52nd International Eucharistic Congress - 2021-09-09 - Catechesis & Testimony

[Music] welcome back to ewtn's ongoing coverage of the 52nd international eucharistic congress from here in budapest we now go to the catechetical session for today the catechist the instructor the teacher is going to be cardinal john o'neacon the archbishop emeritus of abuja in nigeria before i go to the text just two minutes to tell you who i am with all my excuses to the translators you have been told already i am john cardinal on aircon cardinal archbishop emeritus of abuja the capital of nigeria born 77 78 years ago 1944 i became a priest in 1969 and i was attending the bishop january 1983. actually i was ordained at the age of 38 and i have been a bishop for 38 years so i'm midway between pope benedict made me a cardinal in 2011. i'm from nigeria i wish i had time to speak about nigeria and about what god is doing in our midst but that is not my task for this morning just to let you know though that nigeria is a country a big country where at least 200 million in population i hear that i hear that this country is only about 10 million or so these 200 million are split almost 50 50 between christians and muslims and in that case we are unique in the world a country where christians and muslims are of equal value equal strength equal power and we look at each other in the face without fear the catholics are about 20 percent but that means we're about 40 million of us in nigeria our relations with muslims is challenging exciting sometimes very complex all i have to say is that while there are some muslims who are bent on making every nigerian muslim by all means including violence there are also many christians who have decided they will be christians by all means i will try and make every nigerian a christian by all means except powerless so the the stage is set we are not afraid we have hope because the lord jesus is ringing on the throne after this brief reintroduction i can go to my text and i will just follow my text because i don't have the luxury of rambling the word eucharist means thanksgiving we will do well to start on the note of giving thanks to god almighty for making this congress in budapest possible as you all know it was supposed to have been held last year but covered 19 has pushed it to this year in everything even in kovid 19 we must thank god for those who have ears to hear god certainly has been talking to us through this pandemic the most important message is that we all belong together the call the eucharistic message is the love of god for all humanity from this point of view therefore there is an eminently eucharistic component to the global experience of kovid 19. we pray that god will liberate us from the pandemic without too much delay while we pray for the souls of the many thousands maybe millions who have died may their souls rest in peace still on the note of thanksgiving all of us who are here should thank god that we have been able to be here for this celebration we cannot forget that there are many people who would have wanted to be here and have been kept away for various reasons including the restrictions on traveling that are still operating in many places as a result of pandemic not to talk of the restrictions of pocket money those of us who are here therefore must thank god because he has called us here to pray for our world with all the problems that the human family is facing today most of them man-made but also sometimes natural whatever the cause of these problems we can take the opportunity of the eucharistic congress to pray to god to have mercy on his people finally on a more personal note i really want to thank god and the organizers of this great occasion especially our friend my friend the chief host the local ordinary of austral budapest cardinal eddie that i have yet again another opportunity not only to be present at an international eucharistic congress but also to have the unknown of being asked to conduct these catechesis i still remember is similar or not given to me in the last international eucharistic congress in cebu 2016 in the philippines and i pray that the holy spirit will guide us what is my task many other people have been given the honor of conducting catechesis at this congress on various topics about the mystery of the holy eucharist my own task is to share some reflections with you on a particular dimension of the doctrine of the holy eucharist according to the theme assigned to me and this theme is the eucharist summit of our christian life and source of all our hope both parts of the team are interconnected i will draw my reflection from some of the most recent teachings of the church in particular i will make good use of three main sources of contemporary church doctrine first the compilation of the documents of the second vatican council which took place in 1962-65 about 60 years ago many people here were not born when vatican 2 ended i i went to rome when vatican 2 was about to end in 1965 as a young 21 year old seminarian second is the catechism of the catholic church published in 1992 and the third and the third is the posinable apostolic exaltation sacramentum caritas of pope benedict the 16th published in 2007 as the fruit of the synod of bishops on the holy eucharist that was celebrated in the year 2005. these documents have put together summarized very adequately and updated the ever constant main outlines of the doctrine of the church on the holy eucharist and to put my reflections in order i have borrowed the broad outlines of the apostolic exaltation sacramento mundi no sacramentum caritatis here the holy eucharist is treated under three dimensions namely the eucharist as a mystery to believe the eucharist as a mystery to celebrate and the eucharist as a mystery to live by from this three-dimensional approach i will try to draw out a summary of the teachings that relate to the two points assigned to me there is another triple dimension that i will keep in mind during this discussion namely the eucharist as a real presence the eucharist are sacrificed and eukaryotes as communion this will be integrated into our reflection along with already mentioned triple dimension brothers and sisters this is a catechesis by which i mean i understand a teaching an instruction session about the doctrine of the church it is not a theological symposium like the one we just finished in ostegom last week therefore my language will be largely simple and conversational like i normally speak with my people in abuja i will be talking about things that we all already know this congress is an opportunity to remind us of what the church has been teaching us from the very beginning and with the holy spirit we the lord has sent to us to teach us all things open our hearts to receive the whole truth about the love of god in the holy eucharist amen the eucharist the mystery of faith after consecration we announced the mystery of faith with the appropriate responses in its origin the word sacrament has very close link with the concept of mystery thus the eucharist as a sacrament is a mystery of faith it is a sacrament by excellence the sacrament of all sacraments the mystery of all mysteries when we speak of the sacrament of the eucharist as a mystery we are stressing the fact that in this sacrament we see god working in our human existence this work of god is what the early church called mystery mysterium modern day usage of the word