BY GRETCHEN KEISER

AND KATHI STEARNS

Staff Writers

ATLANTA--Archbishop John Donoghue asked June 9 that Catholics in the archdiocese make a "special gift" to God of the next 12 months, praying in particular that people who have lost their faith may receive the grace of conversion.

Over 1,000 people listened in Holy Spirit Church and in adjoining overflow spaces as the archbishop spoke at the opening of the Eucharistic Renewal he has proclaimed for the archdiocese.

"I am here to ask for your sacrifice ...for the special gifts given to each of you by the Holy Spirit...that of the next 12 months you make a special year, a special offering, a special gift ...to God, to His Son and Holy Spirit," he said.

"That just as Jesus the Lord drew meaning and salvation into one miraculous event (the Last Supper when the Eucharist was celebrated for the first time)...that He will draw now, from those who have lost their belief, a confession of error, an admission of humility before God, a cry of repentance and a sigh of release, so their spirits may enter back into the one fold, the one Church, the true Body of Jesus Christ."

The archbishop's homily began by recalling that when Jesus first taught that his flesh would be food for eternal life, many of his followers were shocked and walked away. Only Peter responded, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life."

The events of the Last Supper were brought to fulfillment on Calvary, Archbishop Donoghue said. "The Church was born and the sacrifice became eternal--the Holy Mass, the moment that contains all that Christ did, all that Christ said, all that Christ was, became an unending prayer, an uninterrupted miracle."

Even so, the teaching of Christ about his real presence in the Eucharist has been assailed and challenged throughout the centuries, the archbishop said.

In contemporary times "dissenters" question the divinity of Christ, question the reality of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist and replace man's need to be redeemed by God with a false attitude of pride, he said. "Worse, they attack the minds and the spiritual weakness of so many people, and infect them with the sickness of doubt--doubt of what the Church teaches, of the way her people have always lived and worshipped, and doubt against the very words of Christ Himself."

Returning to Peter's response to Jesus, the archbishop said he prays that through the Eucharistic Renewal "all men and women might come to know the comfort that we know, and cherish the blessed relief that we cherish, of being able to draw near to the Real Presence of our Lord, to bring Him our sins, our sorrows, our joys and hopes, to hear Him ask each of us, 'Where now will you go?' and to say with St. Peter, our Holy Father in Faith, 'Lord, where would we go? You are eternal life.'"

The opening event of the Eucharistic Renewal, an afternoon service of Scripture, music and adoration, began with an outdoor procession by the 1,000 or more people, led by banners and a bell choir and followed by clergy and the archbishop holding aloft the monstrance with the Holy Eucharist.

Many people, like Lavina Sylvester of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Decatur, recalled such processions from other places and earlier times. "We are from Trinidad. Corpus Christi is a big thing for us," Sylvester said as she and her family waited for the beginning of the event under a broiling sun. After 15 years in Georgia, they welcomed an event so similar to the outdoor Masses and processions they were familiar with in Trinidad.

Chanting "Ubi Caritas" the diverse group of people, including plumed Knights of Columbus, families with children, young and old, filed slowly into a church that was rapidly filled, then overflowed. The gathering area was filled next, where people could see into the sanctuary, then several hundred more people went to the hall where a video monitor was set up.

Dom Bernard Johnson, OCSO, recalled the childhood preparation for first Communion he was given by a nun, who instilled in him and his classmates a love for the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament.

Speaking on the Old Testament reading and its foreshadowing of the Eucharist, the abbot of the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit said the faith of his elementary school teacher taught him more about the Eucharist than the many theological texts he has read since.

At the age of 7, he was taught to make "visits to the Blessed Sacrament" and to pray gratefully, "O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, All praise and all thanksgiving, Be every moment thine." His teacher taught him more than great books, the abbot said, "because she was a believer and she loved the Lord Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament and communicated it to generations of other believers."

In Scripture Martha tells her sister, Mary, "The Master is here and he is calling for you," Dom Johnson recalled. In the same way, the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament invites each person to sit with the Master, he said. His fellow Trappists in Algeria, seven of whom were murdered recently, spent many hours daily in prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and "it was there that they got the strength to go through what they had to go through," Dom Johnson said. "The same Jesus is waiting for us. The Master is here and he calls us."

A choir gathered from many parts of the archdiocese, led by Alan Brown, with soloists Mary Rogers and Sam Hagan, sang both traditional and contemporary music during the service, which ended with the archbishop processing with the monstrance in the church and overflow areas, blessing participants.

"We celebrated our sure faith and it was great," commented Father Dan Toof afterward. A parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Alpharetta, he said that he believes the active Catholics he serves are faithful to church teaching on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He wonders if the Gallup poll showing only a fraction of Catholics hold to this belief surveyed primarily inactive or non-practicing Catholics.

Nonetheless, he said, "I think that it is a beneficial and important thing that we are doing in the archdiocese" by focusing on the Eucharist throughout the coming months.

Father Richard Wise, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, said the area's growing number of Hispanic, Vietnamese and African-American Catholics require a sensitivity by all to the diverse cultural expressions of worship.

"Most of the parishioners in my parish are African-Americans who are 40 years old or younger and never knew the Catholic Church when Mass and adoration were celebrated in the Latin rite," he said. "The people in my parish understand the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but their form of worship and adoration differ. When you have an archdiocese that is as diverse as ours, people need to develop a cultural appreciation for the way people of other cultures praise God and recognize his true presence."

The pastor said he will continue to preach on the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, stress the fundamental concept in children's and adult catechesis and have Benediction and adoration frequently throughout the year. "I have always had and continue to have a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament," he said.

Sue Said, a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes in Atlanta, said she was "very struck by the people of all ages and all nationalities who were in attendance. Our church needs something like this. Children today are not being brought up with an understanding of God's presence in the Eucharist."

"I felt such a sense of worship among the people who were attending," she said, adding that the renewal recognizes that one's faith, if it is to remain alive, must constantly grow and deepen. "This renewal is an invitation to deepen our faith."

Parishioners from St. James Mission in Madison and St. Mary's Church in Rome said prayers for the Eucharistic Renewal were being distributed in their respective churches and would be added to ongoing times of devotion before the Blessed Sacrament.

St. Pius X Church in Conyers held a week of perpetual adoration before the Blessed Sacrament from June 9 until June 16 to mark the opening of the Eucharistic Renewal in the archdiocese.

The focus of the renewal is to bring Catholics of the archdiocese to a deeper understanding and experience of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

"I was thrilled that over 1,500 people came together as a community to recognize and support this fundamental belief of Catholicism," said Keri Allen, Cathedral of Christ the King member and chair of the Eucharistic Renewal committee. "The attendance spoke very clearly to the need and enthusiasm in the archdiocese for this kind of renewal."

Members of the planning committee are currently training 65 volunteers who will conduct "Life in the Eucharist" seminars in parishes beginning in January 1997, she said. A children's syllabus and an adult syllabus are also being developed, she said, based upon the teaching on the Eucharist in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is hoped that the renewal will provide a broad understanding based upon the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the catechism and Scripture, Allen said.

"Unfortunately it appears that some people want to believe only in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist; others only want to believe in his presence in the community. What I think we are missing is that it is not an 'either/or' statement; it is a 'both/and' statement. We're hoping to be able to see the Eucharist through the eyes of our Lord, not simply through our own eyes."