United in the Eucharist
CHARLOTTE — For the second year in a row, the Diocese of Charlotte’s annual Eucharistic Congress shifted to an online and parish-based program. Organizers changed the annual event in an abundance of caution because of the COVID-19 pandemic and elevated reported cases of the Delta variant of the virus.
Instead of the annual Mass celebrated with thousands of Catholics in the Charlotte Convention Center, Bishop Peter Jugis celebrated two Masses livestreamed Sept. 18 and 19 from St. Patrick Cathedral.
During his homily, Bishop Jugis shared that, despite the changed format, “We are happy to go ahead with this celebration this year, to keep alive our tradition of the annual diocesan Eucharistic Congress. We hope to return next year to the in-person format of the Congress as soon as the pandemic subsides.”
He noted that the Eucharistic Congress has tremendous spiritual value in strengthening our faith in our Eucharistic Lord. “The Congress brings us together as one Catholic family from parishes across the entire diocese. The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. The Holy Eucharist makes us one body in Christ, united in one faith, as we all partake of the one Body of the Lord.”
Bishop Jugis gave thanks to God “who is so close to us that He even lives with us in the Holy Eucharist: the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And we live our faith and profess our faith in Jesus’ Real Presence every time we take part in the celebration of Mass, every time we adore Him in the Holy Eucharist, every time we say to Him at Communion time: ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.’”
The bishop then reminded the faithful that at Mass we are celebrating our faith in Jesus’ Real Presence. “It is as if we are making our profession of faith in Him and His Real Presence by being at Mass with Him,” Bishop Jugis said.
Reflecting on the ongoing pandemic, he acknowledged the coronavirus is still with us, making our lives very difficult.
“It is a constant worry and burden on our minds,” Bishop Jugis said. “Jesus has the remedy for us in the present situation, and the remedy, the solution, is Jesus Himself. He says: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.’” (Mt 11:28-30)
Bishop Jugis emphasized that Jesus is where our burdened and worried souls find rest in this pandemic. “Jesus is always with us, and He is waiting for us at Mass; He is waiting for us in Eucharistic Adoration; He is waiting for us in the tabernacle; He is waiting for us to make visits to the church to pray. He wants you to come to Him.”
He encouraged the faithful to share Christ’s Real Presence with others. “After you have spent time with Christ, bring others to experience the peace you have found at Mass and at Eucharistic Adoration. Bring your children, bring your family members, bring your friends. Be Eucharistic missionaries of the peace of Christ. Being with Christ brings you peace, so make yourselves missionaries of His peace to others,” Bishop Jugis said.
Parish-based events
Many parishes around the diocese marked the Eucharistic Congress weekend with special events.
Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe was among those that offered Mass, Adoration and a Eucharistic Procession. More than 250 parishioners participated in the Sept. 18 activities.
“When we celebrate the Eucharist, we enter into heaven,” said Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor. “When we receive Holy Communion, we experience heaven and we are prepared for heaven. Our time of Adoration prepares us to celebrate the Eucharist and to receive Holy Communion.”
Father Roberts noted it was important to offer the worship opportunity at the parish – particularly for First Communicants and their families.
“This was their only opportunity to participate in the procession in this way. It is a unique moment for them. I have been in the Eucharistic Procession every year we’ve had the Congress. To offer something for my parishioners at our parish was a special grace.”
Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury offered Mass, Adoration, confessions and a talk by Father John Eckert, pastor, Sept. 18.
“The yearly Eucharistic Congress is a diocesan-wide retreat, and I know people really look forward to it,” Father Eckert said. “Any time we can step back and spend a little extra time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is always good.”
“Even if we can’t all gather, which is what we have been doing over the past year and a half or more, and things are a little bit different, we have to cling to Our Lord, who continues to make Himself available to us in the Eucharist. It was important for us to gather and get that extra time with Him,” he said.
St. Ann Church in Charlotte offered a Solemn High Latin Mass, Adoration and Eucharistic Procession that drew more than 150 parishioners Sept. 18.
“The Eucharistic Congress is such an important event in the life of our parishioners every year, and so I felt it important to have a Eucharistic celebration,” said Father Timothy Reid, pastor. “It’s important that we be able to show our love and devotion for the Eucharist, and doing so in a public way helps strengthen our faith, deepen our hope, and enliven our charity. Having a parish-based event also helps to unify the parish.”
