Walk with Me

By PAUL BINZ

The Valley Catholic

 

BROWNSVILLE —  The Feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday, June 19, marked the launch throughout the United States of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year process to reinforce one central tenet of the Catholic faith that the Holy Eucharist is the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Rio Grande Valley, the Eucharistic Revival began June 19 on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi with a Eucharistic procession in downtown Brownsville from the mission church of St. Thomas to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, followed by Mass there. Bishop Daniel E. Flores and Auxiliary Bishop Mario A. Avilés led the procession.

“I think we have some unique circumstances (in the Valley); we have a lot of things we can build on,” Bishop Flores said afterward. “And there is a great love for the Eucharist, and I think that could be a very great source of evangelization.”

The origins of the Eucharistic Revival date back to 2019, in the wake of a Pew Foundation study released in August of that year that found only 30% of Catholics in the United States believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Quoting language used in the polling, the study found that nearly 70% of U.S. Catholics believe that the bread and wine used for Communion during Mass are simply “symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ,” while about 30% believe that the bread and wine “actually become” Christ’s body and blood.

Many U.S. bishops viewed the study’s results as a catechetical crisis illustrating a lack of fundamental understanding about the Eucharist among the nation’s Catholics.

At the time the Pew study was released, Bishop Flores spoke definitively on the Consecration and the Eucharist.

“We know the great secret, the great mystery of faith. It is that the Lord did this at the Last Supper precisely to give us his own Being. Because it is not bread anymore, it is not wine anymore. It is the Body of the Lord, Blood of the Lord.

“The Church … recognizes that the treasure of faith is the presence of the Lord among us precisely in this sacrament.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops responded to the Pew study’s findings by making and approving plans last year for a National Eucharistic Revival, including a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024 that is expected to draw at least 80,000 Catholics for the five-day event. It will be the first U.S. Eucharistic conference in almost 50 years; the last one was in Philadelphia in 1976.

Each diocese of the United States has or will have a coordinator for the Eucharistic Revival and its activities; Angel Barrera is the coordinator for the Diocese of Brownsville. Barrera, who was also coordinator for the first phase of the Synodal process, described an important distinction from the rest of the country that the Valley already possesses.

“From the Synod, it was very clear in every single deanery that the number one joy that you hear in all the oral reports is that they have a joy in receiving Communion, a joy in the Eucharist, a joy in being able to participate in the Mass,” he said.

Barrera noted with some irony that the Valley’s distinction could even complicate the revival efforts locally.

“One of the things that’s kind of challenging is we in this part of the country have a pattern and an experience of the Eucharist that’s different than in other parts,” he said. “We already practice Eucharistic devotions. We have Eucharistic adorations. Part of what’s going on is that other parts of the country don’t.

“So there’s a palpable sense that people here already have this appreciation for the Real Presence. Maybe they couldn’t articulate it in a very sound, doctrinal, theological way or discourse, but it’s present.”

Some Eucharistic activity is already under way, notably in the Archdiocese of Boston, which concluded a pandemic-extended Year of the Eucharist in June with a Eucharistic Congress in Lowell, Massachusetts. Bishop Flores participated as a keynote speaker, joining Cardinal Seán O'Malley and Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, who had a key role in starting the response to the Pew Foundation study. Bishop Barron also was recently named Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, where he is scheduled to be installed in late July.

“We’ve inaugurated it,” Bishop Flores said of the start of the National Eucharistic Revival. “I’m seeing it as something that would help give some continuity to the Synod work that we’ve done. And we’re working on that because we heard a lot from the people about the importance of lifting up and helping the communities understand and catechize about the Eucharist. So I see it as kind of flowing.

“In the fall we’ll have some things, some catechetical opportunities and 40-hours devotions in the different parts of the Diocese. It’s going to be kind of a rollout to give people opportunities to enter more deeply into it,” he said.  “And so we’re hoping to make it available on the most local level.”

Much of the process for the revival is still in development, both nationally and locally. But the broad outline from the National Eucharistic Revival website includes the following:

 

The Feast of Corpus Christi
June 19, 2022

  The national response to the Lord’s call was launched with widespread Eucharistic processions and adoration on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – the Feast of Corpus Christi.

 

The Year of Diocesan Revival

  June 19, 2022 – June 11, 2023

  This first year of the Revival invites diocesan staff, bishops, and priests to respond to the Lord’s personal invitation and equips them to share this love with the faithful through Eucharistic congresses and events.

 

The Year of Parish Revival

  June 11, 2023 – July 17, 2024

The second phase will foster Eucharistic devotion at the parish level, strengthening liturgical life through faithful celebration of the Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, missions, resources, preaching, and organic movements of the Holy Spirit.

 

The National Eucharistic Congress

  July 17-21, 2024

  Indianapolis, Indiana

At this historic event, more than 80,000 Catholics of all ages will gather in at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to reconsecrate their hearts to the source and summit of our faith.

 

The Year of Going Out on Mission

  July 21, 2024 – Pentecost 2025

Having enkindled a missionary fire in the hearts of the American faithful, the Holy Spirit will send the faithful out on mission to share the gift of our Eucharistic Lord.

 

The National Eucharistic Congress explains the extensive process and extended timeline on its website.

“It takes time to kindle a living, loving relationship — and a relationship with Jesus Christ is no exception. That’s why the Eucharistic Revival allows three years for discernment, encounter, and grassroots response on the diocesan, parish, and individual levels.”

Tim Glemkowski, named executive director of the National Eucharistic Congress earlier this year, summed up the revival’s aim in April to Catholic News Service.

“We the Church have to be clear about telling our story, getting to the core (of our faith, that) God is not just some distant someone who is not engaged,” he said. “He's alive and real and can be encountered in the Eucharist, source and summit of the faith. ... This is where God is with us.”

“It’s a three-year process, and so we have time to unfold first instruction and certain types of activities in the deaneries and then in the parishes,” Bishop Flores said. “To really kind of help highlight the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church, which is really a mystery of understanding what Christ has done, and then being able to love and to share in the love that he has given us. … That’s what we’re trying to do.”

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For more information on the National Eucharistic Revival, visit Eucharistic Revival

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Julie Asher of Catholic News Service contributed to this report.