My mother said, “If you don’t want people to read it, then don’t write it down.” What if you didn’t write something down because you didn’t think that it needed to be said? What if you didn’t write something down because you don’t want to say it?
I think of these things while following the three-year “Eucharistic Revival” that is underway (so I’m told) in the United States, a revival whose featured event is a National Eucharistic Congress. (Henceforth I’ll refer to the Revival and Congress together as ER/C.) I’m on the relevant mailing lists and follow the corresponding web pages. Today (10/23/23) prompted me to recall my mother’s wisdom. I searched for the words “confession” and “reconciliation” at EucharisticCongress.org There I found one reference to the sacrament. Under the menu of Frequently Asked Questions by those attending the Congress: “Will confession be available? Yes, there will be daily confession available for attendees.”
The organizers of the Eucharistic Congress, the great capstone event of the three-year Eucharistic Revival (already underway), the people who like to remind us that, “Revival is in the air!”, have nothing else to say about confession and the Eucharistic Congress. I could end here with, “And that’s why there won’t be a Eucharistic Revival.” But let’s look closer.
We needn’t review here the inseparable link between sacramental confession and Eucharistic piety. Regarding the consequences of unworthy reception of Holy Communion, it will suffice to refer to 1 Corinthians 11:27.
Instead, I ask why nothing else was written about sacramental confession at the website of the ER/C. Did the responsible parties think that nothing else was needed? Did they forget what they really meant to say all along? Or did they not say more because they did not want to say more?
Lay people were involved in assembling the content of this website. Perhaps clergy assisted. We can be confident that the website and content would not have been paid for without some form of clerical involvement and approval.
The lay people responsible for the content of the website—they either have a habit of frequent and devout sacramental confession, or they don’t. How likely is it that people with a habit of frequent and devout sacramental confession would have nothing to say about the link between confession and the Eucharist? How likely is it that such people really did mean to say more about it on their website, but just forgot?
Let’s turn to the clergy involved in approving, or at least agreeing to pay for, this website. How likely is it that more than a year after the launch of the website they paid for, reference to sacramental confession is still conspicuous by its absence?
I taught seminarians that, “If you want to be a good confessor, start by being a good penitent.” Let’s sharpen our line of examination: “How likely is it that a man familiar with the necessity and joy of sacramental confession, a man who is gratefully both a penitent and a confessor—how likely is it that such a cleric would not insist on more being said about confession on the website of the ER/C, a website that would require clerical approval and payment before launching?”
Either the website for the ER/C is a monument to a lack of due diligence or nothing more was said about confession at the website because the responsible parties chose to say nothing more. In the latter case, we are looking at prima facie evidence of a sin of omission—but perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe there’s a really good reason for this silence about confession, and I’m unable to perceive it. If so, the responsible parties can contact me at the Station of the Cross Media Network. I’ll gladly present their explanation in print and on air.
Let’s expand the scope of our examination, to evaluate my claim that there will be no Eucharistic revival, if symptoms persist. I’ve written elsewhere about the link between and proper ordering of “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi.” Another reason I’m confident there won’t be Eucharistic revival this time around is because the organizers of the ER/C have focused nearly exclusively on the Lex Credendi. Whether this narrow focus is accidental or deliberate remains to be seen; but their trumpeting of Lex Credendi and their quiescence regarding Lex Orandi is at least suggestive.
Reports I’ve heard from recent diocesan-level attempts at revival indicate common themes. The same tropes were repeated: “…percent don’t believe in…”; “…more and better catechesis…”; “…if only people knew…” In themselves, these words are unobjectionable. But by themselves (i.e., found with no connection to Lex Orandi) these words are deeply troubling. If we convince ourselves—wrongly—that we’re dealing exclusively with a lack of information, then the “solution” is obvious. Just say more information. And if that isn’t enough, then say even more information.
Such a position indicates a poverty of theological understanding and liturgical formation. There seems to be little clarity (much less necessity or urgency) for allowing symbol and gesture to “speak” for themselves. Catholics will inevitably fail at being Catholic if they can’t find the communicative and transformative power of symbol and gesture apart from words. I suspect that we’ve lost confidence in such power, and that may be one reason why the organizers of the ER/C have overemphasized Lex Credendi.
Think back to the 1970s, when a lay “Commentator” was scheduled for Sunday Masses. The Commentator would interrupt the Mass to make some didactic announcement about whatever was about to happen, lest we fail to “understand” the symbol, gesture or event. Fortunately, the role of Commentator has fallen into disuse, although the role is in the latest iteration of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (G.I.R.M.), paragraphs 105 and 352.
