Editorial

‘Have your faith set on fire,’ attend National Eucharistic Congress in 2024

It isn’t too early to start making plans for the summer of 2024.

In fact, we’re encouraging members of parishes throughout central and southern Indiana to mark July 17-21, 2024, on their calendars to be a part of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which will be the cornerstone of the National Eucharistic Revival launched last year by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The revival is a three-year campaign whose goal is to increase the Catholic understanding of and devotion to Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Its vision is to inspire a movement of Catholics across the United States who are healed, converted, formed, and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist—and who are then sent out on mission “for the life of the world.”

Part of the impetus for the campaign was a Pew Research Center study in the fall of 2019 that showed that only about three out of 10 Catholics in the United States understand and believe in the real presence.

The National Eucharistic Revival opened on June 19, 2022, on the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which is traditionally called Corpus Christi. It is a feast that celebrates Christ’s gift of himself to us in the Eucharist. Many dioceses marked the day last year with eucharistic processions.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis celebrated two Masses—one primarily in English, the other in Spanish—at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. Following the liturgies, several hundred people then took part in a eucharistic procession in downtown Indianapolis from the cathedral to St. John the Evangelist Church, where about 1,000 people filled the church to overflowing for adoration of the Eucharist. It offered a powerful witness of faith.

The revival is currently in its first year, the Year of Diocesan Revival. The second year, the Year of Parish Revival, begins on June 11 (help for parishes in planning for the year of revival can be found at cutt.ly/LeaderPlaybook). While the diocesan year efforts have focused on forming priests, diocesan staff and other Church leaders, efforts in the parish year will turn to Catholics in the pews, noted Tim Glemkowski, executive director of the National Eucharistic Congress.

“The full process of evangelization is about a … personal encounter that changes our life—the invitation to a depth of discipleship,” he said in an interview earlier this year with OSV News. “What we’re inviting parishes to do is to follow a similar trajectory.”

What will be the U.S. Catholic Church’s 10th National Eucharistic Congress next summer is expected to draw more than 80,000 people to our archdiocese. Organizers have compared the event to World Youth Day, with prayer and liturgies, catechesis for individuals and families and a festival-like atmosphere.

Our faith teaches us the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian life, and as Archbishop Charles C. Thompson said in an interview last month announcing a eucharistic revival reflection series aimed to form disciples on mission, “The National Eucharistic Revival involves an intentional effort to both evangelize and catechize, predicated on the long-standing Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ—his body and blood, soul and divinity—in the Eucharist.”

The reflection series runs through May 25 and is being offered through the online “Heart of the Revival Newsletter,” a weekly publication of the National Eucharistic Revival, begun last June, which can be accessed at eucharisticrevival.org/ heart-of-the-revival-newsletter.

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., who has led the effort to develop and launch the eucharistic revival in his work as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said during an interview in November of 2021, “These large Catholic events are unique moments to experience the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit, as we gather to share the incredible gift of our faith. They allow us to experience a small taste of the universality of our Church.

“Worshipping with Catholics from all over the country and from many different cultures throughout the United States shows us the true depth of the love of Christ which unites us,” he continued. “We are all different, but all one in our need for Christ’s transforming love in the Eucharist.”

In that same interview, Bishop Cozzens, who is serving as chair of the National Eucharistic Revival, said that he hoped the eucharistic congress “will set a fire that I hope will burn in our country for many years.”

Those who want to attend next summer’s National Eucharistic

Congress can sign up at the website, www.eucharisticcongress.org.

“As Pope Francis has said, now is the time for every Catholic to understand that they are called to be missionaries of the love of Jesus,” Bishop Cozzens continued. “The Eucharist is the source and summit of that mission. Come to Indianapolis in 2024 to celebrate the gift of the Eucharist and to have your faith set on fire.”

—Mike Krokos