Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Justin Rigali
on the Year of the Eucharist
October 7, 2004
Dear People of God in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia,
Just one year ago, today on this feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, I was installed as Archbishop of Philadelphia. I am deeply grateful to God for the privilege of being the shepherd of this local Church. I am grateful to His Holiness Pope John Paul II for having called me to this pastoral service; and, I am grateful to all of you—my Auxiliary Bishops, priests, deacons, religious, seminarians and laity—for your generous collaboration in the mission of the Church and for your prayerful support during this whole year. It is a joy to be with you and to serve you.
The anniversary of my installation as your Archbishop comes at a time when the entire Church throughout the world begins, at the direction of the Holy Father, the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist. It is the aim of the Pope to concentrate the attention of all Catholics on Christ’s great gift of the Eucharist. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the whole Christian life.” The Eucharist likewise contains the whole treasure of the Church because it is, according to our holy Catholic faith, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This Year of the Eucharist that the Holy Father has proclaimed begins on October 10th, coinciding with the beginning of the International Eucharistic Congress taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico. It will conclude in October 2005, with the celebration of the Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops entitled: The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.
During this period of time, we are asked to celebrate a year of special prayer in which, as individuals and as the Church, we personally renew our faith in the Eucharist. We proclaim anew the Catholic teaching that the Eucharist is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, offered on Calvary and renewed sacramentally in the Mass. We proclaim the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We proclaim that the Eucharist is the food Christ offers us out of love and commands us to receive in order to have eternal life. With all our hearts and the deepest conviction of our being, we accept the words of Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
We likewise acknowledge that the Eucharist, given to us at Mass, is also to be adored in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in our tabernacles. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle or exposed on our altars continues our participation in the Eucharistic action and prepares us spiritually to come back and share again in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
A special goal of the Year of the Eucharist is to have all of us, the People of God, assembled in the name of Jesus and sharing together in the celebration of Mass. This participation, according to the Second Vatican Council, is meant to be “full, active and conscious.” This means that we are called to share in the Mass both in an external and internal way. This obviously involves taking the respective parts that are meant for us. The proper community responses and singing, as well as the exercise of the various ministries, are all aimed at ensuring our “full, active and conscious” participation in Christ’s Sacrifice, which is also the Sacrifice of the Church—her great prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition offered for the living and the dead.
Of special importance is also our internal sharing in the Eucharist. This internal sharing requires a prayerful preparation for Mass; it obliges us to take on Christ’s interior disposition of union with His Father and the offering of ourselves together with Him. It requires us to approach the Eucharist with a humble acknowledgment of our sins and repentance for them. Here we see the close relationship that exists between the worthy celebration of the Eucharist and the faithful use of the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. Hence, the Year of the Eucharist will likewise be a call to all of us to profit from Christ’s generous offer of the forgiveness of our sins through sacramental Confession, which is also the Sacrament of His loving mercy.
The Year of the Eucharist is, therefore, meant to be for all of us a year of recommitment to both the Eucharist and Confession. The more sincerely we recognize our sins and acknowledge the love that impels Christ to offer us repeatedly His pardon and forgiveness, the more we will be able to approach the Eucharist with the proper sentiments of contrition, reverence and confidence-all of which are necessary for union with God. During this coming year, in order to promote the personal conversion necessary in all of us for sharing in the Eucharist, the Archdiocese will also offer a Reconciliation Weekend on Friday and Saturday, February 25-26, 2005. Further details will be made available soon. This opportunity for the Sacrament of forgiveness will be in addition to the regularly scheduled Confessions in our parishes throughout the year.
One of our deeply desired goals for the Year of the Eucharist is the continued promotion of “the full, active and conscious” participation of our people at Sunday Mass. We are deeply gratified by the numbers of the faithful who appreciate the great privilege that is theirs to participate in Sunday Mass and who do so joyfully and perseveringly. I am particularly grateful to our priests who, with great effort and prayer, strive to assist the faithful in this privilege and duty that is theirs. At the same time, I cordially invite all our Catholic people who for one reason or another have lapsed from the practice of Sunday Mass to rediscover this joy and treasure in their lives and to return to their rightful place in the community of worship.