Words are limited in their reach. Just ask any pastor who has repeatedly instructed his congregation not to applaud the musicians at the end of Mass. Words can’t be expected to do all the work at Mass—symbol, gesture, even silence (a word that appears no less than 22 times in the G.I.R.M.) must play their part.
The organizers of the ER/C made a video about “Reinvigorating Worship.” The host “…invites parishes to discern how to recommit to celebrating the liturgy in a way that helps parishioners encounter Jesus in a personal way.” Taken at face value, that sounds praiseworthy. Surely, the Church has many resources and much wisdom to help bring about the aforementioned “reinvigoration.” But the video is only 80 seconds long.
In those 80 seconds, there’s a call for “…recommitment to the ars celebrandi, the art of celebrating the Liturgy, the source and summit of our faith, the Mass, beautifully…” Ok. Fine. How? Where to start? Evaluating by which standards? These questions are scarcely raised, much less addressed.
Instead, the video says, that such topics are, to the viewer, “as a parish leader”, “really a question for your discernment.” That’s it. Granted, 80 seconds isn’t a lot of time, but in terms of the stated goal of the video, isn’t this video a waste of 80 seconds? The video calls people to do an important yet ill-defined SOMETHING, for no clearly stated reason, with no criteria for evaluation.
We’re faced now with a conundrum akin to our consideration of confession. Did the organizers of ER/C accidentally emphasize Lex Credendi to the exclusion of Lex Orandi? Was it an oversight? If so, that’s not reassuring.
Is this privation of reference to the Lex Orandi an expression of the invincible ignorance of the organizers of the ER/C? Did they just not know any better? Again—not reassuring.
And where are the clergy in this process? Surely, at least one cleric was involved, someone with the rank to say, “Yes, let’s do it this way…now hand me the checkbook so I can pay for this…”
Did the clerics involved fail at due diligence? Unacceptable.
Do the clerics themselves suffer from invincible ignorance? Also, unacceptable.
So, if the deficient framing of the ER/C is not an accident, nor a result of ignorance, was it done deliberately? Here, I shall engage in speculation. If there’s sound reasoning underlying the ER/C in its present format, the organizers can contact me at the link above.
The present structure of the ER/C may have been chosen for two reasons. The first may be a concern for “unity.” “Unity” is never really defined—but often deployed by people quick to assure us that “unity doesn’t mean uniformity”, unless they want uniform compliance from others. Or it could be that the ER/C is structured to avoid being “divisive” (a lofty and seemingly self-justifying goal,except when we need to be reminded that “diversity is our strength”).
“Surely,” we are told, “we don’t want to go back to the ‘Liturgy Wars!’.” Yes. Remember the Bad Old Days when people used to think that worshipping God was so important that we couldn’t afford to get it wrong? Well, we’re so done with that…apparently…
If we look carefully at what people have been doing at Saint Typical’s, we note how the Orandi has been drifting (or chugging) away from the Lex—for decades—then we might need painful conversations. Such conversations, we’ve been warned, could be “divisive.”
Deliberately avoided conversation topics might include who may receive Holy Communion, who may distribute Holy Communion, and how Holy Communion ought to be received. And then there’s the “divisive” topics of music, preaching, art and architecture that apparently ought to be passed over in silence. But why?
Well, some people may become irate when they discover that they’ve been misled (or not led at all) in their parishes for decades. Others might become irate if they can’t get their way anymore. (“But I really like singing, ‘Mary Did You Know?’!”)
Nowhere in the ER/C content have I found recommendations to read the G.I.R.M., Sacrosanctum Concilium, or Redemptionis Sacramentum, or the relevant documents regarding Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion or Communion-in-the-hand. Why not? Inadvertency? Ignorance? Or something else?
If the intention of the organizers of the ER/C was to gloss over the uncomfortable issues of Lex Orandi, then we may be dealing with a sin of omission, or worse. Recall Bonhoeffer’s warning: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Real Eucharistic revival needs something better than cheap grace.
Real Eucharistic revival may offer healing, but it doesn’t offer comfort. Flannery O’Connor: “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.” Poet Thomas Hardy: “If the way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.” A case can be made that the ER/C organizers chose to avoid Hardy’s hard road. Could it be said that they want to offer us the bonus of “revival” without the onus of confronting why a revival became necessary? It would seem so. I hope I’m wrong.