mystery tends to stress the meaning of mystery as something hidden and not understandable but sacramental mystery even though there is an element of what we cannot understand that is the mysterious more importantly however we stress the fact that in the eucharist the action of god goes beyond our comprehension his ways are not our ways we have to keep this in mind in all that we shall be saying in this conversation permit me to open this conversation with a very beautiful text from 2nd vatican council sacramentum sacrosanctum concilium number 47. which gives us a very concise and comprehensive description of the doctrine of the church on the holy eucharist this was written 60 years ago but it is still very valid today and i quote at the last supper on the night he was betrayed our savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood this he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again and so to entrust to his beloved spouse the church a memorial of his death and resurrection a sacrament of love a sign of unity a bond of charity a pascal banquet in which christ is consumed the mind is filled with grace and a pledge of future glory is given to us a very powerful statement i can spend the rest of this lecture just just talking about this text but i'm not going to do so go now to the three point i decided to make first the eucharist as a mystery to believe first and foremost the eucharist is an object of our faith we can only get to know anything about the sacrament if we are ready to submit our mind our will and our heart to whatever the revelation of god has made known to us about his action of love for us in this sacrament a significant aspect of this mystery to believe is the fact that in the eucharist we have the real presence of god in our midst of course god is always present with us every time and everywhere jesus christ the son of god made man is a physical visible historical presence of god in our world and this is the basis of the real presence of god in christ in the holy eucharist oh thank you thank you we are also reminded of at least three levels of the real presence of god in the holy eucharist there is a presence of god in the holy eucharist in the church because jesus is the mystical body of christ the church there is the presence of god in the holy eucharist in the person of the priest who acts in persona christi and finally the more technical sense we speak of the real presence of jesus in the eucharistic material elements of bread and wine and this is the aspect of the real presence that deserves to be particularly highlighted in this gathering it all started at the last supper when jesus took bread and broke it and gave to his disciples saying this is my body he did not say this is a symbol of my body he said this is my body mark 26 26 he did the same when he took the chalice filled with wine and said this is my blood the church has always derived from this powerful statement of jesus christ the doctrine that in the bread and wine that has been consecrated during the holy mass jesus christ is fully present in these material elements already the early church jesus christ once stated unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you will not have life in you this statement was found completely impossible to grasp by his audience and by many people even today but he further stated for emphasis and for clarity my flesh is food indeed and my blood is indeed drink john 6 51 a profound doctrine difficult to accept the apostles must have been reminded of these difficult words of jesus when at the last supper he said the words to which we have just repeated namely this is my body this is my blood it is significant that jesus celebrate this unusual ritual in the context of the pascal meal of the jewish faith he referred to a new and eternal covenant which replaced the old testament covenant that was celebrated during the passover we note that the passover meal involved eating the flesh of a lamb that had been sacrificed for the purpose the new covenant was being established in the body and blood of jesus the son of god and not in the flesh and blood of an animal the letter to the hebrews has a lot to say about this infinitely unequal comparison of how much more excellent the body and blood of christ is than the sacrifices of the old testament which were done with animals bulls and goods jesus also told his apostles do this in memory of me by that statement and that command jesus gave his apostles the spiritual power to do exactly what he had done this ritual brings about the real presence of jesus in the bread and wine that is consecrated on the altar simply by repeating the word of jesus this is my body this is my blood the early church took this matter very seriously the eucharistic ritual had different names but the most common was the breaking of bread as we read in many places in the acts of the apostles because jesus is truly present in the eucharistic elements it is not only to be eaten but also to be adored jesus is eminently present during the celebration of the holy eucharist during the mass but the real presence of jesus does not leave the eucharistic elements after mass for as long as the materials of the elements are there so also is the whole body and blood of christ this is a theological basis for the adoration of the blessed sacrament a holy practice with which we are all very familiar it is also the reason why we treat the sacred species with great devotion great care and great attention this is the catholic faith given to us by the grace of god who has freely given this faith as a gift to us we know that there are some christians who do not share the full faith in the real presence of jesus in the holy eucharist even though many take seriously the memorial celebration of the last supper it is also the doctrine of the church that only a validly ordained priest can consecrate the holy eucharist because only a validly ordained priest can act act in the person of christ in persona christi this means that ministers of other christian denominations whose priestly ordination validity is not acknowledged by our church cannot validly concentrate the holy eucharist even if they go correct go correctly through all the emotions and the rituals we also know that there are many christians of other dominations who individually have the faith in the real presence of jesus in the holy eucharist but this is more than a matter of your individual personal conviction it must be the faith of the church some have actually decided to live where they are and come home and become catholics just because of this and they are always welcome in this area we share the same faith with our orthodox brothers because they have retained the old doctrines of the church from the early fathers and maintained a valid priesthood from the beginning until now however unfortunately disagreements in the course of history between the catholic church and the orthodox church for reasons that is not always holy for a long time negatively affected our sharing in holy communion we thank god that there has been a recent approachment between our two sister churches as a result of the final lifting of the historic mutual excommunication between the pope and the patriarch can you imagine it sounds to be close to us today but it took place they mutually excommunicated one another with terrible consequences that has lasted centuries the approachment is thanks to the