OFFICIAL NAME
Association “Les Maisons d’adoration”
KNOWN AS
The Houses of Adoration
ESTABLISHED
1983
HISTORY
The Association of the Houses of Adoration was founded on the initiative of Madame Marie-Benoîte Angot in 1983. It followed the publication of her first book entitled Le Mystère de l'Amour Vivant (The Mystery of Living Love), a collection of spiritual writings. These were the inspiration for the Houses of Adoration which are intended to be true domestic churches that breathe the spirit of Christ and love for the Eucharist into the world. The association obtained its first canonical recognition by a decree dated 8 April 1998 from Most Rev. Joseph Madec, then Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon. On 5 April 2007, on Holy Thursday, the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed recognition of The Houses of Adoration as an international association of the faithful.
IDENTITY
The faithful of this association consecrate themselves through Mary, in the Church, to the living Person of Christ in the Eucharist, to consecrate the world in anticipation of Christ’s return in glory.
Through renewed awareness of their consecration in baptism and confirmation, the members seek to maintain and deepen their interior life of intimacy with the Lord. In particular, they place the Eucharist − sacrifice, nourishment and presence − at the centre of their Christian life, and they nurture a true life of adoration at the very heart of the realities of this world.
Through a life of prayer and adoration, and through an appropriate home liturgy, they aim to help families to find their decisive place and role in the world and in the Church. Families should become more aware that their identity and mission is to be “domestic churches” (Lumen Gentium, no. 11) and a “domestic sanctuary of the Church” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, no. 11). A life of adoration is very much part of the mission, and it is carried out in the Houses of Adoration in the form of visitations. Adoration and visitation are the constitutive elements of a House of Adoration.
ORGANISATION
Every House of Adoration is composed of people who pray in adoration. These people are the members of the association who work with diocesan, national and international delegates. A general assembly meets regularly with the president who is assisted by a committee of prayer and reflection in governing the association.
In order to maintain their identity and mission, the houses of adoration are assisted by priests called “The Missionaries of the Eucharist” who are also members of the association.
WORKS
The forms of apostolate are the following: prayer in homes, Eucharistic adoration and visitations. The mission in homes is one of the characteristics of the association for which the Missionary Priests of the Eucharist make their specific contribution by facilitating and enabling Eucharistic presence in the Houses. It allows people who are far from the Church to find their way back to it by having an experience of a “small church”. In this way, lay people and priests work together, starting from the Houses, to rebuild the Christian fabric of society.
PUBLICATIONS
Lettre aux Maisons d’adoration, A quarterly letter to the members of the association.
Books by the founder Marie-Benoîte Angot.
WEBSITE
http://www.lesmaisonsdadoration.com
HEADQUARTERS
Les Maisons d’adoration
31, rue du Sommerard
75005 Paris – France
Tél.: [+33]1 40 51 89 56
E-mail : contact.associationma@gmail.com
