Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! You may be thinking that I’m a month off — but not for us Catholics! On November 27 we begin our new liturgical year and the season of Advent: a new opportunity to have a deeper encounter with Jesus. Through our survey so many of you asked for help with prayer. I’m thrilled to offer you a special gift this Advent: A new Eucharistic prayer resource we developed just for you! I hope it will help you have a deeper encounter with Jesus and make deeper connections between your prayer and Sunday Mass. The meditation theme for the First Week of Advent is The Great Light, and it is available for you to print at home from this digital folder.
We’re also excited to launch Father Luke Spannagel’s new series, “Do this in Remembrance of Me: A Step-by-Step Walk Through the Mass.” Each week we’ll release a new edition. We’re also working on getting these ready for you in a beautiful way that you can easily share at your parish or with family and friends, and we’ll let you know when that is ready!
A few more notes as we celebrate Thanksgiving: Archbishop Blair offers a message, rooted in the Eucharist, about the hope we find through Jesus — the true reason for our gratitude this Thanksgiving Day. Dr. Zachary Keith follows up with some practical insights into what Thanksgiving means for Catholics, and the Knights of Columbus have released a moving film to inspire our Eucharistic faith and devotion. Thank you for helping make the Eucharistic Revival a reality — one prayer, one Mass and one heartbeat at a time!
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P.S. Next week, we’ll be launching a new campaign to help you invite the people you know into this historic movement. I know you are busy, so we’ll keep it really simple! |
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INSPIRED BY THE EUCHARIST |
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“Thanksgiving” is at the very heart of the mysteries of creation and redemption … In his poignant essay, Archbishop Leonard Blair offers a sober assessment of our cultural connection to Thanksgiving alongside a redeeming reminder of what Christ offers in response.
Leer en español.
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| DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME: A Step-by-Step Walk Through the Mass
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You can’t love someone if you don’t know him. At every Mass, Jesus wants to reveal and give himself to us anew. In this new series, Father Luke Spannagel will walk us through the Mass, starting from the moment you enter the church door. Don't miss the introductory article of “Do this in Remembrance of Me.” Leer in español.
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Black Friday sales? Football? Avoiding politics? We associate a lot of things with Thanksgiving … but do we associate the Eucharist? Dr. Zachary Keith shares a family connection with the Mayflower Pilgrims, whose Thanksgiving celebration is most perfectly celebrated today through the Eucharist. Leer en español.
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We can always use some inspiration! The Knights of Columbus produced a beautiful film to help stoke our love for the Eucharist and open our hearts to a renewed encounter with Jesus. Ver en español.
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Thanksgiving and the Eucharist
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By Jem Sullivan, Ph.D.
The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
God is generous beyond our imagination. In the Eucharist, Jesus always multiplies the gift of his loving presence by giving us his own Body and Blood that we receive with thanksgiving. As the Catechism notes, the word “Eucharist” from the Greek word eucharistein, meaning “thanksgiving,” recalls the Jewish blessings that proclaim God’s mighty works during a meal. In the Eucharist we give thanks for God’s greatest works — creation, redemption and sanctification.
The celebrated Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo invites us to enter into the Gospel miracle of the multiplication of five loaves and two fish. This is the only miracle of Jesus recounted in all four Gospels. The rolling landscape is dotted with a vast crowd that stretches far into the distance. Jesus sits surrounded by disciples, one of whom leans down to place a loaf of bread in his master’s hand. Another disciple takes a basket with two fish from the hand of a young boy. Jesus’ serene face radiates light as he raises his eyes to heaven to bless the food that will multiply to nourish the crowds. This miracle looks both backward and forward in recalling the miraculous feeding of Israel with manna in the desert, and the institution of the Eucharist when Jesus blesses and breaks bread and commands his disciples to “do this in memory of me.”
As we gather this Thanksgiving with family and friends in gratitude for God’s generous gifts, small and great, let’s remember to thank God for the great miracle of the Eucharist. |
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“To live Christ and to give Christ” — this is the effect Advent should have on our spiritual lives according to Micheal Heinlein. Read his beautiful Advent essay, which weaves together scripture and prayers from Mass to help us embrace Advent as an opportunity for interior renewal. |
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I am inspired by the insights you have shared in our survey. One subscriber from Minnesota shared “Rest, the Lord is always inviting me to find my rest in Him, to rest in His Heart. We need content that supports, reminds, and encourages us to greater depth in our relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.” Thank you! I’d especially love to hear from more of our subscribers who are under 40. If that is you, please help us get a better sense of what you are looking for: Take the survey now!
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Our National Eucharistic Revival will crescendo at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2024. The Congress website is live and bishops are reserving tickets for their dioceses this week! Keep Tim Glemkowsi, Cande De Leon, Maggie Lennon, Joel Stepanek and the whole Congress Team in prayer as they continue to prepare for this event of encounter with the living Jesus Christ that will send the whole Church on a mission “for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
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“I spent nine years in solitary confinement and during that time I said Mass every day at three o’clock, the hour of Jesus’ death on the cross. I was all alone and could sing and chant whatever I wished, in Latin, in French and Vietnamese. I always carried with me the same tiny bag containing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, ‘You in me and me in you.’” |
CARDINAL NGUYEN VAN THUAN
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Venerable Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan was a prisoner of war for 13 years in Vietnam. He died in 2002.
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FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE REVIVAL |
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