St. Margaret Mary Church in Swannanoa offered Adoration, a Holy Hour of Reparation, a Eucharistic Procession and a Votive Mass of the Most Holy Eucharist.
“The Eucharistic Congress has brought such fruits to the diocese over the years,” noted Father Brian Becker, pastor. “I wanted take advantage of the opportunity we had this year and to introduce this event for those in my parish who hadn’t yet attended it.”
St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Sylva offered Adoration, Solemn Vespers, Mass, a Eucharistic Procession and viewing of recorded talks from the Eucharistic Congress over the weekend.
Father Paul Asoh, pastor, told parishioners, “What could be more helpful to many than the opportunity to talk to the Lord face to face? It (Adoration) is seeking His authority on how He wants us to use the talents He has given us.”
Before the Blessed Sacrament we receive “spiritual radiation that heals any cancer of our spirit and at times restores us even physically,” he said. “It is also presenting our ailments, failures, fears, anxieties and storms for calm, and offering our broken self and nation for healing. It is also sharing with Him our joys, successes and thanksgiving.
“It is an opportunity to implore His mercies to bring this pandemic to an end. Brothers and sisters, let us make more time to spend more time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”
— SueAnn Howell, Catholic News Herald
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Eucharistic Congress organizers have also pre-recorded talks of the speakers originally scheduled to appear at the in-person event, and have published them on the diocese's YouTube channel.
More information, including a 2021 Eucharistic Congress “At-Home Guide” for families, is available in the Sept. 10 issue of the Catholic News Herald, or online at www.goeucharist.com.
Parish-based Eucharistic Congress events
Parishes across the Diocese of Charlotte gathered together for Adoration and Eucharistic Procession. The in-person Eucharistic Congress shifted from a gathering at the Charlotte Convention Center, to smaller gatherings at the Churches and a virtual event. See a gallery of pictures.
SPEAKERS, MASSES FEATURED ON YOUTUBE
The Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel features recorded talks by the speakers originally scheduled to appear in the English and Spanish Tracks at the Eucharistic Congress. Information about the speakers can be found on the official Eucharistic Congress website: www.goeucharist.com.
And don’t miss the livestreamed Mass for the virtual Eucharistic Congress on YouTube at: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, or 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 19. Subscribe to the channel or follow the Catholic News Herald on Facebook and Twitter to get a reminder alert when the Masses are live.
Eucharistic Congress shifting to virtual/parish-based program
CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte’s 2021 Eucharistic Congress shifted to an online and parish-based program over the weekend of Sept. 17-19 because of the worsening pandemic.
North Carolina public health officials reported that as of Sept. 3, 14,708 people have died from COVID-19 and 3,800 people remain hospitalized. Approximately 61 percent of eligible North Carolinians have been fully vaccinated.
In a message sent Sept. 4 to clergy, volunteers and others who help to organize the annual diocesan event, Father Roger Arnsparger, chair of the Eucharistic Congress planning committee, noted the rising rates of infection as the reason for the decision to cancel the in-person event.
The annual Eucharistic Congress typically attracts 10,000 to 15,000 people to the Charlotte Convention Center.
The City of Charlotte, which owns the convention center, currently does not have a limit on mass gatherings that would prohibit the in-person event, but Eucharistic Congress organizers said the high risk of virus spread was of grave concern. In addition, safeguarding people’s health at a large indoor gathering would be difficult – especially with logistics involving enforcement of the city’s indoor face covering mandate and implementing multi-layered health measures in the crowded exhibit hall space.
This is the second year the in-person Eucharistic Congress has been canceled. The 2020 event was also held online and in parishes because of the pandemic.
Father Arnsparger noted that parishes may look for ways to celebrate during the Eucharistic Congress weekend of Sept. 17-19, to foster unity and devotion to the Eucharist.
“Keeping in mind local public health guidance and exercising prudence, ideas from last year include leading a Holy Hour or outdoor Eucharistic Procession with your First Communicants, giving a talk, or sharing a written message on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” he wrote in his message to clergy.
