By Shawna Hanson
Eucharistic Revival Point Person

You are invited! The third year of the National Eucharistic Revival is now underway, and the United States bishops have extended a clear and persistent invitation for every single Catholic in the United States to take part in it. In this 3rd year, we are invited to continue to deepen our relationship with Jesus through prayer and study as well as to continue the work that gives others in our parishes opportunities to encounter him personally.

In some ways, this third year simply asks that we continue all that has been encouraged during the past two years. And as in previous years, the Revival is rooted in four pillars. However, this year there is a particular emphasis on the 4th pillar — missionary sending — and the four pillars are woven together to lead to Mission. Bishop Andrew Cozzens enumerates the four as “Eucharistic Encounter leading to Eucharistic Identity, poured out in Eucharistic Life, all the way to Eucharistic Mission.”

It all begins with Encounter! The Revival desires that every Catholic will experience “in a real and unshakable way, that Jesus in the Eucharist is not an analogy or idea, nor a dispassionate and detached divinity, but a real, living person,”1 who loves us deeply and who wants to know us, be united with us, and take us on an adventure. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when we encounter Jesus in this way, “our hearts are on fire.” As Pope Francis exhorts, this encounter is essential for the disciple each day; it is not a one-time event.

“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.” — Pope Francis, “Joy of the Gospel”

Whenever we have a genuine encounter with God, we not only come to know God, but we also come to know who we are. We come to know our deepest and truest identity. “Who I am is profoundly impacted by the fact that he has poured out his life for me in the Eucharist. The truth of the encounter with Jesus Christ reveals who we are in light of the unshakable reality of his love. When our identity is re-founded in Christ, rooted in the truth of his love, we are able to become who he is calling us to be for the world today. This identity in Christ is the secret strength of the saints.”

This eucharistic identity is then lived out in a eucharistic life which has as its hallmarks communion and sacrifice. “It is a life of communion with Jesus and with one another, which flows from the Eucharist. Most importantly, it is a life of self-gift, in imitation of Jesus’ sacrifice, which is made present again at every holy Mass. We allow ourselves to be broken with him through our own self-gift, and we are invited to unite the whole content of our lives with his sacrifice for the salvation of the world. This participation in Jesus’ sacrifice is what makes any mission fruitful.”

“Finally, we are given in Eucharistic Mission. We are sent from the Eucharistic banquet to bring the love found there to everyone we encounter.”1 How by taking up the invitation to walk with just one person in the coming months by downloading the “Walk With One” Guide and then to follow the steps outlined: to pray for and ask the Lord who He desires you to walk with; to intercede for that person; to develop or deepen your friendship with them; to look for opportunities to share faith and encourage them to deepen their commitment to Christ and His Church. This is the New Evangelization. This is the work which will continue far beyond the set three-years of the Revival — this is the framework for the renewal of the Church for the Apostolic age that She finds herself in that the bishops have given us. And it is deeply rooted in the Eucharist — flowing from as its source and leading to as its summit.

Quotes taken from “For the Life of the World: Invited to Eucharistic Mission” by Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Tim Glemkowski. Published by “Our Sunday Visitor”