So, why bother at all? Why invest so much time, personnel and money into a form of ER/C that cannot achieve its stated purposes? Perhaps an unconscious motivation for proceeding with a plan that must fail was that it seemed better than doing nothing at all. We may be seeing here Catholics captivated by “do-somethingism.” Author Kevin Schaal said it best: “The tyranny of do-somethingism is that it is usually poorly thought out, almost always the wrong response, and often used by dishonest people to distract from the real problem.” I’d add that sometimes well-intentioned people (and not just deviously dishonest ones) are beguiled by do-somethingism.
I want to be wrong about all this. I want someone from the ER/C to contact me and explain how I’ve completely misread them. I fear that the ER/C will prove to be an illustration of the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20) Sunlight leaves superficiality no place to hide, and the seeds of the promised Eucharistic Revival “will wither from lack of roots.”
• Related at CWR: “Working for a Eucharistic revival: A response to Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.” (Nov 7, 2023) by Tim Glemkowski
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From the Pew Research Center article titled “Chapter 2: Participation in Catholic Rites and Observances”, September 2, 2015:
Excerpt:
Confession, Lenten Observances and Anointing of the Sick
About four-in-ten Catholics (43%) say they go to confession at least once a year, including 7% who report going monthly, 14% who say they go several times a year and 21% who say they go once a year. By comparison, relatively few cultural Catholics and ex-Catholics receive the sacrament of reconciliation with any regularity.
I can’t help but question the 43% figure of Catholics going to confession at least once a year. The last figures that I saw from CARA indicated that only 17%of Catholics were attending Mass on Sunday. Hard to believe that many more Catholics are going to confession than are going to Mass.
“Will there be a Eucharistic revival?” There already is one that works, unlike the feckless farrago that the author properly reveals as a multi-million fraud. It’s the traditional Latin Mass. Go and see for yourself.
Amen!
And that revival is being killed by the supposed Vicar of Christ
The scriptural reference above 1 Corinithians 11:17 was dropped from the lectionary when the Mass was reformed even though scripture in general was greatly expanded. No Catholic since around 1970 will have heard this text against unworthy communion at the usual Parish Mass. The Pauline warning is included several times in the older 1962 Latin missal. Why was it dropped and is it partially responsible for the decline in Eucharistic piety?
Same with Romans 1:26-27 “Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.” And the surrounding verses. How many Catholics have ever heard/read these verses? Draw your own conclusions as to why.
Agree
Mister Colm, that would be 1 Cor. 11:27. Verse 29 was left off, too.
For the readers:
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. (1 Cor. 11:27-29)
I have been encouraging everyone everywhere to contact their local bishop asking that these verses be added to those occasions when the preceding verses are part of the Scriptures read at Mass. If you have not done so yet, please do.
We need a year of renewal when every homily is focused in some way on the connection between the Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The two go together.
If anyone cares to trace back the origin of disbelief in the Real Presence he will discover that it began when Confession was separated from Eucharist – when Confession fell into disuse.
Let’s face facts: When you’re the determiner of what is sinful and what is not, the bias will always be in your favor. No sin? No need for forgiveness. If there’s no need for forgiveness, then why would you celebrate your redemption from sin which the Mass is? The Mass has been emptied of its power since sinless man no longer needs redemption. Why would a Catholic believe in the Real Presence is he is in no need of redemption?
The solution is not listening sessions, workshops, break-out groups for discussion, conferences, synodal meetings, etc. Restore the linkage between weekly Confession and Reception of the Eucharist at Mass and Catholics will once again understand the action of Mass.
Parenthetically, I would like to see a survey done by CARA of how many times in the past 12 months every member of the clergy when to Confession. You won’t see that survey because the Church doesnt want to know the stinking truth.
Flannerly quote incomplete
Superb article. I am so impressed with it probably because it echoes what I have been saying for the whole tedious period of “Eucharistic Revival.” See my suggestions posted here at CWR quite some time ago: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/11/19/gutting-the-mystery-out-of-the-mystery/
Meanwhile the Revival chiefs continue to congratulate themselves on planning a procession!
Fr. McTeigue, SJ., cites Flannery O’Conner who also said: “If it’s not the Real Presence, then the hell with it.”
Fr. also asks, “did the organizers of ER/C accidentally emphasize Lex Credendi to the exclusion of Lex Orandi?” Well, the original proposal was “Eucharistic coherence [!]” so was the neutering into a “revival” deemed necessary in order to gain the necessary votes from those USCCB members more devoted to business-as-usual?
