BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--A procession of people chanting a litany of praise to Jesus slowly entered Holy Spirit Church preceding Archbishop John F. Donoghue holding the Blessed Sacrament aloft in a monstrance.

Footsteps kept pace with the melodic tolling of a hand bell during the litany of the Holy Eucharist. A woman’s soaring voice began each line of praise, while the rest of the people chanted in response, “Have mercy on us.” The strong sun made everything look very bright against a blue sky. Plumed Knights of Columbus, red-robed altar boys carrying candles and girls in white Communion dresses with baskets of rose petals preceded the priests and the archbishop into the church.

The outdoor procession led into a service of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a Liturgy of the Word and homily, silent adoration and Benediction. In that atmosphere of shared reverence in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, people for whom eucharistic devotion is a treasured part of lifelong Catholic faith prayed alongside others who look forward to receiving the Eucharist for the first time next Easter.

“The beauty of God is ever ancient, ever new,” said Father Benedict Groeschel, the homilist at the Corpus Christi event, which celebrated the third anniversary of the Eucharistic Renewal called for by Archbishop Donoghue.

Father Groeschel, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, linked the loss of eucharistic devotion in the church to a wider modern movement that repudiated traditional beauty.

In the same time period, a liturgical movement in the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council put greater emphasis on the Mass and less on the traditional practice of adoration of the Eucharist outside of Mass, the homilist said.

Those born in the last few decades are missing exposure to a profound devotion to the Eucharist, he said, that has deep roots extending back many centuries in church life. Admitting that he is “so tired” of hearing inaccurate renditions of early Christian church practice, Father Groeschel said belief that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus was unchallenged for the first 1,500 years of Christianity. He also said the Eucharist was reserved in a tabernacle to be brought to the sick and this became a place of prayer for the early Christians.

The author of a book on the Eucharist and of a collection of eucharistic prayers and hymns, Father Groeschel gave the examples of a cathedral in Lugo, Spain, which has had perpetual adoration of the Eucharist since the year 706 with very few interruptions and the Basilica of St. Isidore in Lyons, France, which has sustained perpetual adoration of the Eucharist for 600 years.

In his boyhood, Father Groeschel said he remembers those of Italian descent rising at 4 a.m. for the feast of Corpus Christi, picking roses from their gardens and forming a mosaic of rose petals on the church floor depicting the chalice and host. In France, Corpus Christi is called “La Fête Dieux,” or the feast of God. Corpus Christi was established as a feast by Pope Urban IV, he said, who as a priest was told by a Belgian nun that the Lord had asked for the church to have such a feast. A number of years later he became an archbishop and then pope, acting on the request communicated to him and obtaining the services of St. Thomas Aquinas to write hymn texts and prayers for the church on the Eucharist. The Benediction hymns, “O Salutaris” and “Tantum Ergo,” were written by Aquinas.

Throughout the centuries the great saints were characterized by intense devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, he concluded, mentioning the letters and prayers of St. Francis of Assisi, the exquisite writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the preaching of St. Anthony of Padua.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Capuchin friars who have just been declared a new diocesan religious order in New York, offer YOUTH 2000 weekend retreats that are Eucharist-based for teens. The weekend presents eucharistic adoration to teens who are barely familiar or totally unfamiliar with Catholic dogma on the Eucharist and worship of Jesus in the Eucharist, Father Groeschel said. Although they have never heard of 40 Hours devotion when they start the weekend, by the end many are deeply touched. “Why do they believe it?” he asked. “Because they have the gift of faith. The problem of Christianity today and its major divisions is not no faith, it is little faith.”

An estimated 1,100 people came to the Liturgy of the Word, exposition and adoration at which the archbishop presided. He concluded the service with Benediction, carrying the monstrance up and down the aisles of the church blessing the people.

“It is so beautiful. The greatest thing the Catholic Church has is to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” said Sister Angela Akuagbogu, a Nigerian serving at St. John the Evangelist Church in Hapeville. “In Nigeria the celebration is held in November, which is the dry season, so that it will be a big celebration ... All the parishes far and near will trek down. The traffic will be shut. Thousands of people, miles of people, children ... The music will draw people, the young people will dance and thank God.”

But the outward expression, which may vary from African culture to American culture, is not what is critical, the Sister of the Blessed Sacrament said. “The real reverence, adoring Jesus until we change our lives, that is the most important thing.”

Americans, she said, are very busy working. “Too much materialism is not good if you have no joy.” With a bright smile she quoted Proverbs, “It is better to eat a piece of bread with peace of mind than a banquet with a troubled heart.”

Tiffany Lambert and Sarah Stevens, college students who are in the RCIA program at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, long to receive the Eucharist. “For God to come and sit there like that, it is the essence of humility,” said Lambert, a graduate of St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, who received faith since she began college. “The fact that Jesus wants to live within us, that he is willing to come down and be within us ... it totally changed my life, believing that.”

Stevens, a Presbyterian who also graduated from St. Pius, said faith in the Eucharist is a gift she received. “It came to my heart that Jesus was really there in the Eucharist. My heart was filled with such love for Communion. It was so moving to watch Communion happen. It is so unbelievable to watch everyone go to the Eucharist.”

“There is something different about walking into a Catholic Church,” she said. “It is something I feel.”

Keri Allen, director of evangelization at the Cathedral of Christ the King and coordinator of the Eucharistic Renewal, said it has been five years since the cathedral began perpetual adoration of the Eucharist at the request of the archbishop.

“It was the seed that began the Eucharistic Renewal in 1996,” she said.

The devotion is spreading throughout the archdiocese. At the same time, more people are needed to spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at perpetual adoration chapels, Allen said. “We need more people to volunteer especially as we enter the year 2000.”

“It really has been a blessing to the archdiocese,” she said. “We need it. There is so much going on in everyone’s lives. We need that peace. We need to be reminded who is in charge.”

BRIGHT FACES -- (R-l) Megan Heffernan, Mary Matia, Erika Haynes and Victoria Pausa pause at the entrance to Holy Spirit Church as the crowd of people in front of them enters. The girls, students at Pinecrest Academy in Cumming, each hold a basket of rose petals which they dropped as the Eucharist was carried in procession.
Photos by Michael Alexander

HOMILIST -- Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR, director of the Office of Spiritual Development for the Archdiocese of New York, gives a homily which provided the historical significance and importance of Corpus Christi celebrations.