When the leadership teams from the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress made a recent pilgrimage to Italy, my wife and I were blessed to be included in the delegation. Though this trip included a private meeting with the Holy Father, the pilgrimage was focused on the Eucharist.
Our group had the privilege of walking in the same footsteps of many saints who had a special devotion to the Eucharist. These saints were not casual Catholics; they put their entire trust in Christ’s promise to remain with us and nourish us. We had Mass with the Missionaries of Charity sisters, after which we were permitted to visit St. Teresa of Kolkata’s local room. Mother Teresa often spoke about how her ability and desire to care for the poor flowed from the Eucharist.
In Assisi, we had Mass at the tomb of St. Francis before visiting the monastery, where we were able to see the room and chapel of St. Joseph of Cupertino, whose love of our Lord in the Eucharist was so great that he levitated in ecstasy during Mass. We also visited the resting place of one of the patrons of the National Eucharistic Revival, Blessed Carlo Acutis, and the shrine and reliquary containing his heart. Blessed Carlo was a proponent of regular attendance at daily Mass and frequent reception of the Eucharist, and he helped develop a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles.
On our last days in Rome, we visited the great Basilica of St. Peter, which houses the remains of dozens of popes and many Eucharistic saints. These include St. Josaphat, who was martyred for his attempts to restore Eastern Orthodox Christians to full communion with Catholicism; St. Gregory the Great, who once experienced a Eucharistic miracle during Mass; and St. Pius X, who lowered the Church’s age for receiving Communion and who encouraged the faithful to more frequent, even daily reception of the Eucharist through the Mass. Although I have been to this basilica many times, I was struck by just how many of the saints buried therein promoted the Eucharist and put their trust in the Lord’s promise to be with us, always.
The National Eucharistic Revival invites us to become missionary disciples, filled with love of God and neighbor flowing from an encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. As such, I followed a friend’s example and carried the intentions of friends and family members wherever we went, as a reminder to myself that the Eucharist compels us to become in turn “bread that is broken” for others. A most powerful moment occurred to me, personally, while praying before the heart of Blessed Carlo, who died from leukemia, while remembering the intentions of a friend who has been battling cancer. Pope Benedict XVI, in “Deus Caritas Est,” reminds us that praying for the good of others is not a waste of time, writing that “time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbor, but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service.”
Pope Francis received us warmly on our first full day in Rome, when he blessed the monstrance and sacred vessels to be used at the National Eucharistic Congress next summer. In our meeting, he spoke to us of his desire that more people will come to recognize that the Eucharist is a reality, not a mere symbol, one wherein Christ offers his very self “to nourish, console and sustain us.” He spoke of his desire to see the restoration of the sense and practice of adoration, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, and challenged us to become missionary disciples in response to our encounter with Jesus.
Movingly, he expressed his support for the mission of the National Eucharistic Revival and Congress, and for this moment in the Church in the United States. His kindness toward us and his excitement about our movement stayed with me throughout our travels. It only deepens my sense of joy, knowing that our work has the support of our Holy Father.
Zachary Keith is assistant director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is responsible for supporting the National Eucharistic Revival team’s communication efforts.