WHAT’S STOPPING BISHOPS AND HOMILISTS around the country from simply proclaimed directly for five minutes that the Mass is both a banquet AND the “continuation and extension [!],” in an unbloody manner, of the once-only self-donation of the Incarnate Jesus Christ on Calvary? . . . In the same way that the whole Jesus Christ–“body, blood, AND soul and divinity [!]”—is found in each numerically distinct host? (Therefore, something, too, about 1 Cor 11:27)?
Let us STILL HOPE for a successful “revival” as a focal point more anchoring than thirty synodal roundtables . . . the 2024 timing is right. Here’s St. John Paul II’s “PRAYER BEFORE MASS”:
“Eternal Father, we members of your blessed son Jesus Christ’s Mystical Body (His Church), in prayerful union with other members of His Church throughout the world, especially those who are suffering or living under oppression, and those who desire to go to Mass but are unable to do so; In spiritual communion with the intentions and affections of The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Sorrows on Calvary, the Angels and Saints in Heaven, our patron Saints, our Guardian Angels—We all join in offering this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, this unbloody RENEWAL AND EXTENSION of Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross for the following intentions:
(1) To ADORE and worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and to pledge our love and loyalty forever to the God who made us to Know, Love and Serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.
(2) To THANK Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for opening the gates of Heaven by His sacrificial death on Calvary and to thank God for all the blessings and graces He has bestowed upon us throughout our lives especially for the supernatural gifts of Faith, Hope, and Charity; those gifts of Truth, Love and Peace which Christ promised to leave with us.
(3) We express our SORROW for having offended God in any way throughout our lives and offer our prayers, works, sufferings, joys and even ourselves [underlined], to the Eternal Father with this sacrifice of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Dearly Beloved Son in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
(4) Finally, we PETITION the Triune God for the Grace from this Eucharist to conform every conscious endeavor of our lives to the will of the Father in all things as did Christ. We also pray for all persons, places and things—absent, present, living and dead—for which we are bound in conscience or have expressed a desire to pray for, especially for an increase in vocations, for peace among nations, for the conversion of Russia and for the end of the unspeakable crime of abortion. AMEN.” (National Catholic Register, May 19-22, 2006)
Maybe worth adding in parish bulletins or as a prayer card in the pews? Business-not-as-usual…
There are wonderful ideas for a revival, although as Fr McTeigue explains there perhaps aren’t roots for even a few lasting sprouts. This kind of demon [apostate loss of faith] can only be vanquished by the willingness of enough of us to offer prayer, and the suffering of sacrifice. Conversion is necessary, and that means acceptance of Christ’s cross. Souls brought back by paying the price with our blood [as Paul reminded us in Hebrews 12:4] either figuratively or factually.
People will not believe the message if they don’t believe that the messenger believes it. They will judge whether the messenger believes it by observing whether they act as if they believe it. If they are asked to believe that the great God of high heaven became incarnate and gives us his very flesh for our food in the mass, they will ask themselves whether those who teach this act as if they believed it to be true. They will ask themselves if this astounding event, if this most intimate encounter with the divine, were really happening in this time and in this place, is this the place you would build, are these the words that you would say, are these the songs that you would sing, are these the motions you would make, is this the reverence you would show? If no awe is shown or invoked, nothing awesome has occurred. So, at least, it will seem to many.
“People will not believe the message if they don’t believe that the messenger believes it. They will judge whether the messenger believes it by observing whether they act as if they believe it.”
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This, this, this.
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Yes. Actions speak louder than words. So when the priest at every NO Mass, by design, turns his back to the Holy Tabernacle of God, well, that says quite a lot.
The level of casualness, the lack of precision, the lack of mystery, the horrible effeminate songs, the entire ‘table of plenty’ theater has brought us to where we are regarding the Holy Eucharist.
Hmmm, Introibo Ad Altare Dei.
I absolutely agree: ” if this astounding event, if this most intimate encounter with the divine, were really happening in this time and in this place, is this the place you would build, are these the words that you would say, are these the songs that you would sing, are these the motions you would make, is this the reverence you would show?”
