Letter from the Pastor
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June 16, 2022The bishops of America are worried, as we all ought to be.
In the fall of 2019, a Pew Research Center survey found that most self-described Catholics don’t believe or understand the core teaching about the Eucharist—Transubstantiation. The dogma of transubstantiation proclaims at the moment of the Consecration at Mass, the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the very Body and Blood of Christ, while the appearances of bread and wine remain. In 1551, the Council of Trent declared it to be a dogma of the Faith, which must be believed by all Catholics.
However, in 2019 seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say they personally believe that the bread and wine used in Communion “are symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.” Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31%) say they believe that “during the Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.”
So the bishops of the country, starting today with the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), have called for a three-year National Eucharistic Revival for Catholics in the United States. The revival will culminate in a Eucharistic Congress planned for July 17-21, 2024, in Indianapolis. The last large U.S. Eucharistic Congress took place in Philadelphia in 1976. There will be many programs that prayerfully and hopefully will lead Catholics to a deeper love and an encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist.
The Revival will be offered on a parish, diocesan and national level. Stay tuned for our own parish revival of our Eucharistic faith. As the early Church Father, St. Justin the Martyr wrote: “Without the Eucharist we are nothing.”
Prayer for the National Eucharistic RevivalMy God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You!
I beg pardon for those who do not believe, nor adore, nor hope, nor love You.
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly.
I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended.
And, through the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I beg of You the conversion of sinners.
AmenHappy Father’s Day
To all who share in the gift of fatherhood, thank you. We must celebrate worthily this day, despite the current thoughts in our culture, fatherhood is indispensible. Children need both mother and father, particularly boys. They need models of proper behavior from their Dads as well as the other men in the community. The loss of proper masculinity and fatherhood in our society over these past 50 years is so devastating. Our culture, even our Church suffers greatly because we have dismissed certainly diminished, possibly even destroyed proper masculinity and fatherhood.
Men, Fathers, please understand how important, vital and necessary you are. Our children NEED BOTH of their parents!! Be loving! Be involved! And most importantly, love your children’s mothers. And Moms, love your children’s father.
So, on this Father’s Day, we pray for all our fathers—living or deceased—invoking God’s mercy and blessing upon these men who bear the gravity and glory of being called to fatherhood. Second, we thank our fathers—however imperfect they may be. And Dad’s remember and live out your God-given vocation to become truly worthy of the title, “Father.”Thank you for being a Father.