By Priscilla Greear

KENNESAW—Mary, who loved her Son faithfully throughout his life and gave him up at Calvary, today leads the faithful to the Eucharist where her own maternal sacrifice is also remembered, a conference speaker said.

Mary as “Mother of the Eucharist” was the theme explored during the second annual Marian conference held at St. Catherine of Siena Church Feb. 25-26. Approximately 500 people from the archdiocese attended.

“The crisis of faith is the crisis of the Eucharist, the desecration of the Eucharist, the disbelief in the real presence of Jesus—body, blood, soul and divinity—in the Eucharist,” said Father Edgardo Arellano, a keynote speaker at the conference.

Father Arellano is spiritual director of the Alliance of the Holy Family International under the Pontifical Council for the Family. He also promotes family consecration and eucharistic reparation, through the Alliance of the Two Hearts, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Mary will give back the Eucharist to the priests. Mary will give back the Eucharist to all the lay people. Father Edgardo Arellano

Mary experienced her own Calvary as she witnessed the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, suffered with him and offered him freely back to the Father, the speaker said. As each celebration of the Eucharist commemorates Christ’s Passover, Mary is also present, he said.

“Mary will give back the Eucharist to the priests. Mary will give back the Eucharist to all the lay people.”

The conference opened with Mass celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue followed by a talk given by Father Arellano, a canon lawyer and author.

Speakers included Wayne Weible, author of books on reported Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, and Sir Jack Mirabile, executive director of Holy Family Relief Services. Coordinators were Nancy Prochaska and Jim and Genny Hoene.

In his talk Father Arellano said that Catholics must live Eucharist-centered lives to have peace, and that many priests have lost belief in Christ’s true presence in the sacrament and have taken tabernacles out of their churches. He said liberation theology, embraced by many priests in Asia and Latin America, integrates Marxism with evangelization and says that economic liberation must occur before spiritual freedom. It has turned many priests into good social workers but away from their core mission, he said.

“Only the priest is given the gift to forgive sins and reconcile us with God and to allow Jesus to be really present in the Eucharist through consecration ... John Paul II’s ‘Dominicae Cenae’ in 1980 ... said (that) the very reason why we ordain priests is to be ministers of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the reason why they exist. If a priest has lost his identity in his love for the Eucharist, he has lost his faith.”

He told a story of communists who invaded a South Korean church where they ordered four men at gunpoint to sit by the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament. Three of them spat on it after which a teenage girl wiped it clean with her handkerchief, kissed it and double genuflected. One of the communists shot the four men but not the girl.

“Martyrdom can impress even our enemies because to give up one’s life is the greatest of all love,” he said. “Nowadays many are spitting on the Blessed Sacrament. Not only spitting on the Blessed Sacrament but they’re removing the Eucharist from the church. Some do not believe anymore in the real presence.”

He recalled celebrating Mass at a German church where only one person showed up, as the parish had no tabernacle because of lack of belief in Jesus’ real presence. They used ordinary bread for the Eucharist. “How many invalid Masses are happening all over the world?” Father Arellano asked.

Referring to papal teaching, he said that Mary had an integral part at Calvary where, as she offered Jesus to the Father, she suffered tremendously. We, too, partake in the redemptive act of Jesus by offering our pains as a living sacrifice and uniting them with the Eucharist, he said.

According to Father Arellano, Pope Benedict XV said, “when Mary saw Jesus being tortured she suffered so much she would have died if not by divine grace. And because of this she can also partake in the redemptive act of Jesus because she suffered so much for humanity.”

In 1917 Our Lady of Fatima asked that the whole world be consecrated to the hearts of Jesus and Mary and asked believers to make a Communion of reparation, which involves saying the rosary, going to confession and participating in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Communion. Pope John Paul II declared that the hearts of Jesus and Mary are inseparable, and in 1984 he consecrated the world to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. In September 1985, on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, he spoke of the “definitive Alliance of these Hearts: of the Son and of the Mother; of the Mother and of the Son...”

Mary is also a model of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, he said.