For example, many church buildings, post VCII, reoriented or wreckovated the altar/ sanctuary, heightening their visibility to lay participants. In fact, isn’t there something to be said for adventitious anticipation and preparation for the arrival of the king? Is there nothing to be said for keeping the Holy Eucharist hidden until the Consecration and Elevation? We await his coming, we await his virginally pure Being among us. Should we not prepare with reverent solemnity rather than ostentatious festivity and overstated joy? We anticipate and pray and prepare for Him. The bridegroom presents Himself undefiled, incomparable in goodness, to His bride. Does He lord Himself about among so many unextraordinary ministers, altar girls or clerical assistants?
Do we not prepare for a wedding by washing ourselves and our robes clean in the waters of grateful forgiveness? It is a sanctified bride and groom who keep themselves pure and undefiled until the time of consummation.
Again post VCII, statues of the resurrected Christ replaced many high-hanging crucifexes which were removed and not returned until after JPII’s or Ratzinger’s GIRM revision insisted upon a crucifex near or on the altar.
Instead of beginning Mass with the Sign of the Cross, post VCII, many priests began with ‘welcoming’ comments, asking participants if they were visiting, and if so, from where, etc. In my local NO parish, the priest typically proceeds to protracted conversation if he has relatives, memories or musings about, or had occasion to visit the vicinity from which the visitor hails. Meanwhile, Christ waited.
Christ still does wait, presumptuous fools that we are.
Was Eucharistic Adoration mentioned? Maybe I’m too simple but I believe daily reception of the Mass and Eucharist forgives our venial sins. Maybe Catholics need to be instructed and encouraged on Sundays to attend daily Mass if possible especially senior retired catholics to pray for their souls and for their children and grandchildren. Every day in my church a priest is available before each Mass for confession and there are always penitents lined up. I like the suggestion for Bishops to communicate more often about this important source of grace to their parishes.
Thank you – the article also gave an occasion to look up just a few of the other articles by the author – https://aleteia.org/author/fr-robert-mcteigue-sj/
The link between pain, sin (need for healing of memories ) as narrated in the above as relevant to the topic of confession too . Areas of mental health related fields having had ‘fathers ‘ who had little to do with either The Logos or The Mother, there is likely much in the realm where in Catholic research as an amalgam of psychology , theology and exorcism ( walking together 🙂 ) would bring more insight into these areas, having heard recently from an exorcist priest how memories are ‘everlasting’, how healing the pain can be lots more arduos than many imagine …interesting mention in the 24 Hour Passion meditation ( Divine Will ) – how The Lord can choose to let persons experience the sorrow that He experiences and when taken as such, can lead to deeper gratitude ,to also serve as a means of healing of memories …would it be that some of the pain that is experienced by priests is also in that realm ..
The sin of presumption being rampant in our times , persons fall into error of expecting quick and easy remedies for deep wounds – thinking one or two confessions is all it should take, to be restored to the bliss of virginal purity ! One means of Lord telling of the seriousness of sexual sins might be in the millions that are unleashed to witness for either generational blessing or as’death spirits’….
The warning words of the Holy Father on ‘spiritual worldliness’ -also possibly afflicting the reception of the Holy Eucharist , leading to worsening of same, to infiltrate other areas …yet , there are parishes that are blessed to have holy priests who regularly hold atleast a half an hour of Adoration before the daily Holy Mass, they themselves in the confessional for a good part of that period .
Confession itself – to be seen as an occasion of healing of memories too and thus of relationships to thus even help improve the spiritual health of the community and of even generations ..Some might even fall into the error that confessing habitual sins can be occasion of causing pain / frustration to the confessor …instead , to see same even a bit similar to the ‘habit ‘ of going to receive communion , as an occasion of charity in ‘healing of memories ‘ of the mystical body itself , much wounded in our times !
Thank you and God bless !
“Conversion is necessary, and that means acceptance of Christ’s cross.” (Father Morello)
Will there be a Eucharistic revival? “Will there still be faith and do we LOVE the Lord Jesus? The Eucharist is Jesus, the God Incarnate Christ! The Parish is not a nice place for people to be nice to each other; but the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Latin lovers think everything is ok there, but many are in churches in disunity and disobedience to the Holy Apostolic true Church. Do you love Jesus? Adoration is face to face and eye to eye with God Almighty. The 3 little shepherds were told by the angel to prostrate and to pray: “O most holy Blessed Trinity, we adore thee profoundly!” Where Jesus is, there is the Father also and the Holy Spirit. Pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all the hidden secrets of God Almighty. “Heart of Jesus, Sacred Temple of God, Tabernacle of the Most High, House of God and Gate of Heaven, Heart of Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity. The Father Almighty Sabaoth,, divine source of all existence, life and love, He dwells in the Heart of Jesus. Go to adoration and look at that host, it is the holy divine substance, it is the Triune God. The Eucharist is not just a gift for a eternal life insurance; it is God. Do you love Jesus?
