BOSTON -- Quinn Cunningham often thinks to himself: "Wouldn't it have been awesome to be an apostle?"

"Yeah, it would have been," Cunningham, a 25-year-old graduate student of history at Boston College, told The Pilot. "But also, if Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, just as he was present to the apostles and was friends with them and led them, he still does that today, through encountering him in the Eucharist."

Cunningham has attended adoration at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in Boston's Back Bay for two years and currently serves as the shrine's operations manager.

"It's given me a really deeper personal relationship with Christ," he said.

Cunningham was at St. Clement's from 11 p.m. on March 28 to 7 a.m. on March 29, adoring the Blessed Sacrament. Besides "a little nap break," he spent all night adoring the Blessed Sacrament.

"I've done an all-nighter psalm chanting, but this was the first adoration all-nighter," he said. "It was great. It's much quieter at night, and there's a greater sense of peace."

The adoration was part of 24 Hours of the Lord, an event of the Jubilee Year of 2025 that saw the Archdiocese of Boston's 10 pilgrimage sites open their doors March 28 to March 29 for 24 hours of continuous eucharistic adoration alongside Masses, confessions, and praise. St. Clement's was joined by the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Most Holy Redeemer Parish in East Boston, Holy Rosary Shrine in Lawrence, St. Joseph the Worker Shrine in Lowell, St. John Paul II Shrine of Divine Mercy in Salem, Blessed Andrew Phu Yen Parish in Medford, Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Holliston, Immaculate Conception Parish in Marlborough, St. Paul Parish in Hingham, and St. Patrick Parish in Brockton.

24 Hours for the Lord was initiated by Pope Francis in 2014 as an annual event that coincides with the eve of the Fourth Sunday of Lent. This year, the event took on special importance as an observance of the 2025 Jubilee Year, "Pilgrims of Hope."

"Pope Francis has chosen for the 12th edition of 24 Hours for The Lord a particularly significant motto in this year of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025: 'You are my hope' (Ps. 71:5)", the Dicastery for Evangelization said on its website.

Oblate Father Peter Grover, administrator of St. Clement's, estimated that between 10 and 20 people stayed in the shrine all night for adoration.

"It's terrific," he told The Pilot. "I was surprised to see so many during the middle of the night."

Much of the community at St. Clement's is made up of students and young professionals. Members of the shrine's young adult group volunteered to spend an hour in adoration. Over 40 people, many of them young adults, attended Mass at the shrine on March 28. Lenten Stations of the Cross that night filled the shrine almost to capacity.

"It gives people a chance to experience what it's like to sit before the Lord in prayer for an hour, and then it's very rewarding," Father Grover said about adoration. "A lot of people say that when they start doing that, their life, it's like it's refreshed, they're inspired."

Twenty-three-year-old Matthew MacDougall, who spent an hour in adoration at the shrine on March 29, said that his two years in the St. Clement's community have had "an immense impact."

"It's just an opportunity to have our heart converted by the Lord in his presence, in a special way, with his presence and adoration, because prayer is obviously incredible," he told The Pilot. "But when you're there, knowing that he's also present, it's just so much peace and grace found in it."