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By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
COLLEGE PARK — “Come to me, come to me . . . You are my
children, come to me.”
The music of the day must have been heard in many hearts
beforehand because they came indeed on June 16.
An estimated 12,000 people came to the Georgia International
Convention Center for a day filled with praise, worship of the Lord in the holy
Eucharist, spiritual talks and refreshment.
A beautiful sunlit morning smiled on those who began to stream
into the facility well before 8 a.m. It seemed to bless the day, which featured
a procession of several thousand people staged outdoors, unexpected overflow
crowds at every age level, and outdoor gatherings for lunch and breaks on
surrounding plazas and grass.
An auxiliary parking area was opened up. At one point it took 45
minutes to an hour for arriving buses and cars to travel the last few miles
because of the press of traffic.
A glorious problem to those who spent over a year working on and
praying for this Corpus Christi celebration, the largest gathering of Catholics
in the Archdiocese of Atlanta in memory.
Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, who carried the monstrance
with the Eucharist into the convention center at the head of the opening
procession, then knelt before the Blessed Sacrament while representatives of
over 90 parishes, schools, Catholic organizations, groups and ministries
marched in behind their banners and their Lord.
The pageant processed from the bright sunlight into a huge
darkened hall, where the stream of multicolored banners, most made by hand, was
projected onto giant screens on either side of the altar where the Blessed
Sacrament was exposed.
Throughout, musicians sang and played, lifting eyes and hearts,
and leading thousands of voices in praise to God.
When the full procession was finally inside the hall, an
additional section seating several thousand people had been opened up to
accommodate the unexpected size of the crowd. Priests and deacons also were
quickly moved into chairs set around the altar so rows could be vacated for
people standing and sitting on the floor.
Cardinal Keeler said he noticed “two special signs”
while he knelt in prayer, sharing an elevated stage with the rows of priests
and deacons, and the musicians and singers.
“I looked at the altar and the Blessed Sacrament,” he
said, “and in the power of the music, the altar and the Blessed Sacrament
were trembling. It wasn’t a miracle, but it was a sign.”
“The other sign was what I would call the multiplication of
banners,” he said, in a procession that seemed to have no end. He asked,
“was this a sign of the eternity” seen by God but hidden from human
sight.
Even as so many banners vividly display the vitality of the
Catholic presence in Georgia, the daylong celebration gives people an
opportunity “to look more closely and in slow motion at what has been
unfolded before us” in Scripture about the Eucharist, he said.
Catholics believe, in receiving the Eucharist, they receive the
body and blood of Jesus and “the whole living Christ in an instant is
present to us,” he said, referring to John 6: 53-57 and 1 Corinthians 11:
23-26.
“But there is more,” he added, “there is the power
of Christ working in us,” after Mass, in everyday life.
The Eucharist is a foretaste of a Scripture-promised heavenly
banquet, but the Eucharist is also “necessary nourishment for spiritual
passage through life.” It is the promised manna “come down from
heaven,” food literally for eternal life.
Also, he said, the Eucharist makes many, diverse people, like this
panorama of 90-plus local Catholic groups from many nations and cultures, into
a unit around one shepherd and one Lord.
“We are one body because we all eat of that one loaf . . .
That is what makes our unity.”
The Eucharist is also the moment when people give Jesus their
deepest needs. At the offertory of the Mass, as the priest prepares to lift up
bread and wine to be consecrated, “we bring our prayers to (God) . . . our
weaknesses, our hopes, our dreams, our depression, our needs. And he
understands that and he is ready to embrace us and he says, as he said so long
ago, ‘Walk after me. I will be with you.’”
“Today in a most special way, he is with us today in Atlanta
and we do him honor and he blesses us.”
As the Eucharist was taken to a room made into an adoration chapel
for the day, Archbishop John F. Donoghue welcomed the assembly, particularly
Catholics who returned to the practice of their faith during the last year.
“The invitation can come from family, friends, priests or
Religious, or it can be just a whisper in our hearts,” he said.
Since last June, parishes and individuals responded to his request
that they put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) and pray, fast, immerse
themselves in the Acts of the Apostles, and seek out and invite back Catholics
no longer coming to church. There are over 50 million in the United States.
“You as a community of faith have responded, knocking on
doors that haven’t been opened in years,” Archbishop Donoghue said.
“With us today are hundreds of people whose faith has been
rekindled,” he said, as a wave of applause rippled throughout the hall.
Active Catholics also have grown in the last year, he said,
learning that receiving the Eucharist often and spending time in adoration is
essential to evangelize others.
He invited anyone considering returning to the faith to spend time
in front of the Blessed Sacrament that day.
“Jesus Christ is truly present among us today. Join me in
praise and adoration of the living God,” the archbishop said.
The Catholic community carried banners from many places, from
Dalton, Blairsville, Blue Ridge and Cleveland to Milledgeville and LaGrange,
Cedartown, Canton, Cumming, Buford, Gainesville, Athens, Winder and Madison, in
addition to Atlanta and its suburban parishes. Hispanic churches, missions and
ministries, Korean and Vietnamese communities and youth groups, spiritual,
family and marriage ministries, Life Teen, Marian and social justice banners
were carried aloft.
Showing fabric images of Scripture, Christian community, ethnic
diversity, patron saints, vision and mission statements in many languages, they
stood along the walls all day before being carried in procession again at the
closing Mass.
“That everybody would make a banner and stand up for our
church, I am overwhelmed to see the huge Catholic community as one,” said
Ernie Thayer, a member of St. Augustine Church, Covington. “You can just
feel the togetherness.” He said he came “to learn, to get everything
I can.”
Jim LeClair, holding the St. Augustine banner, said he was
convinced that constant prayer in the presence of Christ changes an entire
parish.
“The ‘me’ goes away,” said LeClair, a former
parishioner at Corpus Christi Church, Stone Mountain, which has perpetual
adoration. “You’ll be surprised how your life changes, how your
parish changes, how everything changes . . . I think if you turn to perpetual
adoration and the Blessed Mother, parishes have an abundance of what they
need—not necessarily what they want, but what they need.”
Holding the St. Pius X High School banner, surrounded by a group
of students, principal Steve Spellman said, “I want the kids to see this
is the Catholic gathering of Atlanta. They are really excited to participate in
an event of this magnitude.”
Bonnie Wolf, a member of Sacred Heart Church, Atlanta, said seeing
so many teenagers, children and young adults impressed her. “When you look
around and see all these kids here—we do have a solid foundation for
Christ. I was stunned and pleasantly surprised to see the line of traffic to
get in here this morning.”
Mariela Piedrahita came seeking God’s grace “to
understand what he wants from me today and in the future.”
Four or five years ago, on Holy Thursday, she and her husband
decided to spend some time praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament,
Piedrahita said. The hour of prayer has become a mainstay of their lives.
“Now we go every Thursday from 5 to 6.” They reflect that the silent
time before God brings many blessings into their family and their lives.
“We wonder why we hadn’t done that before,” the Immaculate Heart
of Mary Church, Atlanta, parishioner said. |