A nearby parish offers confession every day before the evening Mass and there’s always a decent line of penitents. My much larger home parish offers confession only on Saturdays which means a long wait and fewer people get to confession. Both parishes have reverent liturgies and Eucharistic adoration. I’ve urged my pastor to offer confession daily. Maybe he’ll do that–he did get the ox for our Nativity set after a couple of years of twitting.
I’m giving a talk at my parish about the history of Eucharistic devotion, so that’s my contribution.
Until these clowns defend Christ in the eucharist from politicians and move the tabernacle to the center of EVERY Catholic church again, how can they honestly expect to teach anything regarding the Eucharist. When they treat Jesus like trash their actions say more to the average person than any amount of words ever will.
I have a book coming out that covers this topic, and many more. It will be out on January 1st. The book is titled “30 Day Eucharistic Revival: A Retreat with St. Peter Julian Eymard.” Keep an eye out for it. It addresses the real issues needed for a Eucharistic revival.
Fr. Calloway, I’m with those who want the TLM back in all of our Churches because IT is the answer to this problem, and that is obvious. All of you good priests would find that the good people who are searching for Our Lord will find Him there with your help. You will find the respect your priesthood deserves, the courage needed to defend Christ and His Church, and see the TRUE Eucharistic Revival that this world needs. That’s the Mass that made all the Saints before Vatican 2.
Dear Fr.
Thanks for your excellent summary of the Eucharistic wasteland that is the USA.
Steps for a true Eucharistic revival:
1) Convince pew sitters of their own sinfulness, especially sins of the flesh: contraception and pornography included.
2) Convince them to go to confession, which will eliminate sacrilegious communions
3) Stop distributing Holy Communion to blatant proponents of murder, democrats in other words. Otherwise, Holy Mother Church is saying Jesus’s body and blood do not really matter.
Why would anyone believe in the real presence if true, contrition for sin were not necessary for reception?
4) Teach people the right way to receive the body, blood , soul, and divinity of Jesus, kneeling and on the tongue, only from an ordained minister.
5) introduce every parish to the traditional Latin mass. Once they see this form of liturgy, they will know that some thing more than a communal meal and gathering is taking place.That the one satisfying sacrifice of the Son to the Father is made manifest.
6) Add two things to every sermon, as the sermon or homily is the only teaching the average Catholic will receive each week.
a. Reminding them of what is about to take place in the consecration and Who they are going to receive.
b. That with the help of the blessed virgin, they should make a good examination of conscience before presenting themselves for holy communion at that Mass.
7) Reform the Catholic schools. Non-Catholics as well as non-practicing Catholics must be removed from any positions of power or formation. This is where young Catholics often get their faulty sacramental theology and scandalous moral example. This is a tall order as the devastation at your typical diocesan school is tragic.
This is just a start… wasteland might be an understatement of the true situation of Eucharistic unbelief..
Ave Maria!!
Confession should be offered during every Mass. The priest at West Point announces at every Mass that there is priest available during Mass, and reminds everyone that it is a sin to receive unworthily.
I am no one important, but it seems to me much reparation is needed for all of the abuses and neglect of vocations with tremendous charity. Reparation!
Actually the website has an email Spark series and Day 3 challenges readers to attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation within a week. So it’s there.
The fact that they have a mailing list (that you have to sign up for) that once mentions going to confession in no way refutes any of Father’s arguments, and isn’t in any way sufficient. On the website itself there is no further mention, so actually it’s NOT there.
ACTUALLY it is https://learn.eucharisticrevival.org/forgiven-the-transforming-power-of-confession
*ACTUALLY* it isn’t–Father was referring to the website, Eucharistic Congress DOT org. His description of that website is accurate.
Until the Novus Ordo is abandoned and we return to the traditional mass, which is the only form of the Roman rite that explicitly communicates the sacrificial nature of what’s going on, expect more of the same. For my part, I will never again attend the Novus Ordo, even if that’s all that’s available in my diocese. I already nearly lost my faith in the Novus Ordo, and I value my faith too much to lose it again.
If TLM is shut down in your diocese, will you just not go to mass anymore? You are sure that is what God wants you to do?
What got us into the position of needing a Eucharistic Revival in the first place?
