Year of the Eucharist

Last year, Pope John Paul ll declared for one year that we would celebrate the Year of the Eucharist - one full year commemorating the greatest of all the Sacraments - Christ's own body, blood, soul, and divinity which we receive in Holy Communion. For those you that have known about this special year, which ends in October, what have you done for it? Have you gone to Eucharistic Adoration or Benediction more often than normal? Have you truly contemplated the greatest and holiest of all miracles which happens at every Mass when bread and wine actually become our Lord and God?

There is still time to spend time with Our Lord. We remember that as He sat alone in the Garden of Gethsamane, when all of His friends left Him, He called out: "Will you not spend one hour with me?" And we still can do just that. You still can spend time in Adoration near you.

Recently on August 5, 2005, Francis Cardinal George of the Archdiocese of Chicago led a Eucharistic procession and Benediction in Grant Park, Illinois with thousands of people (see photos). Cardinal George said: "What needs transformation in individual lives... is anything that keeps people from being free to love God: addictions to alcohol and drugs, to sexual sin, to anger, to racism or other prejudices. These are habits of sin... Christ will change us, Christ will transform us, Christ will free us.'" (Read the whole article)

For more information on the Eucharist see my post on the Eucharist.

Image Source: Image of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen, believed to be in the Public Domain