The Eucharist, Light and Life of the New Millennium

“I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12a).  “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6).

THE YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST!!!

Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, announced a Year of the Eucharist from October 2004 to October 2005.  The Year  begins at the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, October 10-17, 2004, and ends with the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in October 2005.

To prepare us for the Eucharistic Year, Our Holy Father gave us the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church) in 2003.  This letter is filled with teachings and meditations on the True Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist as revealed in Sacred Scripture and proclaimed by the Church throughout the centuries.  Pope John Paul II continually highlights the awesome importance of the Holy Eucharist in the life and renewal of our Church and world.  In declaring the Year of the Eucharist, Our Holy Father is giving us a clarion call to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and develop a personal relationship with Him through Adoration.  He has asked all Catholics throughout the world—clergy, religious and laity—to return to and lead people to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. The faithful are encouraged to frequently, daily if possible, attend Mass and receive Communion, make Holy Hours of Adoration and to start  Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in all parishes and Christian communities worldwide.

“This worship, given therefore to the Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . . . must fill our churches also outside the timetable of Masses . . .   this worship must be prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament . . . Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of exposition—short, prolonged and annual (Forty Hours)—eucharistic benediction, eucharistic processions, eucharistic congresses . . .The Church and the world have a great need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, Ch 1, Sec 2, Art 3).

Start Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish and community!!!

During this Eucharistic Year, we offer ideas and suggestions based on Our Holy Father’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia to celebrate the Year of the Eucharist in your parish and community:

Preparation: Make a banner for the Year of the Eucharist for display in the entrance way of your Church and setup a table with prayers, pamphlets and materials on the True Presence and Adoration. *Please see the Catalog section of our website for over 100 items, including pamphlets, prayer cards, posters, books and many other resources on the Eucharist and Adoration.

Week 1 “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist”  (Art 1).  Ask your pastor to talk about the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and lead a prayer after Communion at the weekend Masses, that all may come to truly believe, love and enter into a personal relationship with Jesus during the Year of the Eucharist. 

Week 2 “Do this in memory of Me” (Lk 22:19).  “The Upper Room was where this most holy Sacrament was instituted” (Art 2). Print a weekly bulletin announcement, a quote about Jesus in the Eucharist, and an invitation to sign-up for a weekly Holy Hour.  Include contact information.

Week 3 “We know that she was present among the Apostles who prayed ‘with one accord’ (cf. Acts 1:14), “Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, . . . she herself has a profound relationship with it” (Art 53).  Pray a Rosary for the start or renewal of  Adoration in your parish.

Week 4 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).  “The Eucharist . . . stands at the centre of the Church’s life” (Art 3). Put up posters of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, Our Lady, St. Joseph and other Saints who loved the Eucharist in your Church and school with quotes and stories about their devotion.

Week 5 “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Mt 26:40). “The holy hour, [is] the hour of the redemption of the world” (Art 4).  Jesus asked His disciples to watch and pray with Him.  Offer a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration for the conversion and redemption of the world. 

Week 6 “I Myself am the living bread come down from heaven” (Jn 6:51). The Holy Eucharist is “Mysterium fidei!—The Mystery of Faith!” (Art 5).   Host a parish dessert hour at which a reflection on the True Presence of Jesus will be given.  (Videos are also available through us).

Week 7 Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 19:16).  Thank God by “Halting before the ‘Eucharistic face’ of Christ and pointing out with new force to the Church the centrality of the Eucharist” (Art 7). On the Feast of Christ the King, plan a parish Holy Hour of Adoration, beginning with a Eucharistic procession and ending with Benediction.

Week 8 “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Lk 24:31).  “To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him . . . above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood” (Art 6).  Share the good news that Jesus is Personally Present in the Holy Eucharist with parish groups and classes, by giving presentations and sharing appropriate materials.

Week 9  “The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Is 7:14). “The Son of God became man in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise . . . to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly this is the mysterium fidei which is accomplished in the Eucharist” (Art 8).  Share about the Personal Presence of Jesus with others. Invite them to come experience the peace and love of Jesus in the Eucharist during a weekly Holy Hour this Advent.  Suggest prayers especially for the restoration of the respect for all human life.