As he did last year, Bishop Peter Jugis will offer Mass at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, and 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, which will be streamed live from St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte on the diocese’s YouTube channel.
Eucharistic Congress organizers are also working to produce pre-recorded talks of the speakers originally scheduled to appear at the in-person event, and publish them on the diocese's YouTube channel.
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor
EMMITSBURG, Md. — Our Lady of Lourdes parishioner Olivia Prevost took part in a three-week volunteer program this summer to minister to people experiencing homelessness in Michigan City, Ind. The experience came through Christ in the City, a national volunteer project designed to grow college students into Catholic missionaries through four pillars of formation: spiritual, intellectual, human and apostolic.
Prevost is a philosophy major at Mount St. Mary’s University who is also minoring in theology, music and English. She expects to graduate in 2022.
How did you hear about Christ in the City?
Two Mount alumni did it before me.
What initially attracted you to the program?
The program’s focus on service to the poor. I was in Ireland my sophomore year, Fall 2019, with the Mount’s study abroad program; we lived in Dublin. I was really struck with my first encounters with the problems of homelessness and the struggles people faced in Ireland. Ever since I lived there that semester, I’d been looking for an opportunity to help people who suffer from those things.
Christ in the City appealed to me because it’s their apostolate to serve the poor, specifically in urban areas. When I went in, I didn’t really know too much about the philosophy of the program. One of the things that’s so great about the program is their emphasis on forming the missionaries. Where a lot of service programs will have you build houses and evangelize, talk to people, spread the gospel, this program was interested in growing the missionary spiritually to serve others from that good place.
What surprised you about these three weeks?
It was a very structured lifestyle; there was a lot of community prayer involved. We had Mass and Adoration every day. We had personal prayer time built into our community life. I got so much more spiritual food than I thought I was going to get. I thought I was going to serve other people, and I found myself being served more than anything else.
Describe how you spent your days.
We would wake up every morning at 6:30 a.m. and have prayer together. We’d eat breakfast together and clean the house together. From 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., we’d do the street ministry.
The life of the missionaries in this program is structured around four formation pillars: human, spiritual, apostolic and intellectual. Everything we did was focused on those four points. For the intellectual pillar, we had classes on Catholic Social Teaching. We read some of St. John Paul II’s encyclicals. We were doing things that were engaging us intellectually with the mission we were doing. For the spiritual pillar, we had Mass, Adoration and we did a silent retreat at the end of the program to process everything and pray about it. The human pillar was forming the missionaries as a group, so you intentionally strengthen your relationship with the others in the program. The apostolic pillar was service to the poor.
How did you minister to these individuals?
The primary thing we were trained to do was to sit and talk with people. We were connected to a local social service. We went to homeless shelters. We had packets of information for people who were interested in getting a job or looking for housing. We did have water and socks to attend to material needs.
What we wanted to do first was to spend time and get to know these people. What we were trying to do was minister to that poverty of loneliness, that poverty of never being treated like a human being – being treated either like you don’t exist or you’re a problem to solve. We tried to find that space of accepting people and wanting to be with them as friends first and then as people who could help them second.
When we would go out on the street, we would do it with that intention. We split into teams and would walk the same route every day because we’d be trying to meet the same people every day, build up a relationship with them, and show them through our presence and our friendliness that they’re worth having a better quality of life.
What did you learn about those suffering from homelessness?
People who suffer from homelessness have financial problems, right? They don’t have money – that’s why they’re on the streets. Often there are underlying reasons why people struggle financially: mental illness, family history, personal human brokenness and other struggles are the root and foundation of their homelessness.
Christ in the City is a program that recognizes, primarily, that while these people are suffering from material poverty, their biggest poverty is loneliness.
When you’re on the street, you’ve burned every relationship bridge that you have. If you or I were approaching the point where we couldn’t pay for housing, someone would let us crash on their couch for a bit until we could get on our feet. These people have no one in the world who cares about them enough to give them a couch to stay on.
You mentioned the poverty of loneliness. How did you minister to that need?
One of the most powerful things for me to witness as I grew to know these individuals more was that I really could tell how much the poverty of loneliness affects a person. I met so many different people. Everyone’s story was different. One thing I noticed again and again is how grateful and how much it meant to these people that we listened.
