At African National Eucharistic Congress, Cardinal Gregory calls Eucharist ‘an incredible gift’ and ‘path to unity’

Calling the Eucharist “an incredible gift that the Lord has given us,” Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said July 22 that the Most Blessed Sacrament unites all Catholics “no matter our language, liturgical style, or cultural expressions.”

“The path of unity is what Christ calls us to in the Eucharist. We celebrate the Eucharist being our very answer and reason to come together in our charisms and vocations,” Cardinal Gregory said. “In the Eucharist, we respond to Christ’s invitation to us to be one with Him in receiving Holy Communion.”  

The cardinal made his remarks while delivering the keynote address at the fourth African National Eucharistic Congress taking place July 21-23 on the campus of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. 

Nearly 500 people – whom the cardinal referred to as “my dearest brothers and sisters in the Lord” -attended the talk, which was the official opening of the congress.

“Jesus lovingly draws us to the sacred table and reminds us each time we receive the Eucharist at Mass … that He is with us. We are not alone. What a comforting reminder that we all need,” Cardinal Gregory said. He added that the Eucharist gives the faithful “the power to resist worldly voices that aim to seduce us with temptations that divide us.”

Cardinal Gregory told the African National Eucharistic Congress participants that “it is in receiving Christ’s Body and Blood that we are remade into His image and likeness and partake in His divine nature. This Eucharistic encounter is what unites us and is for all. It is when we receive the Eucharist that we are nourished and strengthened.”

“With the Eucharist at the center of our lives, we find the source of revitalized energy to give the gift of our time and ourselves to one another with much-needed patience.  This is the path to unity and peace that we crave,” he said. “The Eucharist at the center of our lives will open our hearts to God’s transformative, healing love to be shared with all of our brothers and sisters who need us.”

The cardinal encouraged the congress participants to “focus on the living Lord whose real presence changes us, our relationships, and our perspective for the better. We must prioritize the Eucharist – sitting often in silent prayer in Adoration before the Lord who gives us the Gift of Himself in the Eucharist.”

He said that by focusing their lives on the Eucharist, the faithful “essentially agree to respond to our world in charitable ways that will bring about necessary just changes in every nation and among all peoples.”

“The Eucharist is not only for us who receive it – it is to be shared, and therefore, received by those who have yet to know the risen Christ in any way,” the cardinal said. “We are to be modern-day prophets participating in bringing the healing power of Christ to our society and especially to those who are often pushed aside to the peripheries.”

Referring to the Congress’s theme, “That They May All Be One,” Cardinal Gregory said the theme is “particularly relevant to our modern-day lives, as our society and world face numerous armed conflicts and so many types of violence, racism, and a general lack of civility in every aspect of living.”

“Christ calls us – He demands – that we, as His followers, His believers, and His disciples, be one,” Cardinal Gregory said. “We are to be united in order to love and serve Him in bringing about the kingdom of God here on Earth.  We are to remember that Christ is our unity – the way, the truth and our life.”

The African National Eucharistic Congress was organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, the National Association of African Catholics in the United States and the African Conference of Catholic Clergy and Religious in the United States.

The event included talks, workshops, meetings, discussions, exhibitions, a Eucharistic procession and Masses.

In his keynote address, Cardinal Gregory praised those at the congress for their “deep faith and Eucharistic devotion as expressed in each one of the beautiful cultures found throughout the African diaspora” and reminded them that they are “the current and future disciples that Jesus prayed for to continue sharing the Gospel in our day and time.”

The cardinal pointed out that Africans who were once evangelized are now “the conveyors of that same faith grown rich in African lands to many other places around the globe.”

“The great nations and cultures of Africa have so many treasures to contribute to the life of the universal Church,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Your lands are fertile territories of evangelization now building upon the missionary zeal of earlier disciples who shared the faith with you.”

Noting that Pope Francis’s papal prayer intention for the month of July is that Catholics place the celebration of the Eucharist at the heart of their everyday life, Cardinal Gregory said, “How wonderful is this that the Holy Father’s prayer is for us to place the Eucharist at the very center of our lives.”

“Jesus came to show us how to love as He loves – perfectly,” the cardinal said. “The Eucharist at the center of our lives transforms us to demonstrate His love and share the Gospel in every one of our encounters with our brothers and sisters.”  

He also reminded congress participants of next year’s Eucharistic Revival, telling them that they were all invited to attend.

The U.S. bishops in 2022 called for a three-year Eucharistic Revival that would place emphasis on and foster renewed devotion to the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament. This revival began in June 2022 on the Feast of Corpus Christi and will conclude in July 2024 with a five-day National Eucharistic Congress to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana.  

“The Eucharistic celebration is an encounter with the Lord that brings us together as one around His table in communion with one another for the purpose of working together until He comes again in glory,” Cardinal Gregory said. “With renewed reverence for the gift of the Eucharist, may God continue to guide us on our path to unity – to be one as a family of faith in Him.”

Prior to the Cardinal Gregory’s keynote address, Cardinal-designate Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, addressed participants.

Noting the “rich Catholic history that continues to be written in Africa,”  Cardinal-designate Pierre told those at the African National Eucharistic Congress that “your presence in the United States has become an important part of this country‘s religious history.”

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