meeting between paul the sixth and the ecumenical patriarch atenagoras in 1965 almost 60 years ago in jerusalem from then on we thank god we are now able to come up to celebrate and share the holy eucharist under certain conditions taking advantage of the faith that we share in the real presence of the lord jesus in the holy eucharist but on this point it should be said that i'm getting mixed up let me leave it that way i really wanted to say that since 1965 by now we should have finished this journey into a communion between the catholic church and the orthodox church ought to have taken place we should continue to pray favorably to the holy spirit to remove whatever obstacles are still on the way the real presence of jesus in the eucharist has implications not only for us who believe it and celebrate it what becomes the body and blood of christ are fruits of the earth and work of human hands in some way the entire creation is elevated by the fact that these created objects placed on the altar by the invocation of the holy spirit are turned into the body and blood of christ catholic doctrine has a technical word for this process of change from ordinary bread and wine to the body of christ and the blood of christ the council of trent use the word trans-substantiation this expression this expresses the fact that the substance of the bread has become the substance of the body of christ just as the substance of the wine turns into the substance of the blood of christ we should note that the presence of christ is the presence of the whole jesus human and divine and is fully present in each of the two species of bread and wine in nigeria we will say at this stage devil you are a liar you can't stop me from preaching my catechesis now we come to the second point mystery to celebrate we are we are all familiar with the celebration of the holy eucharist in the holy mass this has practically become the distinguishing act of our catholic worship it is the summit and the apex of our liturgy as it was all clearly taught in the second vatican council on the church lumen jesus 11. this celebration again goes back to the last supper when jesus shed bread and wine with his disciples he declared that the bread and wine had become his body and his blood and gave them the command do this in memory of me the celebration of the last supper itself as we have noted earlier is in the context of the pascal meal of the israelite faith the pascal meal that was a self commemoration of what we read about in the book of exodus at the liberation of the people of israel from the slavery of egypt they had a meal of a lamp that was slaughtered and shared in the family this became an annual celebration in remembrance of the wonderful deeds of the almighty god the god of israel passing over the people of israel during the plague that destroyed the first born of the egyptians the passover festival was the most important religious celebration of ancient israel at the last supper jesus moved from the passover meal of the old testament to the eucharist of the new and eternal covenant from the paschal lamb to the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world there is thus a movement from the old covenant established among sinai to the new testament in the blood of christ on mount calvary we also know that the eucharistic table of the last supper was a preparation for what happened later on the cross of calvary this is why the eucharist is not only a meal but also the memorial of the sacrifice of christ that far outweighs the sacrifice of the lamb of the old testament the celebration of the eucharist therefore brings us to the paschal mystery the mystery of the passion death and resurrection of christ for our redemption with the forgiveness of our sins saint paul was very clear about this in his episode to the corinthians when speaking about the eucharist as often as we celebrate the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the blood of christ we are celebrating the redemptive act of christ until he comes again the church takes very seriously the actual celebration of the mystery of the eucharist it is the apex of the liturgical worship of the church the form of the core of the celebration has remained the same from the beginning everywhere down through the ages until now it is the same celebration in its major elements even though with the passage of time and with the expansion of the christian community to different cultures it has taken different forms we note the introductory greeting of our dear cardinal header at the beginning of the beautiful byzantine mice that we all many of us participated in yesterday in the cathedral of saint stephen thus although we now have the celebration of the eucharist according to a variety of rights nevertheless the core of the eucharist remains the same by the same token even today while maintaining the core of the eucharistic celebration the church encourages the adaptation of the celebration according to the diversities of cultures and time thus the eucharistic celebration has become a very important object of the much talked about in culturation of the liturgy especially in churches like our own in the missions but we should not forget that whatever we do within culturation it should not be simply or primarily to promote our culture even though this is also very important rather the primary objective of inculturation is to ensure that the core of the message and the meaning of the eucharist can be brought home more clearly to the people of different cultures and times the first visible aspect of the incorporation of the liturgy was precisely the language of the liturgy catholics of my generation will still remember the change from mass in latin yes latin even in nigeria to mass in the vernacular and the great impact it made because people were able to understand the liturgy better when it was celebrated in their own language the celebration of the eucharist is a re-enactment of what jesus carried out at the last supper when we gather around the table of the eucharistic celebration it is jesus that is celebrating the eucharist the priest is a human minister who celebrates in the person of christ provided his validly ordained and properly commissioned to do so but beyond the priests the entire congregation also joins in celebrating the eucharist since the eucharist is celebrated by the whole christ both the head and in mem and his members this is why second vatican council insists on the active participation of all those who are present at mass we do not go to mass to watch a show as spectators we go to mass to participate in a sacred action in which the eucharistic meal of jesus at the last supper is reenacted fully and completely there are of course many kinds of celebrations of the eucharist some are very simple while others can be quite elaborate like the one we saw yesterday some are celebrated with a few people while others are with large crowds like which i have very soon here we have also cases of special locations like the for example during eucharistic congress or other similar occasions whatever the situation the eucharist is always the same none is greater than the other similarly it doesn't matter who is a minister whether he is a pope a bishop or a newly ordained priest it is jesus that is celebrated we should therefore beware of allowing any kind of discrimination among priests as ministers of the eucharist in some parts of the world