Week 10 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory; the glory of an only Son coming from the Father, filled with enduring love” (Jn 1:14). “What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:12-13).  “The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history” (Art 9).  Encourage parishioners to offer Holy Hours as Christmas gifts for all (loved ones, sick, poor, needy, depressed and our troops in war torn areas).

Week 11 “Going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother,  and they fell down and worshipped him” (Matt 2:11). “Is not the enraptured gaze of Mary as she contemplated the face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us?” (Art 55).  “Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is also an important daily practice and becomes an inexhaustible source of holiness” (Art 10). Give Jesus the Birthday gift of starting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish and community this New Year!

Week 12 “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Lk 2:20).  “I wish once more to recall this truth and to join you, my dear brothers and sisters, in adoration before this mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. What more could Jesus have done for us?  Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a love which goes ‘to the end’ (cf. Jn 13:1), a love which knows no measure.”  The Eucharist is “the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself [Jesus]” (Art 11).  Begin a study group or book club, for which books on the Holy Eucharist are read and discussed during this New Year.  (Books are available through us).

Week 13  “For this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28).  The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the whole Christian life” (Art 33; cf. Lumen Gentium).  Offer a parish Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration asking Jesus—the Prince and source of peace—for world peace. 

Week 14   “Jesus explained to them: ‘I Myself am the bread of life.  No one who comes to Me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in Me shall ever thirst’” (Jn 6:35).“It is as the living and risen One that Christ can become in the Eucharist the ‘bread of life’ (Jn 6:35, 48), the ‘living bread’”(Jn 6:51) (Art 14). Give a series of presentations on the Living Presence of Jesus and Eucharistic Adoration to your parish, and invite them to signup for a Holy Hour of weekly Adoration during the Year of the Eucharist.

Week 15 “I Myself am the Living Bread come down from Heaven.  If anyone eats this Bread he shall live forever; the Bread I give is My flesh, for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). “Before this mystery of love, human reason fully experiences its limitations. One understands how, down the centuries, this truth has stimulated theology” (Art 15).  Invite a missionary to speak about Jesus Personal Presence in the Eucharist and Adoration at your parish.

Week 16  “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me” (Jn 6:57).  “The Eucharist is a true banquet, in which Christ offers himself as our nourishment” (Art 16). Publicize information and announcements about the Holy Eucharist and Adoration in your parish bulletin, newsletters, website, and other media.

Week 17  “God’s Bread comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn 6:33). “The Church implores this divine Gift, the source of every other gift” (Art 17).  Share about the True Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with children, teens, college and adult students by using appropriate means and materials in classes and inviting them to weekly Adoration. 

Week 18 “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). The Eucharist is the “pledge of future glory” ( Art. 18).  Offer your Mass and Communion in reparation to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus for the sins of the world and invite others to join you in attending daily Mass during Lent.     

 Week 19  “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10).  At Mass we offer the sacrifice of Jesus, the Eucharistic Lamb, and “are united to the heavenly ‘liturgy’” (Art. 19).    Encourage parishioners, family and friends who are not signed up for a weekly Holy Hour of adoration to pledge a weekly Holy Hour with Jesus this Lent.

 Week 20 We await a “new heavens” and “a new earth” (Rev 21:1).  “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).  The Eucharist “spurs us on our journey through history and plants a seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us” (Art. 20).  Invite parish prayer groups and other groups (e.g. Knights of Columbus, Altar Rosary Society, etc.). to join you in praying for and promoting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish and community.

Week 21 “Do this is remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24-25).  “The Second Vatican Council teaches that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the centre of the process of the Church's growth” (Art. 21).  Distribute pamphlets, prayer cards and other materials on the Holy Eucharist and Adoration in your parish and community.  Invite others to help you in this endeavor.

“If the only result of this Year were the revival in all Christian communities of  . . . an increase in Eucharistic worship outside Mass, this Year of grace would be abundantly successful” (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 29).

Week 22  “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21).“From the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelization” (Art. 22).  Invite a family member, friend, neighbor or co-worker to go to Mass and/or Adoration with you.

Week 23 “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).  “Our union with Christ [in the Eucharist], which is a gift and grace for each of us, makes it possible for us, in him, to share in the unity of his body which is the Church” (Art. 23).  Make a Holy Hour, and give a Holy Hour gift card, to someone in need.

