Eucharistic Revival - Rollout set for plans here in dioceses

By PAUL BINZ
The Valley Catholic

SAN JUAN — Bishop Daniel E. Flores will reveal his thoughts and plans for what the National Eucharistic Revival will mean for local Catholics during a gathering and Mass Oct. 1 at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine. 

“It’s a celebration here at the Basilica; we’ll be gathering at 9, and praying and celebrating,” said Angel Barerra, the Diocese of Brownsville’s coordinator for the Eucharistic Revival. “Everyone’s invited to the whole thing … Everyone is welcome to participate. Both bishops will be there; Bishop Flores will be presiding and casting a vision for Eucharistic renewal in the diocese.”

The National Eucharistic Revival is a three-year movement to restore understanding and devotion among U.S. Catholics to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist — a need identified by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The revival began locally on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 24, with a Eucharistic procession in Brownsville from the mission church of St. Thomas to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Since then, planning has been done and first actions taken, leading up to the Oct. 1 event. 

Two important vectors of progress throughout the diocese will be the formation of parish leaders for the revival, and the rise of 40-hour devotions in the parishes.

These local steps are in step with the first-year plan for the national revival. 

“This first year is focused on diocese and deaneries, so we’re getting details from our deaneries about 40-hour devotions that are happening up and down the Valley,” Barrera said. “Each deanery is being assigned a month to find a way to do this. What we’re working to do is identify and form leaders in each deanery, and they’re going to implement and animate these 40-hour devotions.”

Barrera said each of the parishes has been tasked “to identify two individuals to serve as Eucharistic missionary coordinators.”

 “These two individuals will serve as point persons for us so we can share information and resources about how to help animate all these wonderful things in their parishes,” he said. “The Eucharistic missionary coordinators will hopefully have a team of Eucharistic missionaries at every parish and mission. It could be 8, 10, 20 — as many as they’d like — people that are eager to share their love of the Eucharist, and to help others become more familiar with it.”

“In short, Eucharistic missionaries are people compelled to share their love of the Eucharist and help others find that love of Jesus there. And there’s very specific things they can help do: to pray, to promote, and to participate.” 

While the Eucharist itself embodies an intensely personal relationship with Jesus, the revival has a broader focus of reaching out and sharing. 

“Pope Francis has invited us to missionary discipleship. In a very specific way, this period of time will be focused on the Eucharist, about Jesus’ true Presence in the Eucharist,” Barrera said. “But it’s also about the communion that we experience as Church in the Eucharist, and also the mission that we’re sent forth on because of the Eucharist. So, it’s not about devotion apart from faith in action. That’s why we’re taking this first year to form leaders.” 

“So, for those who have this interest or their pastor identifies them as a potential leader, they can be formed in this year through study, through prayer, through these resources, through these events, so that they can be Eucharistic missionaries in our second year, in their parishes, to their families.”

Once parish leaders and missionaries and 40-hour devotions are in place, “we’re set all the way through June 2023,” Barrera said. “Moving forward in that second year is the focus is on parishes and families, and there will be different ways in how we do that.”

The end of the second year of the National Eucharistic Revival will culminate in the Eucharistic Congress in July 2024 that is expected to draw some 80,000 people to Indianapolis for the first event of its kind in the United States in 50 years.

“I will say that I’ve already had a lot of pastors interested in learning about the Eucharistic Congress,” Barrera said. “I see a real eagerness for people to participate in some of these things – locally, but also in the national event. That’s really encouraging to see.” 

Bishop Flores is already very much involved in the Eucharistic Revival at the national level.

“I know that he’s been invited to provide resources that are going to be used nationwide,” Barrera said. “He’s worked with the McGrath Institute (For Church Life) from Notre Dame; he’s worked with the USCCB; different resources to articulate what this (revival) would look like.

“But again, (Oct. 1) is our chance to hear from him what we’re going to be doing in our time together.”

Barrera emphasized how important the local work is. “We want vibrant parishes. We need vibrant parishes. And part of what we’re discerning at the diocese is how do we animate these Eucharistic missionaries, these missionary disciples, at all different levels, in all different groups. … There’s all this potential already, there’s already so much good to build on, in terms of this Eucharistic missionary outreach, but also to invite more people to participate.

“You’ll remember from the Synod report … we still have yet to see people return to our Masses. Some of it is because there’s still a concern for the virus and its effects,” Barrera said. “Others, there’s maybe apathy, indifference. For others, there’s just a lack of catechesis and formation; they just say, ‘Well, from watching it online, isn’t that the same thing?’

“There’s a lot of things we need to begin to address. And a renewal in our commitment to Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist is a very good way to start.”