ASTORIA — Parishioners of St. Joseph Church in Astoria like to joke that they can set their watches by Father Edward Cassar, a kindly retired priest in residence at their parish. He’s that precise. 

Every morning at 8 a.m. sharp, Father Cassar opens the church’s adoration chapel and exposes the Blessed Sacrament so that the faithful can have a closer, deeper connection to Jesus Christ.

Twelve hours later, exactly at 8 p.m., he returns to the chapel to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament, offers Benediction, and closes the chapel for the night. “I have a routine,” he said.

And during those in-between hours, he often visits the chapel to pray and be there in case parishioners want to talk to him about their troubles.

For Father Cassar, his daily devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is his way of trying to bring people closer to the Lord. “Your life is better if you let Him in,” he explained.

Parishioners like Matthew Gallagher appreciate the chapel and admire how Father Cassar takes care of it.

“It’s nice to know that the chapel is open seven days a week and that you can stop in to say a prayer. And Father Cassar is there every day,” he said.

On some mornings, there are people waiting for Father Cassar when he arrives to open the chapel.

Father Vincent Chirichella, pastor of St. Joseph Church, said Father Cassar is setting a great example for others. “And at a time like this, when we are in the middle of a big Eucharistic Revival, what he’s doing is important,” he added.

The nation’s Catholics are currently in the midst of a three-year National Eucharistic Revival that was launched by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2022. Dioceses across the nation were asked to organize their own Eucharistic Revival celebrations. The Diocese of Brooklyn’s revival, which was originally scheduled to take place in October, will take place in the spring.

The National Eucharistic Revival will culminate in 2024 with the National Eucharistic Congress, which will take place July 17-21 in Indianapolis.

The idea is to promote a main tenet of the faith — that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and that Communion isn’t merely symbolic.

According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, only 31% of U.S. Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

Father Cassar, who was ordained 54 years ago in his native Malta, has always had a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, even as a child. “It’s been a part of my life for a long time,” he said.

As a young man, he watched Archbishop Fulton Sheen on television talking about the importance of the Blessed Sacrament, and it left a big impression on him.

Father Cassar carried that devotion with him through his various priestly assignments — vocations that took him to several countries around the world, including Australia and Ethiopia.

He brought it with him when he arrived in the U.S. in 1972 to serve in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

After serving at various parishes over the years, he retired a few years ago and arrived at St. Joseph Church two years ago — the same time Father Chirichella, with whom he had served at Our Lady of Grace Church in Gravesend, was assigned there.

The chapel, which had been dormant and was reopened by Father Chirichella shortly after he got to St. Joseph, provides an important sanctuary for the faithful, Father Cassar said.

It gives people a chance for “a little one-to-one time with Jesus,” he added.

“It’s like Jesus talking to the woman at the well,” he explained, referring to the famous passage from the Gospel of St. John.