludes with benediction at 6:00 p.m.
The Blessed Sacrament is reserved primarily to bring Holy Communion to the sick. As St. Ignatius of Antioch (1st cen.) taught, the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament allows the whole Christian community, including its absent members, to share in the one Eucharist from one altar. The Blessed Sacrament is also reserved on Holy Thursday for distribution on Good Friday, a day when Mass is not celebrated (indeed, no sacraments are celebrated on this day, except for the dying).
The Christian people have always recognized that Jesus remains truly present in the Sacred Host. The Real Presence so clearly taught by Jesus himself (cf. Jn 6), by the Apostles (cf. 1 Cor 6:17, Gal 3:16, etc.), and witnessed by the saints and martyrs from the earliest centuries (cf. Justin, 2nd cen.) remains – the elements of bread and wine, once changed, remain changed. For this reason, the reserved Sacred Host is due the worship it receives preeminently in the Mass.
In light of this truth, and under the influence of a new devotional spirit in the Middle Ages – founded in large part on the new experiences of the saints and the evangelization efforts of the Franciscans and Dominicans – the reservation of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday for distribution on Good Friday was marked with heightened ceremonies. In the 14th century, Eucharistic spirituality found expression in the new feast of Corpus Christi. St. Thomas Aquinas was a chief advocate for this new feast, and wrote many of the hymns and prayers for its Mass and Office. At first, public Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was permitted only on Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi, but later it became a popular expression of Christians' faith in the Eucharistic Lord at other times as well.
Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after Mass highlights its proper place as an outgrowth of the worship of God in the Mass (cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 11). Christ gives us his Most Precious Body and Blood primarily as food. Exposition and adoration following participation in the Mass and reception of Holy Communion therefore allow us to rest in God's presence, in communion with him. Receiving the Incarnate Lord in the Eucharist is both a physical and spiritual process: "eating [the Eucharist] … involves the whole person. 'Eating' means worshipping it. Eating it means letting it come into me, so that my 'I' is transformed and opens up into the great 'we', so that we become 'one' in him. Thus adoration is not opposed to Communion, nor is it merely added to it. No, Communion only reaches its true depths when it is supported and surrounded by adoration" (Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy). This is part of the meaning of St. Paul's exhortation to partake worthily of the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27).
"In proper context, Eucharistic adoration makes us more aware, or leads us to a deeper understanding of the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. When we concentrate on the Blessed Sacrament … we meditate on Christ crucified and risen. The theological purpose of Eucharistic adoration, then, exists in the remembrance, celebration, and affirmation of the Paschal Mystery, our Christian story of redemption" (Therese Borchard, Our Catholic Devotions, Crossroads, NY, 1998).