The Curé of Ars

Saint John-Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, was a humble French parish priest whose holiness drew thousands to his confessional. He taught that prayer need not be wordy.

He loved to tell of a farmer of Ars who would sit a long while before the tabernacle. Asked what he was doing there, the man answered in his country dialect: 'Je l'avise et il m'avise' — 'I look at him and he looks at me.'

The Catechism (§2715) takes up this very scene to define contemplation as 'a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus'. In Eucharistic adoration there is nothing to achieve: you simply come, and look, and let yourself be looked at, with love.