like where i come from we once in a while hear about some priests who claim or are claimed to have special powers and whose holy mass is considered more powerful than others not without some pecuniary implications for the devout but gullible faithful all of this has nothing to do with our catholic faith every holy mass has infinite value before god this is why indeed whoever is saying mass must observe the same ritual especially in its core elements of the eucharistic prayer the catholic liturgy has no room for extravagant theatricals and creative performance often bothering on vulgar entertainment not worthy of christian worship please note that when we say when we can celebrate when it comes to the very core of the eucharist the time for the consecration all of us remove our supertool even the pope removes his success and you just see priests celebrate celebrating at that point we are all just priests for me that gesture is very important and the people of god should not miss it when the reverend when the bishop removes his supremacy during mass is not just first as if it is part of this it has a meaning the celebration of the holy eucharist is in two parts the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the sacrament both of which form one single liturgical celebration the verbum the vatican document on the revelation stresses the unity of both parts it teaches that the eucharistic altar is one table one table of the word of god and the body of christ both of which are spiritual nourishment for the faithful who participate at the eucharistic celebration day verbum 21 the reading of the scripture therefore during eucharistic celebration is already the presence of god himself in his saving world feeding us for life eternal finally the third point eucharist the mystery to live by in the holy eucharist we have an intimate union with jesus christ the son of god and the father of god the father through the action of the holy spirit in other words we have an intimate tuner with the holy trinity through the holy eucharist god not only comes to us but god lives in us and we in him that is why saint paul was able to declare i now live not i but christ who lives in me galatians 2 20. if through the holy eucharist we attend this deep intimate union with christ then it follows that whatever we do we do it in the name of the lord jesus christ the eucharist is thus the summit of our christian life we are in god not only as individuals but also as community god is in the community and the community is with god this intimate union between us and god is affected especially by holy communion the reception of the body and blood of jesus under the forms of bread and wine normally and i speak normally the reception of holy communion is essential for full participation in the liturgy of the holy eucharist emphasis on fool where we participate in the holy eucharist we should also receive the holy communion not to do so would be like attending a banquet without eating or drinking anything however however this is not without condition which we should always know very well it is usually said that we go to communion if we are in a state of grace but before that we must also be a full member of the catholic church baptized normally also confirmed saint paul already warned us not to eat and drink the eucharist unworthily because to do so would be to eat damnation onto ourselves that warning should be taken very seriously that is why we begin the celebration of mass with a penitential right in which we are given some little time to examine our conscience and then pray endlessly for forgiveness of our sins similarly at the actual time of receiving communion the sacred host is shown to us with the words behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the saints of the world blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb so this announcement we reply oh god i am not worthy that you should enter into my roof but only say the word and i shall be healed from this we can say first and foremost that strictly speaking nobody is worthy to receive the holy communion we are all sinners before god that is why when at the beginning of mass we recite the conflict here i confess to almighty god we must do it sincerely it is not just a formality so also when we say before communion oh lord i am not worthy we must say it sincerely because we are really not worthy saint john told us if we say we have no sin we are lying and deceiving ourselves rather we should thank god for admitting us into you know with himself making us worthy to celebrate the eucharist with him through his mercy it is part of catholic doctrine that actually the holy eucharist is also medicinal as it cleanses us of venial sins and also protects us against serious mortal sins having said that it is still the doctrine of the church that anyone who knows himself or herself to be in a state of serious sin which distances him from the love of god should not move forward to receive holy communion simply because everybody is going he must first avail himself of the sacrament of reconciliation with god through confession and i can we congratulate the organizers of this meet of this congress who are always reminding us of the possibilities for confession and we thank the reverend fathers who also make themselves available for confession the doctrine of the church on this has not changed but unfortunately what we see is a general stream of people going for communion at mass and it seems that they don't really bother whether they're in the right spiritual state to receive it it is the duty of pastors to remind the faithful about this without introducing unnecessary exaggerations in the matter it is also the duty of pastors to make access to confession easily available for the faithful it is true that only god knows who is in a state of sin and who is in a state of grace however since the reception of holy communion is also an external act of the church it is within the competence of the church to put down laws and rules to regulate who because of their external disposition should not be admitted to the holy eucharist this is why we have situations where people are simply told don't come for communion until you have changed your status such as admonition is best done in the general catechesis of the faithful so that those who know themselves to be in irregular situation will regulate their behavior without waiting to be publicly pulled out of the communion rails in our place where i come from whenever we have a big gathering like this when non-catholics and non-christians are there before communion we go and make announcements if you are not a catholic please don't come and receive communion the the value the blessings of the holy mass is for all of us and anybody who will get that blessing but for the holy communion it is reserved for only catholics who are prepared themselves for it we make that announcement as politely as we can without without causing any problem with anybody the most common instance of irregularity is maritals with regard to marriage status considered by church law as a regular and therefore should keep away from holy communion are for example those who are living together in open or even secret concubinage without the sacrament of matrimony and those who have married divorced and remarried without going through the process of canonical annulments all such people even though they may feel in their heart of hearts