Southwest conference focuses on Eucharist in ritual and everyday life

Published: 2004-01-27

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (CNS) -- The role of the Eucharist as ritual and as a part of everyday life was the focus of the four-day Southwest Liturgical Conference in Cheyenne. The Jan. 14-17 conference focused on continuing to learn about the church through "mystagogy," the ongoing instruction in the mysteries of the faith that follows reception into the church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Topics included studying the effect on liturgical rites of the RCIA, how to have a family-friendly liturgy and the parallels between marriage and the eucharistic sacrifice. "The greatest mystical traditions of our faith are deeply rooted in and come out of the source of the liturgy," said Cheyenne Bishop David L. Ricken during the opening liturgy. "Our deepest prayer comes when we are praying together in the eucharistic liturgy in particular, but this is nourished by our personal prayer life, by the devotional life of the church, by contemplating more deeply the face of Christ," he said. The conference drew more than 600 people from around the state and the region.

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