I am a priest for 40 years. The biggest impediment to a real revival is,
1. Communion in the hand.
2. Standing in a line to receive.
both of these lessen the mystery and sacredness of the Eucharist.
there are many other obstacles as well, poor preaching and teaching on the Eucharist.
Poor or banal liturgy. I write this as an observation of being a Pastor in a large suburban northeast church for 30 years.
To which I’d the fact that the once-common reverences toward the tabernacle and the exposed Host have nearly disappeared in many churches, including especially priests and other authority figures. It’s quite common now in many churches for the priest celebrating Mass to acknowledge the consecrated Host with a slight nod of the head, or to pass the tabernacle without so much as glancing at it. If we treat the Host and the tabernacle in which it is reserved as nothing special, then most people, especially young children, will treat it as…………nothing special
There is no possible way that 43% of all Catholics go to confession annually. Zero. At this stage, you’d be lucky to find a non-Latin Mass parish that would have such a high percentage. I had a pastor who was seen as a very solid guy, and was a very solid guy in many respects, but he actually encouraged funeral attendees, who obviously hadn’t darkened the doorstep of a church in years, to receive Holy Communion. Whether anyone likes it or not, the practiced “Doctrine of Grace” has changed since the Council. The Sacraments have become totems, and priests are expected to tell everyone how good they are. Thank God, not all of them do, but the pressure is immense.
If you observe a colony of racoons and then criticize them for not behaving like groundhogs, who is making the mistake?
Some old sayings are “To each their own” and “Birds of a feather flock together.”
Find your religious kinfolk and associate with them, and support them, and receive support and association from them, and praise God for it all.
Disassociate and disconnect from folk who, in your view, are dishonest, perverse, or otherwise leading people and themselves astray.
Praise God and the Good.
Ignore the devil and the rot (with some rare exceptions).
Repeatedly writing and publishing descriptions of all the dishonesty and perversity of all the rotten souls will only sicken you and others.
For example, I am not in any sort of communion with Mario Bergoglio and his fellow travelers. He’s a member of some strange, foreign philosophical consortium (comparable to the Communist Party or the Church of Scientology) that has no connection to my faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the Holy Rosary. I have no more need to criticize Bergoglio than a Catholic back in the 1930s had a need to criticize Joseph Stalin or Benito Mussolini. (At least, I try to practice this.)
1 Cor 11:27 is not present in the Lectionary. Herein lies the root of the problem at the corporate level. Prior to the revision, it was in the TLM (and this is NOT an invitation to a TLM war)on twice per year. Modern Catholics have not heard –
“Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord.” in 50 years.
Thank you Fr. McTeigue, for doing the heavy lifting. I have been ineptly saying the same thing from the start.
1 Cor 11:27 is not present in the Lectionary. Herein lies the root of the problem at the corporate level. Prior to the revision, it was in the TLM (and this is NOT an invitation to a TLM war)on twice per year. Modern Catholics have not heard –
“Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord.”
This has not been heard from the pulpit for 50 years.
Thank you Fr. McTeigue, for doing the heavy lifting. I have been ineptly saying the same thing from the start.
The use of the word “Revival” has seemed odd to me every since this was rolled out. Why has the fullness of God’s Revelation to mankind, which is found only in the Catholic Faith, seem to have been hidden under a bushel for 60 years? Why in most homilies do we hear the word “Christian” a hundred times, but hardly ever the word “Catholic”? The answer is not hard to figure out.
Great article! Thank you, Father!
To add…the bottom line is that this whole “revival” is man-made, planned. A perfect example of the foolishness of the non-credible, untrustworthy, ill-formed, very worldly and political-minded spiritual “fathers” who “shepherd” us today. Very, very few bear fruit of listening to and following GOD’S leadership for a TRUE revival. The vast majority allow and perpetuate the “man-focused Mass,” the minimization of The Word of God, “teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
The ease of a “creating” a true and authentic Eucharistic Revival is simple — follow the saints: JPII…Mother Angelica…and yes, Benedict XVI. Return to Tradition. Discard ALL the flawed and never-intended, never-approved changes after Vatican II. EDUCATE YOUR FLOCK IN REALITY, TRUTH, and GOD-CENTEREDNESS and PRIMACY.
Turn away from the obvious lies, flaws, half-truths and watered-down practices and “teachings” of the previous 60 years.
“Fathers”…grow____ and return to manhood, to Truth, to God.
You wisely and accurately wrote of the “obvious lies, flaws, half-truths and watered-down practices and “teachings” of the previous 60 years.”
