Just a few weeks ago, Notre Dame theologian Fr. Richard McBrien delivered himself of a sharp critique of the practice of eucharistic adoration, the resurgence of which in the life of the church he bitterly laments. “It is,” he says, “difficult to speak favorably about the devotion today.” His principal argument against eucharistic adoration is that the practice is grounded in naïve and questionable theology which would divorce the eucharist from its proper context within the liturgy. Though adoration might have been understandable in a more primitive time, “now that Catholics are literate and even well-educated, the Mass is in the language of the people…and its rituals relatively easy to understand and follow, there is little or no need for extraneous eucharistic devotions.” McBrien concludes: “eucharistic adoration…is a doctrinal, theological and spiritual step backward.” In short, those who bother to adore the blessed sacrament are (poor things) just not that bright.