that they are at peace with god are not supposed to come for communion the apostolic exaltation of pope francis amoris letizia has very wonderful things to say about such circumstances while recognizing the fact that only god judges the heart he still insists that there are some objective situations over which the church can and must pass judgment and make rules and regulations otherwise it will mean that anybody who wants can come forward and receive holy communion this will be utter disorder that cannot be allowed in the church of god corinthians 1 14 32-33 but we should realize that it is not only matters of irregular marriage that can make a catholic not fit to receive communion anybody who is in a stable immoral way of life should decide to keep away until he or she can change their situation here we can start as example those who are making a living by immoral means for as long as they are making a living in this way they must keep away from communion until they have the grace to change their way of life a recent situation that has generated a lot of discussion has to do with the responsibility of catholic politicians to uphold the laws of the church in their political choices and decisions especially with regard to serious sin of abortion unfortunately serious though the sin of abortion is it has become generally legalized and considered as normal in many places especially in the so-called developed nations many of which also claim to be christians even catholic but nevertheless the position of the catholic church resolutely insisting that abortion is the killing of innocent unborn children continues to hold any catholic who commits abortion or who cooperates in the committing of abortion should know that he has committed murder and should keep away from holy communion unless and until he has gone for confession it's not so difficult to get back to god even after doing such a thing the problem is when people are proud of what they have done that is what the moral law says but like everything moral there's always the area of personal responsibility sometimes people have found themselves in a situation of abortion in a way that it may not be their fault in fact they can even be victims of circumstances god will judge that while the church will take note of such circumstances we cannot keep making exceptions for the general moral law more delicate and problematic is whether a catholic politician must always necessarily vote against any law that is permitting abortion or immoral action the important issue here is that very often once it comes into the arena of party politics it is necessary that the church be careful not to drag the holy eucharist into political wrangling less more damage is done than we try to avoid the basic problem is that while we hold strongly to our moral principles we live in a world where there are others who do not share those principles provided nobody forces us to go against our moral principles we may at times be forced to take note of the fact that others see things differently in these matters our experience in a country like nigeria where we live with muslims who are insisting on the sharia law has taught us the useful lesson on how not to impose the religious laws of a faith community in a multi-religious nation as a bishop i've tried my best to encourage my catholic politicians to always stand out clearly and oppose any law that is against the lord of god because it cannot be for the good of the people if it's against the law of god the lord of god according to catholic doctrine is valid for everybody not only for catholics saint paul has made clear reference to this when he speaks of the law of god in the heart of every person it is the duty of the catholic politician to do his best to uphold good moral principles even in the public domain if for political reasons he is unable to stop an immoral law he should at least be on record as having opposed it there is a debate going on in some countries whether a politician who for political reasons votes for an immoral law should be stopped from holy communion if voting for an immoral law even in a secular state i'm also becoming an accomplice to the crime then we will be dealing with a moral decision that is incompatible with receiving holy communion but from a pastoral point of view it is not so clear whether if such a person actually presents himself at the altar rails for communion we should publicly refuse to give him communion thereby causing a major uproar and scandal both senator gustin and saint thomas aquinas propose caution the proposed caution caution in handling such cases caution does not does not touch the principles i believe that it should also be said that a catholic politician who disagrees publicly with his church on a moral issue should do well to avoid deliberately provoking controversy around the holy eucharist he has the duty to abide by the rules of the church on matters of church rules and regulations therefore the bottom line is this we should check ourselves before we go for communion otherwise instead of receiving jesus in our house we may eat damnation unto ourselves this has to be preached in season and out of season whatever our condition there is always a way back to repentance this in fact is one of the great merits of the sacrament of the holy eucharist when a catholic is anxious to be a regular communicant he will try his best to put himself in a situation where he can worthily and properly receive it it does not mean that we will never go astray but it means that whenever we go astray we will find our way back as soon as possible through the sacrament of reconciliation in confession i'm seeing that my time is going two minutes more we have this question of communion communal means we go together we eat we take the same bread we take the same cup that means we are sharing the heavenly bread if we can share the beverly bread surely we should be ready to share the material earthly bread so that our receiving communion really is a challenge for us to be trusted in feeding the hungry in our midst taking of communion and the pointers of it in our life we cannot forget that those of us who are actually receiving holy communion compared to the population of humanity we are still a very small minority we should therefore not forget to think of the following categories of people who cannot receive communion for various reasons the catholics who can receive communion because there are no priests to celebrate the eucharist remote villages we need them regularly the catholics who cannot receive communion because of the reasons we have already mentioned read a more respected sea of pope francis and we have very useful education there sometimes there are many catholics who take the trouble to go to mass but are not too interested in receiving communion we should tell them put yourself in good order now we must also think of those who just cannot receive communion because they are not christians or even if they are christians they are not catholics people and here they are talking of billions of people in the world who are not christians who simply have no idea of eucharist and are not interested in it i believe that i believe that we should not forget these people when we walk up to the altar and receive the great gift of the holy eucharist we must know that these demands that we pray for all men and women after all the blood of christ was shared for us and we are