Week 24 “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body . . . and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13). “The Eucharist, precisely by building up the Church, creates human community” (Art. 24).  Offer a parish Holy Hour for vocations to the priesthood and religious life on Holy Thursday.  Encourage adorers to pray for seminarians, priests, bishops, cardinals and our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

Week 25 “[John, the beloved disciple, was] leaning on Jesus’ breast” (Jn 13:25). “It is pleasant to spend time with him, to lie close to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in his heart” (Art. 25).  Spend a Holy Hour resting in Jesus’ Love.

Week 26  “He shows us a love which goes ‘to the end’ (Jn13:1), a love which knows no measure.”  “Join . . .in adoration before this [Eucharistic] mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy” (11).  Celebrate Divine Mercy with a Holy Hour imploring God’s mercy for all.

Week 27 “You form a building which rises on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone” (2 Eph 20).  “The Eucharist builds the Church” (26).   Pray and work for unity among Christians, that all may know Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and worship Him in Adoration.  Invite a non-Catholic to Mass and/or Adoration.

Week 28  “Beg the harvest master to send out laborers to gather his harvest” (Mt 9:38).“The Eucharist is the centre and summit of the Church's life, it is likewise the centre and summit of priestly ministry” (31). Make a weekly parish Holy Hour for holy vocations to the priesthood.

Week 29  “Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).“Keep alive in the community a genuine ‘hunger’ for the Eucharist” (33).   Advertise the True Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, Mass and Eucharistic Adoration in bulletins, newspapers, newsletters, signs, web, t.v. or radio spots and other means.

Week 30  “Together they devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1:14).“Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with [the Eucharist]” (53).  Give prayers, pamphlets, or pictures of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament to parishioners to pray for an increase in Adoration throughout the world! 

Week 31 “Eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28).“Participate fully in the Eucharist by receiving the body and blood of Christ” (36). Receive Communion for the Pope.

Week 32 “Through these you . . . might become sharers of the Divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).“The Eucharist thus appears as the culmination of all the sacraments in perfecting our communion with God the Father by identification with his only-begotten Son through the working of the Holy Spirit” (34). Offer a special parish Holy Hour for a new Pentecost!

Week 33 “Once I am lifted up . . . [I] will draw all men to Myself” (Jn 12:32).“The devout participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic procession on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a grace from the Lord which yearly brings joy to those who take part in it” (10). Organize a procession and Eucharistic Adoration for the Feast of Corpus Christi. 

Week 34 “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53).“Mass [is] fundamental for the life of the Church” (41). Offer a Mass and Holy Hour in thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity for the gift of the Holy Eucharist. 

Week 35 “Every worthwhile gift . . . [is] from the Father” (Js 1:17).  “Our longing for the goal of unity prompts us to turn to the Eucharist, which is the supreme sacrament of the unity of the People of God” (43).  Pray for Christian unity in weekly Mass and Adoration intentions.

Week 36  “That all may be one” (Jn 17:21). “The Eucharist brings about [the Church's unity] through the Lord's sacrifice and by communion in his body and blood” (44). Invite couples to sign up for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, especially those preparing for marriage.    

Week 37  “Mary brought a pound of costly perfume made of genuine aromatic nard, with which she anointed Jesus’ feet” (Jn 12:3).“Like the woman who anointed Jesus in Bethany, the Church has feared no ‘extravagance’, devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist” (48).  Ask your pastor to preach about the Holy Eucharist at Sunday Mass throughout this month.

Week 38  “Feed My Sheep” (Jn 21:17).“It is in the Eucharist that prayer for vocations is most closely united to the prayer of Christ the Eternal High Priest” (31).  Invite those who recently made their Confirmation to sign up for and attend weekly Adoration, with a friend or individually, that they may hear and respond to God’s call to feed His sheep.

Week 39 “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” (Mt 8:8; Lk 7:6).  “The Eucharistic Banquet is truly a ‘sacred’ banquet, in which the simplicity of the signs conceals the unfathomable holiness of God” (48). Offer a Mass in honor and thanksgiving to the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Week 40 “At that moment Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said: ‘I offer You praise, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth’” (Lk 10:21).  “The Eucharist, while shaping the Church and her spirituality, has also powerfully affected ‘culture’” (49).  Sing a Eucharistic song of praise and worship at Mass.

