This month of June, we Catholics have celebrated both the Solemnities of the Most Holy Eucharist (Corpus Christi) and the Sacred Heart, two mysteries of our faith intimately linked.
In the Heart of the Lord, we experience His love, compassion, and mercy, which Jesus is burning to share with us.
The Eucharist is the sacramental encounter in which He comes to abide within us.
We could say that the Eucharist is the extension of Jesus’ Heart in time and space, offered to every single member of the Church at every single Mass.
We can never forget that, on the last night of His earthly life, just hours before He was betrayed, arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and crucified, the Lord was not thinking of Himself. He was thinking of us!
At the Last Supper, He offers His Body and Blood in the form of the Passover bread and wine, just as the next morning, He offers His Body and Blood on the Cross, completely giving Himself for our salvation.
Jesus must have asked Himself: What is the most profound, intimate, and salvific way I can remain with my people until the end of time? The answer is the Eucharist.
More understanding and participation
This month, I was blessed to speak in the Spanish track at the Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress in San Francisco and to attend the meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Florida.
Both events shone forth an animated commitment on the part of both our leaders and our people to embrace the opportunities for evangelization, catechesis, renewal, and devotion, which the Eucharistic Revival is giving to Catholics in the United States.
The Holy Spirit is enflaming thousands of believers throughout our country to fall more deeply in love with Christ in the Eucharist, to study our rich theology and spirituality of the Mass, and to encourage others to come back to the sacraments.
Here are some ways to deepen your understanding and participation in the Eucharist.
Read and pray over the Scripture readings before coming to Mass on Sunday. When you ponder these sacred texts, what word, phrase, image, or idea stands out for you? What is the Lord saying to you today in His holy Word?
You will appreciate and understand the readings and homily at Mass so much more if you study them ahead of time.
Many people say they do not attend Sunday Mass because they get nothing out of it, but what did they bring to it?
The Lord asks us to bring the totality of our past week: Our prayer, work, love, sacrifice, joy, and sorrow, and to offer this gift of ourselves to Him, united to the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
The gifts of bread and wine, carried up the aisle and placed on the altar, symbolize the gift we make to the Lord. Then something truly wondrous occurs.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, invoked by the priest, our gifts are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ!
We give ourselves to God and we receive back the fullness of the Son’s sacramental presence within our very being.
In your preparation for Mass, ask yourself: What specific gift from this past week will you lay on the altar and offer to the Lord this coming Sunday?
Practice Eucharistic Adoration. A married couple, good friends of mine, have faithfully spent one hour together every Tuesday night for 32 years adoring the Lord in the exposed monstrance.
Spending time in the Eucharistic presence opens up the depths of our hearts and souls to the penetrating love of Jesus.
The silence, peace, grace, and mercy, which flow from the Lord’s Heart are graciously abundant in every place where faithful lovers of Jesus gather to adore and pray in adoration.
Most of our parishes have such opportunities to savor the Lord’s presence in this beautiful way.
Sign up and come to our diocesan Eucharistic Congress this September 29 to October 1 at St. John the Baptist Parish in Waunakee.
A combination of Masses, inspiring talks on the Eucharist from acclaimed national speakers, ongoing Eucharistic adoration, a Sunday procession, breakout sessions, and joyful fellowship, this Congress will renew all of us in our love for the Lord and the service of His Gospel!
Watch the inspiring film, Dare to Believe, produced here in our diocese, which explores the spiritual power which faith in the Eucharist gives to us.
Attend one of the Eucharistic Holy Hours in our parishes on Thursday evenings which I am leading during the Eucharistic Revival.
A combination of Adoration, the Rosary, spiritual reflection, and Benediction, this Holy Hour is a beautiful way to deepen our Eucharistic piety.
Invite someone you know who has stopped practicing the faith to watch Dare to Believe with you and to accompany you to Mass. Become a disciple, an evangelist of the Eucharist!
In the midst of so much confusion, suffering, violence, and laxity in our society today, the Lord is offering us this rich opportunity to dwell in His Heart through the Most Holy Eucharist, and there to discover our deepest identity as beloved children of the Father, saved and forgiven in Jesus Christ and anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit!