The Church in the United States is in the midst of a two year long “Eucharistic Revival”. A recent Pew research poll1 that showed that nearly ⅔ of Catholics do not know or either do not believe that the bread and wine at Mass become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ through the Words of Consecration spoken by the priest at the Mass. 

Over the next two years the Eucharist will be the focus of the whole Catholic Church in the United States and so I thought I would write a series of articles for the parish that I hope will help explain the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist as well as give some counter arguments to common objections non-Catholics tend to bring up. 

The deeper reason our Church needs this Eucharistic Renewal is because we have realized the transformative power of the Eucharist has lost its effect on many Catholic’s hardened hearts. My hope is that these two years will be in our lives, in our parish, and in the life of the Church, a time of transformation. I hope these two years focusing on the Eucharist will be a time where our belief in the Eucharist is Renewed and allow the transformative vitality of the Eucharist to penetrate our hearts . At times the Eucharist can easily be taken for granted and viewed as ordinary and mundane. This call for Renewal is an invitation to see the Eucharist with new eyes, as something that boggles our minds and leaves us in awe of God’s incomprehensible Love. 

This Eucharistic Revival is a time for Renewal, to proclaim the truth that Christ is truly present to us in the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Revival is an opportunity to proclaim, with loud and full voices, to our country, our state, our town, our neighborhood, our family, our friends, and even to our fellow parishioners who may not believe, the life changing news that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the treasure and pearl of great price of the Church and we must share this truth! 

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. 31 With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. 32 Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”... 35 Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread(Lk 24:30–32,35). 

Let us share with the World how Christ was, and still is, made known to us in the breaking of the bread, that He is made present to us in the Eucharist. 

Father Clawson

1 You can find the Pew Research Poll mentioned, at - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/