Bishop publishes
Loving God and our Neighbor; Living Eucharist as Mission; declares 2020 ‘Year of the Eucharist’
Just in time for the new liturgical year, Bishop Paul J. Bradley has published his fifth pastoral letter to the people of the diocese. Loving God and our Neighbor: Living Eucharist as Mission explores the sacred relationship Catholics have with the Eucharist and its spiritual nourishment to inspire us to lead lives in model of the example of Jesus.
In conjunction with the release of his pastoral letter, Bishop Bradley has declared the calendar year of 2020 as the “Year of the Eucharist” in the diocese. This specially designated year will include a number of diocesan and parish activities designed to renew and increase the devotion and love of our Lord in the Eucharist and inspire additional works of mercy. The opening Mass for the Year of the Eucharist will be held Jan. 5, 2020, at St. Augustine Cathedral and also observed at parishes across the diocese.
Excerpt from Loving God and our Neighbor:
Living the Mission of the Eucharist
I want to share with you what we believe and why this teaching is so important to our experience of God’s love and goodness. This teaching is at the center of what it means for us to live the Eucharist by knowing, loving and serving Jesus. That is why I am inviting you to reflect with me prayerfully on three essential aspects of the eucharistic mystery:
1. Real presence/spiritual nourishment: What happens when the bread and wine are transformed into Christ’s body and blood is real. It is miraculous! It is not merely symbolic.
2. Unity: Jesus gives himself to us because he loves us and he wants to be united with us. When Jesus is our first priority, everything else finds its proper place. Since the Eucharist truly is the “source and summit” of Christian life, then our reception of Holy Communion should be a grateful, loving encounter with Jesus, the Lord of Life. When we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, he becomes one with us, and we become one with him in the same “holy moment” (sacra-mentum).
3. Serving others: By receiving the Holy Eucharist, God’s grace fills us to overflowing. As stewards of this grace, we are compelled to share them generously with all God’s people. This is what “Living the Mission of the Eucharist” means. Together with the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and penance (confession), the Eucharist makes it possible for us to receive our Lord with a clean heart and to accept his invitation to be missionary disciples in service to others. Allowing Jesus to transform us to be more like himself, and the gift of himself for us on the cross, to give ourselves to Him and to others, is at the heart of missionary discipleship.
The pastoral letter can be downloaded at
www.diokzoo.org/eucharist. Printed copies will be available at parishes in mid-December.