This article by Seton Chaplain Father Roger Landry was published by The Catholic Thing on July 21.
This week the Church in the United States has been celebrating its tenth National Eucharistic Congress, the first in eighty-three years. And a journey unprecedented in Church history is coming to a close: the 6,500-mile National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, that culminated in Indianapolis for the Congress which ends today.
On the Vigil of Pentecost, May 18, four small teams of pilgrims set out, respectively, from the Atlantic and Pacific, near the Canadian border and Mexican border, traveling with the Eucharistic Lord Jesus toward Indianapolis.
Along the way, we were essentially making a sign of the Cross, like a Eucharistic benediction, across the country, as we prayed for the Church, the nation, and the thousands of intentions entrusted to us along the way.
The Catholic Church has long had a history of pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and other sacred sites. Similarly, for eight centuries, Catholics have likewise been making Eucharistic processions, normally, however, just within parish boundaries or across cities. Diocesan-wide Eucharistic processions are almost unheard of.
Never in Church history – not even in the Catholic nations of Europe in epochs of highest piety – has it been recorded that the bishops of a region have even fathomed a cross-country Eucharistic procession. But what they seem never to have dreamed, the Church in the United States, a country the size of a continent, has just accomplished.
The Pilgrimage, and the Eucharistic Congress for which it prepared, are both part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year-plus effort to reinvigorate Eucharistic knowledge, faith, gratitude, amazement, love, and life among Catholics in the United States after decades of troubling trends.
Five of six Catholics now prioritize something other than coming to receive Jesus Christ on the Lord’s Day.
Seven of ten Catholics now can’t identify Catholic teaching on the Eucharist from a multiple-choice list, with the majority thinking that the Eucharist is bread and wine rather than Jesus Himself in sacramental form.
Many whose lives are defiantly incoherent with Christ’s teaching feel entitled to receive Him anyway.
Most Catholics simply give the ordinary scandal of living like everyone else lives, even though we profess that the same Jesus Christ who was in Mary’s womb, whom St. Joseph held in his strong arms, who was crucified on Calvary, rose on the third day and is seated at the Father’s right side, is with us on the altar and in the tabernacle, just looking different.
The Eucharist Revival is a very bold and focused attempt to respond to these concerns. It has several pillars.
The first is to reinvigorate the worship of God at Mass so that always and everywhere, first and foremost, it will be a truly sacred encounter with God through entering into Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.
The second is to promote Eucharistic adoration, since the Eucharist is not a thing but Jesus Christ, and therefore prayer before Him in His sacramental presence is the most important appointment one could make.
The third is to pass on our Eucharistic faith with ardor and precision, since we’re in this mess because of generally poor, sloppy vocabulary, and bad example.
The last is to invite people back, one by one, with missionary fervor to the Feast, conscious that Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, not only gave His life for every lost sheep, but gives Himself for us daily as the only food He deems worthy of our souls.
I have had the privilege of a lifetime to be the chaplain to the Pilgrimage’s Seton Route, which has journeyed from New Haven through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and southeast Indiana.
I have traveled with the Eucharistic Lord several hundred miles on foot, as well as in boats on the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson and Ohio Rivers, and also in adoration in a van specially equipped to serve as a mobile adoration chapel.
I have traveled with truly inspiring people: Natalie Garza, a high school theology teacher in Kansas City, who ignites audiences of all ages with her testimony; Dominic Carstens from Wisconsin, a recent Wyoming Catholic College graduate, whom I saw in one day wow prisoners, seniors in nursing homes, and young people with his powerful stories; Zoe Dongas, an angelic singer and actress from Nashville who was forced to choose between keeping her job (working for the Church!) or making the pilgrimage, and faithfully and courageously clung to Christ; Marina Frattaroli, a recent convert and Columbia Law School graduate who, rather than studying full-time for the New York bar exam, chose to prioritize this once-in-a-lifetime trek with the pearl of great price; Amayrani Higueldo, a nurse from Philadelphia who rejoiced to be the “donkey” on Palm Sunday and help bring Jesus into cities and towns; and Christoph Bernas, a seminarian from Pittsburgh whose infectious joy was leaven not just for pilgrims but for every parish and community we visited.
We have been accompanied each week by different priests, brothers, novices and postulants of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, whose community’s commitment to “provide a gray habit and sandals” to walk with Jesus every step he took throughout this country made the Pilgrimage possible.
We have also been blessed by four sisters of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love from New Hampshire, who have brought an extraordinary apostolic zeal and joy to every procession, enthusiastically running to those on the margins, explaining what’s happening, helping them to pray as Jesus passes by, and inviting them to join the procession.
Finally, we have been accompanied by two women in their 60s, Beth Neer and Jan Pierson, who gave up two months of their lives quietly to follow the Lamb wherever He went and, like the women who accompanied Jesus and the apostles (Luke 8:1-3), sought to help out wherever needed.
Along the way, together, we have sought to show the Church’s true nature as a “pilgrim Church on earth,” as the Eucharistic Jesus continues to summon us to come to Him, to follow Him, and to go out and proclaim the Gospel, conscious that, by means of His earth-shaking self-gift in the Holy Eucharist, He is with us always until the end of time.