- Bishop Joseph N. Perry

On the feast of Corpus Christi in June of this year, our holy father, Pope John Paul II, announced the Year of the Eucharist. The year’s observance begins with the World Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico from the 10 th-17 th of October and ends with the ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, October 2005 on the topic of the Eucharist. Cardinal Francis George will be participating in the month long Synod.

Spiritual observances of this nature follow a custom, from time to time, setting aside a year over which the Church is asked to celebrate and give special attention to a particular aspect of the Catholic faith. You will recall that we are just now finishing the Year of the Rosary. Prior to the arrival of the year 2000, the Holy Father dedicated the three approaching years to the new millennium to a separate Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Periodically, in the history of the Church we have found need to place particular emphasis on the mystery of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in this awesome sacrament where his body and blood is made present for our sustain until he comes back for us. The pope dedicated a special teaching letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, to the Eucharistic mystery and its relationship to the Church, published April 16, 2003. In it the pope stressed that the Church cannot “realize her own vocation without cultivating a steadfast relationship with the Eucharist.” In this special year, then, all Catholics are called to honor God’s gift of the Eucharist, to receive it more faithfully and to reflect more deeply on its meaning in their lives and in the life of the Church.

Here in the Archdiocese of Chicago, this is an opportunity for the Catholic faithful to deepen their appreciation for and understanding of the sacrament and its transforming power in our lives while it nurtures us for Christian action and deepens our unity. This year is also an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to participating in Mass with a fuller understanding of the primacy of the Sunday assembly where we rehearse His Word and take unto ourselves the sacrament for support for strong witness to the truths of the faith in the world today.

This is an opportunity for people to learn more about the Mass through parish adult faith formation, parish discussion groups and study groups, personal reading and study.

This is an opportunity for people to recommit themselves to more frequent prayer and reflection on the Eucharist through prolonged prayer and meditation. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, just under two hundred parishes have scheduled hours of prayer and adoration before the exposed Blessed Sacrament in our churches and chapels. The Pope John Paul II Eucharistic Adoration Association of the Archdiocese publishes a directory of parishes with adoration and the hours offered. About a dozen parishes have perpetual adoration round-the-clock, seven days a week.

There are several special programs and events scheduled for the Year of the Eucharist around the Archdiocese of Chicago. Look out for news blurbs and bulletin announcements as the months unfold:

> A Day of Reflection for parish Eucharistic ministers is planned for Saturday, April 2, the place to be announced. Cardinal Francis George will address those who, in assistance to the parish priests, carry the Eucharist to others.

> The Office for Divine Worship is putting together a speaker series on the Eucharist that will occur during the season of Lent 2005. There is the suggestion for parishes to have their Lenten missions on some aspect of the Eucharist.

> Pointers for homilies will be published for parish priests to devote one Sunday each month to addressing some aspect of the Eucharist.

> A Day of Reflection for those responsible for Eucharistic Adoration in the parishes is planned for Saturday, May 14 at Marytown, Libertyville, Illinois. Also, a Eucharistic Rally will be held at Marytown, June 17-18, 2005.

No one can feed upon this sacrament or spend length of time before its adored wonder without being changed into the likeness of Christ whose body and blood we share. Eucharist is food for the journey, sustenance for the witness of the Christian life, bond of our unity in Christ. We desire that intimacy with Christ that we might change all things for the glory of his kingdom, that He might live in us as we live in Him.

The Holy Eucharist for Catholics does not represent Christ, nor is it a mere symbol of Christ, nor is it just pageantry. Within the action of the Mass, the commemoration of the Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary for the salvation of the world, the body and blood of the Lord is made present for the Church even as the Lord desires to be with us. Communion with Him crowns faith and friendship with Him while it raises all our friendships on a level sanctified by our faith in Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist, the Second Vatican Council affirms, “is the source and summit of all Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). In the Lord’s own words, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.” (John 6, 56-57).

Let us renew our approach to this mystical sacrament meant for the life of us His Church. Let us delve into its meaning so we can become more and more like unto Him we worship.

“As he revealed Himself to the apostles in true flesh, so he reveals Himself to us now in sacred bread … let us, as we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, see and firmly believe that they are His most holy body and blood living and true. And in this way the Lord is always with hisfaithful, as he himself says: Behold, I am with you until the end of the age.” –St. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents (vol . 1), New City Press . @