told for many even some translation says for all therefore our participation in the holy eucharist must make us constantly think about the whole world and for everybody it is the source of our hope it is the summit of our faith my time has come i see red zero zero zero on the monitor which means my time is up i want to thank you very much for your patience and may god continue to bless us in the holy eucharist amen [Applause] that was cardinal john o'neil the archbishop emeritus of abuja in nigeria with his catechesis today father this is a uh a very deep this is one of the most detailed explications and for the reiterations of church teaching on the eucharist that we have seen so far here in this uh congress i am um really edified edified comes from the word to be built up this is it's something that i just found myself really being drawn into his teaching um he really focused his teaching on um benedict the 16th uh post-inaudible apostolic exhortation on the holy eucharist back we remember back in 2005 we had the year of the whole eucharist the bishops and he had a synonym and that was when john paul ii died during that year so benedict the 16th became pope during that year and so he wrote his his post-traumatic apostolic exhortation on this and he really enumerated in his talk the cardinal on some very specific points that popenic the 16th uh conveyed and just real quick mystery to be believed mystery to be celebrated and the mystery to be lived by right we go to uh the documents of the second vatican council we also went to the documents view document of the catechism of the catholic church but really that the core of this was sacramento tapas that placed the model apostolic exhortation which was itself the fruits of the synod of bishops on the eucharist in many ways anticipating so many of the ongoing challenge that we have today and through hit on almost all of them this is really i would personally say it's kind of a pastel letter right it's more than um a catechesis it's really uh as a cardinal a cardinal has the ability to do that even a bishop a bishop is an official teacher of the catholic church and even more so a cardinal to have so many cardinals here expanding upon this truth of the eucharist that's very significant um and i think that you can say that this is really a pastoral letter uh to the world even from a cardinal from a prince of the church that's right one of the three roles to teach government and sanctify and certainly today's view is here uh in his role as a teacher and this summation of church teaching one of the things that jumped out to me the most was the mystery to believe how he really explains perfectly the real presence of the eucharist transsubstantiation so he he used all of the the key theological terms but then put it again the two it's putting it in a way that anyone can understand putting in a way that very like he said at the very beginning of the talk he wanted to present the eucharist very clearly very concisely but also in a way that is understandable he said like i do to my people back home that's right uh he was very you can tell he's he's he's got a very approachable personality about him what i really one of the things that i came away with is that um when you talked about the priesthood uh he made a point that jesus christ is the eternal high priest he is the first one who celebrated the eucharist so in a sense in a reality every priest participates in the priesthood of christ so in every eucharist that's celebrated it's jesus christ himself that's celebrating the eucharist the priest is celebrating in the person of christ so he's not separated from christ that we believe that christ the head is united against his mystical body the church and he made a very beautiful point that i hope some people um saw that he took off his zuccheno and he said that's that's a gesture that he takes really personally in that when the eucharistic liturgy is about to start a bishop takes off his zucchetto and places it down and bmc usually takes it away and that he's a priest first and foremost a bishop a cardinal the holy father the greatest thing that they do is to celebrate mass that's the greatest thing that a bishop does a priest does is to celebrate man to make christ's presence tangible on the altar the real presence even for the salvation of the world and even in just a practical sense of the removing of the zucchetta serves also that you're removing all possible distractions someone watching a cardinal celebrating mass you might notice the zuccheto the scarlet zakata and be distracted so again removing that has a practical value to it he also talked about enculturation which certainly in the last 50 60 years has become important absolutely important to historically acculturating the faith has been vital to the spread and growth of the faith we see that in paul's letters we see that in the work of xavier we see that even in the work of peter claver whose feast day is today but he made an interesting point about that he talks about that developing this for culture is important he says but the primary objective is to ensure that the core of the message and the meaning of the eucharist can be brought home more clearly to people of different cultures and times the first visible aspect of the enculturation of the liturgy is precisely who says the language of the liturgy we see in the history of the church missionaries traveling all throughout the world and the liturgy is what united people and the liturgy is what brought people into the faith and also not just a celebration of mass but also the sacraments in general teaching preaching and through missionaries preaching and teaching that is what brought people to baptism that's what brought people to the sacrament of penance that's with all people too being in full communion with the church it is the celebration of the liturgy bringing the liturgy uh to various cultures and civilizations and he's dedicated a pretty significant chunk of his presentation here to the worthiness to receive we should all um when we go to holy sacrifice of the mass the very first thing that we do he talked about is to say the computer i confess to all men to god and to you my brothers and sisters and to not do that as a mere formality but actually to do it um you know wholeheartedly and concretely to really ourselves uh really confessed to almighty god and to examine ourselves are we worthy to go forward to receive the holy eucharist that's right and he also went there yeah he talked about catholic politicians i thought it was a very balanced discussion but the admonition of what the church can do but also the obligation of catholic politicians of what they must do yeah they must hold fast to god's laws and to the law of the church that's right and that as he notes is an issue of concern for us today mentioned in a number of countries and this is uh a chronic problem now in europe and in particular in the united states where you do have controversies surrounding catholic politicians who are openly in descent from the future of the church and our bishops are addressing this now and they have been for years um very cautiously but i would say very intently as well and they're drafting a document now in the united states or eucharistic coherence on how we live our faith uh both not just in private but publicly as well people that are in public life uh do their lives conform to the law of god into the law of the