Now, we all know that God the All-Holy, the All-Good, the All-Wise, and the All-Powerful does not dispense poison or rot to innocent people.
Consequently, I’m starting to think that it is best to conclude that the “obvious lies, flaws, half-truths and watered-down practices and “teachings” of the previous 60 years” were NOT dispensed by God’s Church, but by a counterfeit gang who have obtained control of the worldly real estate of God’s church.
Yes, such a conclusion is radical.
But concluding that God dispensed all that poison and rot is even more radical, since it supposes that God could and would poison innocent people.
Wow! I’m stunned and dismayed by the negativity in this article and in most of the posts. Our dioceses is doing it’s best (I would even say well). I love the Church and my local parish. Is it perfect? By no means. But the sincerity and reverence demonstrated by the vast majority of my fellow parishioners is truly uplifting. The shortcomings of the liturgy are completely overshadowed by the fact that Jesus is truly present on the altar and in the tabernacle. That should be our focus. Keep firing those arrows, but I don’t think they’re going to hit the enemies of the Church. You will only strike those who are sincerely striving for holiness, with all the ups and downs that that entails. “Don’t try to instill a love of the Eucharist unless you do it exactly the way I say it should be done otherwise you’re wasting your time.” Such negativity seems out of place. What do you do at gatherings of your fellow Catholics? Complain? Spread bitterness and contempt for the Pope and the Bishops? This suffering world needs Christ more than ever, but relentless negativity will get us nowhere.
Let me guess…you came of age sometime during the 1960’s?
What those who are sincerely striving for holiness want is true assistance, not relentless positivity dissociated from reality. Everyone needs encouragement and kindness, but without also having negative feedback we don’t know where the boundaries are… and since we all know instinctively that there are boundaries, this ignorance just makes us insecure and unsure as well as bad at what is ostensibly our goal.
I believe the saying goes: “Pray as though everything depends on Christ. Work as though everything depends on you.” Confidence in Christ’s mercy and love only results in a lax approach to liturgy and spiritual discipline when our response of love is lacking. And one of the first things you figure out if you do a halfway decent examination of conscience is that your love is lacking. But because love calls forth love, you don’t want to carry on that way. You want to love the way He loves, with everything you have and are. So you pray confidently, and work hard and smart at being a better lover. You seek a liturgy that is beautiful and obedient to the Church. You deal with your sins and give them to Jesus instead of sweeping them under the rug. You defend the Holy Eucharist given for you, and the soul of those persisting in manifest grave sin, by meekly denying them Holy Communion. You deal in the reality of the Real Presence, not just the warm fuzzies of empathy and niceness.
And really, if you want to experience the positive, encouraging love of Christ for you, personally, GO TO CONFESSION. He loves us at our weakest and our worst, and there is nothing in the world like being loved like that.
This critical article asks searching questions about the Eucharist Revival website. I figure if the website’s merch space fails to include a sizing chart for tshirts, and whether they’re mens or womens shirts, then possibly other important details, like the necessity of confession, might also have been overlooked. I have noticed testimonies about Eucharist experiences have been added. I wish the organizers would start a community on X, where we could talk about Adoration, confession, Eucharistic experiences, questions, praise and the Eucharist Congress. I don’t mean to be giddy or superficial, but my parish seems uninterested at this point, absorbed in its own doings & worries. I went to my archdiocese’s Eucharist Congress. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Certainly confession & adoration was available. These were cross-scheduled from the speakers, though, and I’m sure readers here will fault me for choosing to listen to the speakers. 2000+attended. It was wonderful to be with Catholics across an entire archdiocese praying to be more connected to Jesus in the Eucharist and that this would be evident in their parishes.
Considering that this is the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 Years I don’t get all the negativity in this article. I also know Bishop Cozzens who is graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas and I am an alumnus as well as a Benedictine Oblate. I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak on the National Eucharistic Congress coming up next year. I am also a member of Word On Fire Institute who has also promoted this coming gathering where we can truly put Christ first in our life. It is time for Fr. Robert McTeigue, SJ to put down his negative thoughts and be thankful that some in our Church want to put Christ back into the mainstream of life with all the sacraments.
In the blog on the website, an early post mentions the “absolution” during the Penitential prayers. Interestingly, it says this: “In the past, some people (including priests) were incorrectly told that this prayer was the equivalent of the absolution prayer the priest says in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is certainly not the case!” https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/post/do-this-in-remembrance-of-me-part-10-penitential-absolution