For example, there was one man I got close to over the three weeks I was there. He was at the food pantry where we helped serve. He would come and start talking the moment he arrived and would not stop talking until the moment we ran out of the room. His personality was so overwhelming that people wouldn’t even listen to him anymore; they would just block him out and move to the other side of the room. I would sit and listen to him for three hours talk about big, exciting things he would do when he was younger. He had amazing stories to tell.
At the end of three weeks, he told us he was going to miss us when we were gone because we were the only people who valued him enough as a human being to listen to what he had to say.
That’s an extreme example but illustrates the impact it has on someone when you sit down and listen. You don’t listen to do something else. You don’t listen to solve their problem. You don’t listen to get something from them. You just listen to what they have to say.
How did active listening and receiving without judgment make a positive impact?
Before this program, I had a hard time distinguishing between a moral judgment and a critical judgment. I believe in absolute truth – that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. But I was able to see, in this program, how you can listen to someone and ask them questions and disagree with the choices they’ve made. You can understand that in your mind but still listen to them with an accepting and receptive attitude toward what they’re trying to communicate.
I saw how powerful that was in so many cases where I would watch my fellow missionaries, who are amazing people, listen to these very sad stories – and I just saw these people open up. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The people you think would be the most hostile and unfriendly toward you just want someone to listen and learn about them. Everyone needs that so much. One of the biggest takeaways from this program was the importance of listening well.
Where did you see hope?
Hope was a huge theme for me in my spiritual life during those three weeks. I had lost a lot of hope before I started this program – in the sense of believing things could be different at the Mount, at home and in the world in general. For a period of time, I had lost trust that God could really make change happen for the better.
When I went to Christ in the City, the experience I had there showed me that healing and good change, change for the better, is possible. God is capable of it in my own life, in my own person.
I was able to see the change in the people suffering from homelessness. I was able to see the change in their lives in such a short period of time, and I could see the change in my own life as I was formed, grown, and shown a better way.
This experience restored my trust in God’s ability to work through me to do His will and bring healing to those in need.
As I was being formed as a missionary, I was shown how to have an attitude of receptivity without judgment and engage in community life and prayer.
It turns out everyone suffers from some kind of poverty – even those lucky enough not to suffer from material poverty. Loneliness is everywhere, in every part of society. I’m excited to come back to the Mount and do the best I can to continue the lifestyle and the skills of listening and receiving that I developed over those three weeks and apply them and bring them to the Mount for the good of my friends and family that I love.
Jesus spent a lot of time with the poor. Do you think serving these individuals is an act of social justice?
There’s a phrase about God’s preferential love for the poor. The idea is that people who suffer from material poverty have a special place in Jesus’ heart. You can read that in the gospels and in the Bible. I think we have a duty to care for those in our families, communities and in our country who suffer from material poverty. We have a duty to address these needs because our Lord showed that example. He had a desire to be present and in solidarity with those who suffered material poverty.
When I started the program, I didn’t think of myself as educating or fulfilling a moral imperative as much as I thought that Jesus was with the poor and I want to be with Jesus – therefore I should help the poor. That’s where my heart was in terms of motivation.
What have you learned from this experience about the power of trust combined with the power of truth to change the community and the world?
I met a man who really struck me. He wasn’t someone I met with my street team; he was someone another street team met. He invited all the other street teams to come together. This man had been homeless for a long time, and he was well known in the local area. He had a job but didn’t have reliable transportation, so he struggled. He invited us into his community. He wanted to serve us. He brought 11 of us missionaries to this park. All his belongings were there; this was a place he had been camping for a while. He shared his food with us. He had some meat he got from a pantry, and he had bread and toppings.
Even though he was the one we were supposed to be helping, he hosted a party for us at this park. It was such an amazing experience. His generosity was striking.
He wanted to share what he had with 11 affluent, not materially poor, young people aged 18-27.
It was a beautiful experience for me. Again, I expected to serve this person, and he ended up serving us. He had a need to be generous and give something back.
Because we were humble enough to accept his gift and have this barbecue with him, we met his need and found joy in the face of so much suffering.
— Nicole Patterson, Special to the Catholic News Herald. Nicole Patterson is a writer/editor in marketing and communications at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md.