A priest of the Diocese of Lansing has been chosen to join a select group of “top preachers” drawn from across the United States who will help spearhead the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival to be launched upon the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 19, 2022.
“With this Revival there is a real prospect that the U.S. Church can experience a renewal of faith in Jesus' transforming love in the Eucharist,” said Father Mathias Thelen, Pastor of Saint Patrick Parish in Brighton, May 3.
“When faith in his love increases, Jesus is given permission to act and move in his Body the Church. Nothing is more exciting and transformative than that.”
Father Mathias is among 60 priests who have been asked by the U.S. bishops to help lead the forthcoming Eucharistic Revival, a three-year grassroots initiative aimed at increasing devotion and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
The concept of a Eucharistic Revival was initiated by the bishops in November of 2021 following the publication of a Pew Research survey that seemed to find a concerning decline in the number of Catholics who believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.
The result is the National Eucharistic Revival which will include a National Eucharistic Congress in 2024 and will conclude upon Pentecost Sunday in 2025.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Head of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for Evangelization and Catechesis, told the Rome-based Catholic news agency, Aleteia, that the team of Eucharistic Preachers will “serve as a sort of ‘front line’ for the Eucharistic Revival.”
“We are sending them out to dioceses around the country to help enkindle the flame of Eucharistic faith and devotion in the United States through their preaching,” explained Bishop Cozzens, May 3.
“This is not to say that every local Church doesn’t already have excellent preachers, but we see these Eucharistic Preachers as a resource for supporting and complementing local initiatives during the diocesan year of the Eucharistic Revival.”
After being officially nominated by their bishops, the group of priests went through a discernment process before committing to take part in the mission. They then took part in a retreat on April 3-6, at the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels on the west side of Chicago.
The selected priests represent a diverse cross-section of dioceses and religious orders in the United States who span a variety of years in the priesthood, ministerial experience, ethnicity and culture. Their number is expected to grow during the four segments of the revival, which are:
• The Diocesan Year of Eucharistic Revival from June 19, 2022, to June 11, 2023.
• The Parish Year of Eucharistic Revival from June 11, 2023, to July 17, 2024.
• The National Eucharistic Congress from July 17 to July 24, 2024.
• Year of Going Out on Mission from July 17, 2024, to Pentecost 2025.
“Being a preacher of the Eucharist means being a preacher of Jesus, who gives himself completely for us and who invites us to a total response of our lives to him,” added Father Thelen.
“It means preaching about the profound union he offers to us in the Eucharist, so that saying ‘Yes’ to him in this union we can grow in holiness and become the kind of missionary disciples he needs us to be in the world.”
• To find out more about the who and what of the Eucharistic Preachers and the National Eucharistic Revival go to: https://eucharisticrevival.org/eucharistic-preachers/
• Additional reporting courtesy of Our Sunday Visitor at https://www.osvnews.com/ and Aleteia at https://aleteia.org/