In addition to a re-emphasis on the importance of the Sunday liturgy -and on participation at Mass during the week when possible-I ask the whole Archdiocese of Philadelphia to do everything possible to promote and increase Eucharistic Adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The teaching of our Holy Father, the experience of the Church and the example of the Saints-including our own Saint John Neumann and Saint Katharine Drexel-confirm us in this holy practice which extends our sharing in the Mass and prepares us to return again to the Eucharistic Sacrifice. I thank all our parishes for their faithful practices of Eucharistic devotion and encourage them to extend the periods of Eucharistic exposition where, in the judgment of the pastor, this is possible and pastorally feasible.
I encourage the splendid custom of Forty Hours Devotion as practiced in this local Church since the time of Saint John Neumann. Other extended periods of Eucharistic adoration are likewise encouraged, as is the regular celebration of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
To all our people I present a singular need for special prayers during Eucharistic adoration, indeed during the whole Eucharistic Year, for an increase of vocations to the priesthood. The connection between the Eucharist and the Priesthood and the special needs of the Archdiocese impel me to single out this intention for intense intercession. At the same time I ask our people to remember to pray for vocations to the consecrated religious life, to pray that holy families may increase in our Church and that the cause of peace and life may prevail in our society.
I am hopeful that during the Year of the Eucharist it may be possible to have an archdiocesan-wide Eucharistic event. This would be a great external witness to our Catholic Eucharistic faith. Above all, however, I am asking that the emphasis of this Year of the Eucharist be concentrated in our parishes and religious institutions. It is important that they become ever more fervent communities of worship and adoration. I ask that our families continue to communicate our Eucharistic faith and practices, and express them in our parish liturgies and devotions.
I ask all our priests to continue zealously, on every occasion possible, to spread the teaching of the Church on the Eucharist as Christ’s Sacrifice, the Supper of the Lord, sacramental food and presence, expression of Christ’s friendship, experience of Christian joy, Viaticum and pledge of eternal life! In all of these aspects, the ecclesial nature of the Eucharist is so important, as is the constant challenge of the Eucharist to the Christian community to live the Gospel of justice and peace, love and life. The whole tradition of the Catholic Church finds in the Eucharist not only the challenges of social justice and service to the poor and those in need, but also the power to fulfill them and to carry out her uplifting and liberating mission of evangelization.
It is my hope that all the works of the Archdiocese and the lives of all our people will be vivified by a new wave of Eucharistic devotion solidly rooted in the sacred word of God and expressed in personal and liturgical prayer. We look forward to the renewal of a sense of reverence and awe for Christ’s gift of His Body and Blood, to be expressed in appropriate times of silence in our churches, in our genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament and in all the care that surrounds the celebration of the liturgy.
In this regard, I ask that all our pastors consider placing the tabernacle in the center of the church behind the main altar, if it is not already there and if individual circumstances make such a move feasible, in accordance with both canon 938 and the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, nos. 314-315.
In order to further devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, it is my hope during this Eucharistic Year to set up a small chapel in the Archdiocesan Office Center that will permit those within our offices to have easy access to the Eucharist and that will bear witness once more to our archdiocesan Eucharistic commitment.
What we are asking God to give us is a year of fervent prayer in which, through the Eucharist, we can personally rededicate ourselves to authentic Christian living. From Christ in the Eucharist we ask the strength to recommit ourselves to the mission of the Church and to all our duties and obligations as individuals, families, parishes and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We ask for strength to serve our families, to sustain our parishes, to continue to promote Catholic education, to work for the human and spiritual well-being of our children and their protection from all harm, and to live authentically and witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also ask that this Year of the Eucharist will find us frequently in the presence of Jesus, to draw strength and joy in order to be faithful as a community of faith and worship, a community of love and service-a true and authentic Eucharistic community.
Participation in the Eucharist, through a year of special prayer, will help us to intensify our efforts to face our obligations and duties as Christian people. At the same time, it will instill in us strength, joy and peace as we respond to Christ’s call to conversion, to service and to holiness of life.
In this great endeavor, we ask the help of our Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of His Church, the Woman who, in consenting to the Incarnation, helped make the Eucharist a reality. We are confident that she will now help us to celebrate worthily this Eucharistic Year as we place all our trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, the Son of the Virgin Mary.
October 7, 2004
Cardinal Justin Rigali
Archbishop of Philadelphia