PALM BEACH GARDENS | Continuing the initiatives tied to the National Eucharistic Revival, the Diocese of Palm Beach’s Office of Hispanic Ministry will begin a new round of quarterly Eucharistic holy hours in August that will continue until June 2024.
Parishes in each of the four diocesan deaneries are scheduled to host multilingual holy hours on Thursdays at 7 p.m., with the last of the events at the diocesan cathedral. The days and locations are:
• Aug. 10, St. Bernadette Church, 350 N.W. California Blvd., Port St. Lucie (North Deanery).
• Nov. 9, St. Joan of Arc Church, 370 S.W. Third St., Boca Raton (South Deanery).
• Feb. 8, 2024, St. Luke Church, 2892 S. Congress Ave., Palm Springs (Central Deanery).
• April 11, 2024, St. Peter Church, 1701 Indian Creek Parkway, Jupiter (Cathedral Deanery).
• June 6, 2024, Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, 9993 N. Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens.
The series is part of an effort by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to initiate a National Eucharistic Revival “to restore understanding and devotion to this great mystery here in the United States by helping us renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,” according to the conference.
The diocesan phase of the revival was from June 2022 to June 11, 2023, the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). During the revival’s parish phase, from June 2023 until July 17, 2024, parishes are urged to initiate grassroots efforts inspired by the four pillars of the revival: reinvigorated worship, personal encounters with the Eucharistic Lord, robust formation and sending missionaries to invite lapsed Catholics to return home.
A 10th National Eucharistic Congress is set for July 17-21, 2024, in Indianapolis. Thousands are planning to participate in pilgrimages throughout the United States, encountering Jesus on their way toward that historic meeting.
From that milestone event until Pentecost 2025 will be a year of mission, with Catholics sent out into the world to spread the revival movement, accompanying those in need or at the margins and giving them the good news of Jesus’ Real Presence.
A central belief of the Catholic Church is that, in the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood, Jesus becomes present during the Mass. “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1377).
Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito has written extensively about the need to revive devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, often quoting Pope Francis. In his “Living the Truth in Love” column for June 17, 2022, at the revival’s beginning, the bishop recounted the brave act of a French priest, chaplain to the Paris fire department, who entered the flame-engulfed Cathedral of Notre Dame in 2019 to save the Eucharist.
“The chaplain’s courageous and successful efforts to save the Blessed Sacrament during the raging fire reminds us of what is the center of our faith, in the Lord’s giving of Himself to us in a manner in which He took our humanity to Himself and left us the gift of His Body and Blood to be eaten and adored in the Eucharist, so that we may share in His divinity,” Bishop Barbarito wrote.
In his most recent column (July 14 e-edition), the bishop wrote about a June 19 meeting between Pope Francis and members of a U.S. committee preparing for the National Eucharistic Congress. The pope spoke of his hope that more Catholics will be inspired to “discover a new sense of wonder in awe at the Lord’s great gift of Himself and to spend time with Him in the celebration of the holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.”
“The more we take time in the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, the more we are reminded of His love and the very purpose of our lives,” Bishop Barbarito said.
To read the bishop’s “Living the Truth in Love” columns, visit www.diocesepb.org/about-us/bishop/bishop-barbarito-columns.html. To learn more about the National Eucharistic Revival, go to www.eucharisticrevival.org.