Week 41 “Father . . . I pray that they may be [one] in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (Jn 17:21). “A hope, and even a pledge, of the desired fullness of communion in faith and in celebration . . . [demands] a profoundly Eucharistic Church” (50).  Offer a Mass and a Holy Hour for unity between all Christians of the East and West.

Week 42  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).“The Eucharist offers sustenance not only to individuals but to entire peoples” (51).  Include a Mass intention that all people know and love Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

Week 43 “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Cor 11:25). “No one is permitted to undervalue the mystery entrusted to our hands: it is too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its universality” (52).  As the Church prepares to celebrate World Youth Day, invite youth to offer special Holy Hours, with music, prayers and reflections for the success of this awesome event.

Week 44 “All of these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). “Mary is a ‘woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life” (53).  This month, offer a Rosary before all of the weekend Masses so that the hearts of young people at World Youth Day in Germany will be inspired to be Eucharistic disciples.

 Week 45 “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). “Gazing upon Mary, we come to know the transforming power present in the Eucharist. In her we see the world renewed in love. Contemplating her, assumed body and soul into heaven, we see opening up before us those ‘new heavens’ and that ‘new earth’ which will appear at the second coming of Christ” (62).  Crown a statue of Our Lady in your parish and ask her intercession for faith in and adoration of her Son in the Holy Eucharist.

 Week 46 “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). “Mary seems to say to us: ‘Do not waver; trust in the words of my Son. If he was able to change water into wine, he can also turn bread and wine into his body and blood” (54).  Pray for faith in the Eucharistic Jesus in daily Mass intentions. 

Week 47  “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45).  “[Mary] bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a ‘tabernacle’ – the first ‘tabernacle’ in history – in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored” (55). Pray for the great grace to start Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish and community during this year.

Week 48 “This is my body which is given for you” (Lk 22:19) “For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross” (56). Invite parents and students to signup for a weekly Holy Hour of Adoration at your parish so they may experience the power of His life-giving presence!  Include Adoration in your school schedule.   

 Week 49  “To her [Mary] he gave the beloved disciple and, in him, each of us: ‘Behold, your Son!’  To each of us he also says: ‘Behold your mother!’ (cf. Jn 19: 26-27).  Experiencing the memorial of Christ’s death in the Eucharist also means continually receiving this gift” (57).                  In union with Mother Mary,  pray that Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and in the Holy Eucharist may be known, and all may love, worship and adore Him as Lord and Savior of the world!  

 Week 50 “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). “In the Eucharist the Church is completely united to Christ and his sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary” (58).  Present adorers with a gift (e.g. a monstrance pin) at weekend Masses.

 Week 51 “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).“Here [in the Holy Eucharist] is the Church’s treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns” (59).  Plan a parish mission on the awesome gift of the Holy Eucharist and graces and benefits of Eucharistic Adoration for all.

Week 52 “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). “Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church’s mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination” (60). Offer a Mass, Communion and Holy Hour each week this month for the greater respect of human life from conception to natural death.

Week 53 “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you” (1 Kg 19:7). “The mystery of the Eucharist—sacrifice, presence, banquet—does not allow for reduction or exploitation; it must be experienced and lived in its integrity, both in its celebration and in the intimate converse with Jesus which takes place after receiving communion or in a prayerful moment of Eucharistic adoration” (61). Establish a parish Eucharistic book and A/Vlending library.

Week 54 “That all may be one” (Jn 17:11). “Inspired by love, the Church is anxious to hand on to future generations of Christians, without loss, her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no danger of excess in our care for this mystery, for ‘in this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation’” (61). Establish ongoing education about the True Presence of Jesus and His love in the Holy Eucharist at your parish.

Week 55 “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).“In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love” (62). Offer a Parish Rosary Novena for the start or renewal of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish.

“I hope that . . .Perpetual Adoration, with permanent exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, will continue into the future. Specifically, I hope that the fruit of this . . . results in the establishment of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in all parishes and Christian communities throughout the world” (Pope John Paul II).