Father Arellano sees hope in Georgia. “You are lay people and I see how you work. Keep it up. There is much hope. You have the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary in your hearts. You have the Eucharist. You have the abundance of a Eucharist-centered bishop. You have Eucharist-centered priests ... I see in Atlanta so much hope and I pray to God that it continues.”

In his homily the archbishop also called on the faithful to follow Mary’s example by receiving the Holy Spirit.

“A guardian angel, a messenger of His love, just like Gabriel who stood before Mary, awaits the least glimmer of need in our hearts—need for the answer, for the hope, for the faith to do good, and to persist in what the world sees as folly—the folly of believing what every good Christian believes, that through the grace of the Father and the love of the Son, sin and death will be conquered, and we will gain eternal life.”

“The angel waits for our answer, and with Mary to guide us, we give the answer freely—and with Mary we receive, though not perfectly as she, the Spirit, and the living presence of Jesus Christ.”

He described the annunciation as the ultimate good deed. “When the moment of the annunciation came to be ... God did not command, but through the emissary of His angel, He prophesied her greatness, calmed her troubled spirit, and evoked from her the spark of love that was needed to consummate the miracle: ‘be it done unto me according to thy word.’ Thus, Mary chose to fulfill that singular grace given to her from the beginning of time, and to bring into her perfect goodness, the beginning of goodness for all mankind, the goodness of the Lord.”

While, unlike Mary, we are conceived with original sin, the Lord is waiting to cleanse all sin-stained souls.

“We are like her in this—that we have been called—we have been given a vocation to salvation—we have known the water of baptism, and the anointing of confirmation, and though we have sinned, and may sin again, each of us is given the call from God, who is ever ready to turn to those who come to Him with their sorrow, and not with their pride,” he continued.

He expressed hope that the event makes participants more aware of Mary’s role as intercessor for the church and that many more conferences will follow.

The evening concluded with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by recitation of the rosary and Benediction.

David Mullaney, who came for the conference from St. Joseph’s Church in Columbia, S.C., said Mary has drawn him to the Eucharist.

“I have a particular devotion to Mary as a result of going to Medjugorje three years ago. It has brought me closer to the true meaning of the cross and the sacrifice Christ made for us and also having a devotion to Mary has brought me closer to the Eucharist itself and how that signifies that sacrifice Christ made,” he said.

Mullaney appreciated Father Arellano’s message that “... Jesus’ heart comes from Mary’s heart. He said that in the Eucharist we have Jesus’ heart and Mary’s heart. It’s true about knowing when we adore Jesus’ true presence in the Blessed Sacrament we also give honor to his mother at the same time.”

Kevin Butz, a member of St. Andrew’s Church, Roswell, and the Marian Servants of the Blessed Trinity, said Mary is the wind beneath his wings.

“Throughout my whole life I had always had a great attraction to Jesus and the Eucharist, but Mary has always been in the background looking over my shoulder. Through intercessory prayer, the Blessed Virgin is one of the things that led me back to the faith without a doubt—to a stronger faith.”

He compared his marriage to Jesus and Mary’s relationship, as sometimes he has authority while at other times his wife takes the lead.

“Jesus gives Mary the authority to dispense the graces. They all come from him. I have no problem with her being a redemptrix or mediatrix just as my wife and I are.”

Carlota Plowman, a parishioner and rosary group leader at St. Catherine’s, said Mary is a cherished spiritual advisor, especially since her mother died. She prays the rosary daily, calling it her armor for holiness.

“It’s much more powerful than anything in my life. So many people say money is power. The rosary is more powerful. It’s a weapon to defend us against the evil spirit. It’s helped to lead me first to God.”

Prochaska said the conference was an opportunity to exchange information, get resources such as books, videos and religious items and build relationships among people as they honor and study about Mary.

“...The Blessed Mother has a unique relationship with the Trinity in that she’s a very obedient daughter to the Father, Mother to the Son and the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her relationship is so important and so she’s a model to us,” she said. “Mary has endlessly tried to direct us to Jesus and the Eucharist. That’s why we chose this theme. Protestants don’t understand. They think that we are worshipping Mary. We are honoring Mary, but Mary is not seeking her honor. Her efforts are toward directing us to her Son.”