The National Eucharistic Congress was an amazing experience, five days of wonder and awe and adoration.
Some 60,000 Catholics, from every corner of the country, came to Indianapolis as Eucharistic pilgrims, and gathered as the family of God to pray and give praise to Jesus Christ.
Many had traveled for weeks along one of the four Eucharistic pilgrimage routes, processing with the Blessed Sacrament and bearing witness to their faith.
I was privileged to be among more than 200 LA Catholics who made the journey to Indianapolis July 17–21 along with five of our auxiliary bishops and more than a dozen of our priests.
And I believe history will remember this as an important moment in the life of the Church in the United States.
The National Eucharistic Revival, launched three years ago by the U.S. bishops, has truly been a work of the Holy Spirit in our times. Already we are seeing the revival’s fruits — people coming home to God and coming home to the Church.
Jesus promised that we will see greater things, and surely we do!
There is a great movement of the Spirit going on in our times, a new thirst for holiness and truth, for a love that is pure and beautiful and everlasting.
And we have come to see more clearly that the Eucharist is the heart of the universe, and the secret of God’s plan of love for every soul.
Every man and woman is created for love and every human heart longs for this love. In the Eucharist, we find that love we long for and were made for.
In the Eucharist, the God who is Love invites us to taste and see his goodness. The God who humbled himself to share in our humanity invites us to share in his divinity and to live in tender friendship with him.
During these past three years, we have renewed our awe and amazement in the presence of God and his love in the Eucharist.
Now, we must go forward and share this awe and amazement with our neighbors.
At the end of the Congress, it was announced that next summer there will be a pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles that will arrive here for the celebration of Corpus Christi.
We are honored and excited to have been selected and we are already making plans to welcome the pilgrims with a great celebration of faith.
With the Eucharistic Congress, the U.S. bishops’ Eucharistic revival enters its third and final year, dedicated to missionary discipleship.
The bishops have launched a new program they call “Walk with One,” to encourage and equip Catholics to evangelize in their daily lives.
Here in Los Angeles, we started our own campaign at the beginning of the revival. Called Back to Mass, it provides resources to help people invite their loved ones and friends to come to Mass with them.
In Indianapolis, we announced a new nationwide initiative to support the bishops’ Walk with One efforts. With our partners, eCatholic and My Saint My Hero, we have developed a new online search tool for finding Mass, Confession, and Adoration times anywhere in the country.
We also released a new video on the “power of invitation” that I urge you to watch. It tells the story of four people and how they told someone else about their friendship with Jesus and invited them to Mass. All of this is available on our LACatholics website or at backtomass.com.
The Eucharistic revival must lead all of us now to become Eucharistic evangelists.
Jesus is counting on us to be his witnesses and co-workers, to bring people back to Mass!
We need to help our neighbors to see that the Love they are looking for is true and real, that this Love is already here, on our altars and in our tabernacles, and that this Love has a name, Jesus Christ!
Imagine the difference in the world, in our homes, if every Catholic in this country brought just one person back to Mass. So, let’s pray for that.
Jesus can still raise up a fallen world, and Jesus can still change lives!
Just as he changed water into wine, and just as he transforms the bread and wine into his body and blood, through the Eucharist, he wants to make every person holy as he is holy. Through the Eucharist, he wants to fill this world with his glory.
Pray for me and I will pray for you. And let’s keep praying for the Eucharistic revival in our times.
May holy Mary help us to live more deeply from the body and blood of her Son. And may Our Lady help us to lead many others to his holy altar, where they might taste and see the goodness of God.