church and if there is anything in their life in their public teaching in the way that they express even their public lives that's a problem it can be a problem especially in relation to human life that's right if somebody holds a view in relation to the destruction of human life in the womb as a catholic that's that's not right and that needs to be changed he actually really pointed to the fact that that person is called to conversion that person needs to change that's a hard that's a hard thing to hear possibly for people we need to change if we're in anything in our lives that is contrary to the gospel needs to change we are awaiting the testimony for today to be delivered by mary healey a american theologian professor at sacred heart seminary in detroit expert in scripture this is mary healey praise be jesus christ now and forever i am so honored to be here to be able to proclaim the mercies of the lord his mercies are new every morning so we are beginning a new day this morning and the lord has new mercies for us i am going to give only a short version of my testimony and then i'm going to do something different the organizers gave me permission i'm going to pray because i believe the lord jesus wants to touch his hearts this morning i believe the lord jesus wants to heal people this morning i believe he wants to set people free in new ways this morning so we are together going to ask him and invite him to do that a little bit about my testimony i grew up in a catholic family i was born in new york and we were practicing we might call sunday catholics so we were catholic for at least one hour every week but we didn't know the lord he didn't know that he could have a friendship with the lord i didn't have any personal experience of him when i was 12 years old my parents went on a retreat and there they encountered jesus and their lives turned upside down and they both my mother and father fell in love with jesus and it radically changed their lives and seeing that change radically touched me as a teenager but i didn't know how to pray i didn't know how to have a relationship with the lord i didn't know how to continue in my faith especially under all the pressures of life as a student in a university and so i began to drift away from the lord and i began to experience this emptiness in myself this feeling that was a tangible feeling that there was this empty hole within me and i felt that i was in a in a desert spiritually i felt far from god and i i didn't know how to find him i think there are so many people today maybe even some here who have a similar experience that you you don't know how to find god so that he would be present in a tangible way in your life and so because of this this feeling of alienation from god that i had in this hunger i decided i had to find a place where i could find god and i went to a university where i knew i could find him it was called franciscan university of steubenville in ohio in the united states and the whole campus was alive the holy spirit was present and active in the lives of almost all the students and the lord began to change me and to heal me and i went to something called a life in the spirit seminar and it's a seven week seminar to learn more about the holy spirit and to receive prayer for what is called baptism in the holy spirit what that means is not another sacrament but a coming alive of what we have already received in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation before jesus ascended into heaven he said to his disciples you will be baptized in the holy spirit and the word baptized was an ordinary word it was not yet a sacrament and it simply meant to immerse in water to plunge in water and so jesus said you will be plunged into immersed in the love of god and so i went to receive prayer for this grace to to be plunged into the holy spirit and when i was prayed over nothing actually happened at that moment i didn't have any mountaintop experience but over the next days and weeks and months i began to see that god was radically changing my life i came to know the holy spirit as a real person that i can speak with that i can call upon who is working in my life and i will share with you three experiences that happened after i was prayed for to receive baptism in the holy spirit first on our campus one night they had an all-night eucharistic adoration an all-night vigil and i decided oh i'm going to go to that i want to pray all night i've never done that i thought that that's great i want more of god i'm going to pray all night and so i i went to this vigil and i began to pray and i prayed very slowly and then i looked at my watch and then i prayed some more and i looked at my watch again and the time seemed to be passing so slowly i prayed a rosary i prayed a litany i prayed the liturgy of the hours and the time was passing so slowly and it was getting boring and i was getting tired and i finally thought this is too much for me i guess i'm not holy enough to pray all night i'm gonna go home so i walked out of the chapel but the moment i walked into the the cold night air i suddenly knew in a way i had never known before that jesus the lord who is in that monstrance is also in me his presence was so tangible and i knew that i am a living tabernacle that all of us are a living tabernacle of the lord that he's here and the emptiness that i had experienced before was gone and that presence of the lord that i felt then has never left me not that i always feel him tangibly but i know he is with me and i am a living tabernacle and the second thing that happened was i traveled with a group of students from the university to florida for our spring break now a lot of american students go to florida to the beaches for spring break and they go to drink and party and do all kinds of immoral things but our group went to evangelize we went to go out on the beach and talk to people about jesus and it was very scary i had never done anything like that and some people were very resistant and rejected our message but some people were so open and it was so beautiful to see people crying and opening their hearts to jesus as we proclaimed the gospel and one night we were in a church and we were singing and the song was with a refrain he is alive he is alive he is alive he is alive and as we sang that song suddenly i knew with a conviction in the very core of my being he is alive jesus christ is alive he's risen and that changes everything it's the greatest good news that the world has ever heard he is alive and that means that death is not the last word and i knew it in a way that nothing could ever take that conviction from me brothers and sisters if you do not yet have that deep conviction that he is alive the lord wants you to have it before you leave this place he wants you to have that conviction he is alive alleluia and the third thing the third thing that happened was that i went to live in a house with several other young women in a community we were seeking to grow in holiness together and at that time i had a certain image of myself i considered myself to be a very good person i considered myself to be friendly and easy to get along with generous kind intelligent and very humble that was my image of myself but as i lived with other women and we began to have some problems in our relationships i began to see things in myself that i had never wanted to see i began to see pride and jealousy and judgmentalism and a