Year Of Eucharist Invites ‘Profound Prayer’

CINDY WOODEN, CNS

Published: October 21, 2004

VATICAN CITY (CNS)— Pope John Paul II asked Catholics to spend time during the coming year in adoration before Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament and to offer praise to God for the gift of salvation.

He officially began the Year of the Eucharist Oct. 17, encouraging people to commit themselves, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, “to following Jesus, the way, the truth and the life.”

“Be frequent adorers of the most holy Eucharist,” he said.

“The Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals,” signed by the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, Cardinal Francis Arinze, was released in Italian Oct. 14 in anticipation of the Oct. 17 formal opening of the yearlong celebration.

The 33-page document, filled with suggestions for celebrating Mass, promoting eucharistic adoration, educating the faithful and encouraging the production of new art, said that in the end a positive result will depend on “the profundity of prayer.”

“We are called to celebrate the Eucharist, to receive it and adore it with the faith of the saints,” the note said.

National, diocesan or parish initiatives for celebrating the Year of the Eucharist simply need to open a space for prayer, reflection and celebration, and God will do the rest, said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

“The initiatives do not need to be anything other than open paths because grace, offered always by the Spirit of God, will flow with abundance,” the congregation said in a note on celebrating the eucharistic year.

The congregation noted that even if the only things a parish did to promote the Year of the Eucharist were to take more care in how it celebrated Sunday Mass and encourage eucharistic adoration the year would be a success.

But it also suggested that parishes put a special focus in the coming year on developing “a more intense catechesis about the Eucharist,” using Scripture, the writings of early Christian theologians, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” and stories about the lives of saints who were particularly devoted to the Eucharist.

A guided visit to one’s parish church with an explanation of the symbolism and the history of the altar, ambo, tabernacle and art would be another occasion to educate parishioners on the centrality of the Mass and of the Eucharist in the Catholic faith, it said.

One suggestion contained in the document was that each parish hold a special Mass in the coming year on the anniversary of the dedication of the parish church.

The congregation asked parishes to make special efforts during the year to ensure that the sick and the homebound receive Communion and that those who take the Eucharist to them do so with an attitude of dignity and prayer.

As a clear sign that everything the church believes and does flows from the Eucharist, the document encouraged every diocesan office and ministry to hold at least one special eucharistic event during the year.

In Atlanta, a Eucharistic Renewal is firmly entrenched as an ongoing part of the spirituality of the archdiocese. In June 2004 the Archdiocese of Atlanta held its ninth annual Corpus Christi celebration, which has become a Eucharistic Congress. Over 10 years ago on Corpus Christi Sunday in June 1994, the perpetual adoration chapel opened at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta. Since then, nine other parishes in the archdiocese have also established perpetual adoration chapels with the support and prayers of their parishioners, while over 50 have weekly or monthly times of adoration.

In celebrating the Eucharist, the suggestions in the document emphasized the need for moments of silence but also a true climate of celebration and communion among members of the congregation.

“The joy of the eucharistic celebration reverberates on Sunday, teaching us to rejoice in the Lord always; to taste the joy of a fraternal encounter and of friendship; and to share the joy received as (a) gift,” it said.

While Christian joy does not deny the presence of suffering and pain, “it would be a countersign for one participating in the Eucharist to let himself be dominated by sadness,” it said.

The document also called for a greater awareness of what postures communicate in relation to the Eucharist.

Standing is a profession of “the filial freedom given to us by the paschal Christ, who raised us out of the slavery to sin; sitting expresses the cordial receptivity of Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to his words; kneeling or bowing deeply says that we make ourselves small before the most high, before the Lord.”

Genuflecting when one enters a church and when one passes the tabernacle, it said, “expresses faith in the real presence of the Lord Jesus in the sacrament of the altar.”

Catholics also must be reminded that “the Eucharist is the sacrament of the paschal sacrifice of Christ” and that just as Jesus offered himself totally to the Father each Christian is called to offer his or her life to God, it said.

While the sacrament of penance should not be celebrated within the context of a Mass, the Eucharist also is a stimulus “to conversion and the purification of a penitent heart,” it said.

The document also said that the rosary could be an appropriate prayer to recite during eucharistic adoration if it were recited in the spirit of “contemplating the mysteries of Christ with the eyes and heart of Mary, in communion with her and her example.”

However, the document said, other devotions to Mary or the saints should not take place during eucharistic adoration. Those who usually recite a Marian litany in conjunction with the rosary should substitute a Christological litany—such as the litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—if the recitation occurs during adoration, it said.