Why a Eucharistic Revival?
The world needs Our Savior, especially right now, but the Church is wounded and we sometimes struggle to respond to the needs of our time. We have wandered from the source and summit of our faith, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Moreover, people are hurting and in need of hope. Consider the following:
• 69 percent of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist (Pew Research Center, 2019);
• There are 10,776 less priests since 2000 in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2022);
• More than 12 million individuals shared that they have had serious thoughts of suicide during the last year in the U.S. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022).
The National Eucharistic Revival (2022-24) is a call back to the heart of the faith so that we can be vessels of Christ in our families, communities, and parishes.
This Eucharistic movement is national in scale but local in reach. Each of us can close our eyes and picture that loved one — the one who has walked away from the faith or may have never known the Lord. The Revival exists to equip YOU to reach that person. It seeks to make passionate disciples of everyday Catholics in the pews who know the love and refuge that exists in the Holy Eucharist.
What can I do?
As Catholics, we must first encounter the Eucharistic Lord and be equipped so that we can in turn witness and invite individuals to the same Eucharistic Lord.
With this in mind, the Diocese of Fall River will be providing opportunities for individuals to be formed and equipped, including in-person, virtual, and asynchronous opportunities. Ultimately, it will only be by the help of God and through a movement of Catholics who are healed, converted, formed, and unified that the Church can be renewed.
The first of these opportunities will take place virtually on Wednesday, November 30 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, and will feature Sister Alicia Torres, F.E. Sister Alicia is a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) National Eucharistic Revival Executive Board. As such, she is part of the national team aiding the bishops to plan and coordinate the revival.
A member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago, Sister Alicia studied theology at Loyola University Chicago (BA), earned a Master of Divinity degree at Mundelein Seminary, and received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University in River Forest. In addition to her work with her order, she competed in and won the Food Network’s Chopped in 2015 and has contributed articles to several Catholic online and print media outlets.
Sister Alicia will speak to the current state of Eucharistic belief and practice, what they have found from recent studies, and how we can use this time of Revival to make the Church stronger.
The virtual talk is free and open to the public. Individuals can register by visiting: https://bit.ly/ReviveDFR
To learn more about the National Revival, individuals can visit: https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/
