On the traditional day that we used to celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we are beginning the devotion of Forty Hours. This is forty hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, chosen this year as a preparation for our celebration of Corpus Christi this weekend.
Here in the Leicester East Deanery were are sharing out the forty hours between our eight parishes, each taking five hours in turn on a rota. Beginning at 7am each day until 12 noon, one parish begins the rota of adoration handing over to the next parish at noon until 5pm and then a third parish takes over from 5pm until 10pm when the devotion ends for that day. Some churches are equipped with chapels that can accommodate this devotion 24 hours a day, but they are few and far between and so we have chosen to spread our adoration over three days in daylight hours. The forty hours will end at 5pm on Saturday just in time for the celebration of the Vigil Mass in most churches of the Deanery.
In Immaculate Conception our turn on the Deanery rota begins at 12 noon today as we take over from St Thomas More, Knighton Road.
