About 100 members of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, including priests, deacons, brothers, Servants of the Blessed Sacrament and Associates of the Blessed Sacrament, gathered for the Eucharistic Congress of the Eymardian Family to celebrate the American bishops’ Eucharistic Revival. St. Paschal Baylon Parish in Highland Heights -- where the congregation’s United States branch is located – hosted the congress the weekend of Aug. 4-6.
Father John Thomas Lane, St. Paschal pastor and provincial superior for the Province of St. Ann, which is based on St. Paschal’s parish campus, welcomed members to the vigil Mass on Aug. 5 for the feast of the Transfiguration. He said congregation members from several states including Ohio, Texas, Florida and New York, where the order staffs parishes, and several countries including the Philippines, Uganda, Sri Lanka and India attended the congress.
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There were five workshops focusing on aspects of the Eucharist such as the Eucharist as paschal mystery, the writings of St. Peter Julian Eymard (congregational founder) on the Real Presence, Holy Communion and the worship of Eucharist outside of Mass, engaging youth in the Eucharist and ongoing formation in Eucharistic spirituality for associates. After Mass on Aug. 5, the group attended a banquet at a nearby hotel.
Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost, a member of the diocesan Eucharistic Revival team, was the principal celebrant for the Aug. 5 liturgy. He asked the congregation to think about the Gospel and ponder who was transfigured.
“It might seem like a dumb question,” he said, noting Jesus was born fully human and fully divine. “The glory of his divinity always shone forth,” he said, again asking the faithful to consider who was truly transfigured in the Gospel.
“Some say the disciples because they say Jesus in a whole new way,” he said, noting Peter offered to set up three tents for Jesus, Elijah and Moses so they could stay and bask in the wonder of this encounter. “They (the disciples) were not just observers of the transfiguration, they were participants,” he said, explaining a metamorphosis took place. “There was a change within them and they will never be the same.”
The bishop said it was a providential grace that the group gathered that day – the feast of the Transfiguration -- for the congress in the midst of the National Eucharistic Revival.
“This is our mountain,” he said, pointing to the altar. “Jesus invites us each week to participate in the sacrificial glory of the Lord which is revealed to us as the word is proclaimed and the sacrament celebrated on our mountain, the altar. When we gather, we don’t think like the apostles who wanted to stay on the mountain. We may fail to realize the transfiguration, that we walk out different than when we came in,” the bishop said.
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“We come with the expectation that we will encounter the presence of the living God and find him somewhere in the midst. God will reveal himself to us as individuals and as a community and he will effect a transfiguration – a change – in us,” he said, adding we may not realize the change, but we walk out of the liturgy with God in our lives and we know he cares for us.
“We don’t hear a voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son.’ Instead, Christ speaks to us through the priest who says, ‘This is my body, given up for you. This is my blood, poured out for you.’ And then the encounter occurs and we are transfigured. God enters the tents – the tabernacles in our hearts – and we carry him out into our lives,” Bishop Woost said. “All we need to do is listen for him.”
The bishop said Christ invited us to encounter him anew, to be transfigured.
“So who was transfigured?” he asked again. “We are. Christ comes to us. Listen to him. Allow him to transfigure our hearts and minds. He has called us to this mountaintop.”