Corpus Christi and the Missionary Year of the Revival

Welcome to another Feast of Corpus Christi! When we celebrated this feast last year, we began the second year of the National Eucharistic Revival, a year where the focus would be in the parish. We inaugurated the year by offering a Eucharistic Procession. And I began this bulletin series, hoping to shed some light and inspiration on the many dimensions of the Eucharist.

While today’s article closes my weekly series, I wanted to point out some very important things. Firstly, this weekend (weather permitting) we will once again embark on a Eucharistic Procession outside the grounds of our parish after the 11:30 AM Mass. And we look ahead to the third and final year of the Revival, a missionary year.

What does this mean, exactly? Recall last week’s article, about the purpose of the dismissal at Mass (in fact, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the Mass).  If we are to truly be Eucharistic People, who believe in the depth of our hearts and souls in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharistic, then we must carry this belief out into the world, into our daily lives. We need to continue to welcome our Catholic brothers and sisters back to Mass, whatever their reasons might be for staying away. We need the world to know why Jesus is vital to our everyday lives. We need to take the inspiration we may have gained from a homily, from partaking in Holy Communion, or from a Eucharistic devotion and apply it to our own lives and the lives of others. All of this because the world truly needs people like all of us – believers in the abiding presence, love and mercy of God, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

May God continue to strengthen our faith and transform our hearts through his only begotten Son, both on this feast day of Corpus Christi, and especially in the year ahead.

“The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.”  - St. Thomas Aquinas

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Contact me at eucharist@stmli.org.