critical spirit toward other people and when i saw this my first reaction was oh okay i'm going to do better i'm going to grow in virtue i'm going to become more holy but the more i tried to do that the more i failed and the more i seemed incapable i was living what you might call white knuckle christianity christianity of striving christianity of striving to be a good person striving to be what god wants me to be and it was very frustrating and after a while of doing this i became very discouraged and i began to think maybe this is too much for me and i shared with a friend of mine how discouraged i felt and she said to me very simply mary god has you exactly where he wants you to be and suddenly i had a conviction in the depth of my heart an understanding i had not had before of my complete poverty my complete nothingness before the lord my complete inability to do anything that would make me worthy of his love and at the very same time i had this conviction of his unfathomable inexhaustible unconditional crazy love for me he loved me no matter what and it didn't depend on me from that moment my entire life turned upside down and it was no longer me mary in the driver's seat of my life holding the steering wheel it was jesus in the driver's seat of my life and it was my going along for the ride and my life since then has been an incredible adventure the life of every disciple who is following jesus wholeheartedly with complete surrender to him is an incredible adventure one more thing i want to share with you is what the lord has done in my life in the last seven years i am now a professor at a seminary i teach scripture in the seminary in detroit michigan usa and seven years ago i had a sabbatical at the seminary and a sabbatical is time extra time when you don't have to teach so you can research a particular area of interest and as i prayed about my sabbatical i felt the lord telling me i want you to study healing okay and i felt like the lord told me i want you to study not only what people write about healing what books say about it but i want you to see to watch what i am doing and so i took that sabbatical as time not only to study what scripture says about god's healing and what the fathers of the church say about healing and what the tradition of the church and the teaching of the church and the saints say about healing but i also spent time with those who have powerful healing ministries in the church and what i discovered changed my life because i began to see that the lord jesus from the very first day of his ministry and the very first day of the church at pentecost from the time of the apostles until now loves to heal and wants to heal even miraculously far more often than we think and in fact that the supernatural seeing the lord work in powerful ways and speak to us and act in our lives the supernatural is the normal christian life that's what our catholic tradition gives us hallelujah since that time i have seen the lord do so many amazing healings including last night on the streets of budapest in the healing service with damian stain i've seen the lord do so many and one of the things that i have seen clearly is the very close link between healing and forgiveness i've come to see that one of the biggest obstacles to healing in our lives is unforgiveness holding on to a resentment some offense that was committed against us can be an obstacle to the action of god in our life conversely to forgive to freely choose to forgive opens the door to the lord acting powerfully in our life and healing and i'll tell you a couple of examples one i gave a talk at a catholic school on healing and afterward a teacher came to me and said please pray for me for healing and she told me her condition she said i have a hemorrhage like the woman in the gospel continual bleeding and she said i have to take medication every day and it has terrible side effects i tried to stop the medication and i had to go to the hospital and i almost died so i have this bleeding and i have no energy i don't know if i will be able to continue teaching so i said okay we will pray and there were several people we began to pray and as we prayed i i thought the holy spirit told me to ask her did anything painful happen in your life when this condition began two years ago and she said well yes that was the time when my husband stopped practicing his faith he stopped going to church and so i had to be the one the doing the spiritual leadership in the family and i could see that this was very painful for her i said have you forgiven your husband she said well i've tried i could see that she had not i said are you willing to forgive your husband and i explained to her to forgive does not mean you say oh it's okay no problem no big deal because maybe it is a big deal but to forgive means you say i let go i let god be the judge of that person but i will not hold on to this offense and she said okay okay i will forgive and so i led her in a simple prayer to forgive her husband and then we prayed for healing of her hemorrhage and then we left and she was alone in the chapel and 11 days later she sent me an email and she copied all the other teachers at her school and she explained what happened she said after you prayed i felt that i had been healed and she said i looked up at the cross in the chapel and she said i'm a scientist and i'm skeptical but i looked at jesus on the cross and i and i said jesus did you heal me and he nodded and she said i've had no problem since then completely healed and one more one more example at a healing service we all prayed prayers of forgiveness together as we're going to do in a few minutes and afterward a man came to me and he said for 20 years i have been unable to see clearly in my left eye i've had double vision in my left eye and it was because someone hit me with a lead pipe 20 years ago and shattered the bone around my eye damaging my vision and he said tonight i was not praying for healing of my eye i didn't believe god could heal me but i forgave the man who did that 20 years ago i forgave him completely and he said now i can't believe it i can see my eye is healed my vision is clear thanks be to god so brothers and sisters i would like to invite the holy spirit now to show each of us if there is anyone we need to forgive it might be someone from many years ago a mother or father it might be a spouse it might be someone else we are not putting blame on the person we are just saying what they did had a negative effect on me and i put it in god's hands i let go so let's take a moment now and i just ask you to pray this prayer after me very simple prayer holy spirit please show me whom do i need to forgive and now i invite you to pray this prayer of forgiveness for the person the holy spirit brought to your mind or it may be more than one person so i invite you to repeat this prayer heavenly father i choose today to completely forgive and now name this person in your heart and remember call to mind what they did father i completely forgive as you have forgiven me i let that debt go to the foot of the cross and i ask you god to bless that person who hurt me and to bring them to eternal life and father if i have judged that person in anger and bitterness i acknowledge that as my sin and i ask your forgiveness and i place the cross of jesus christ between me and any lingering effects of that sin it stops today in the holy name of jesus and by his precious blood thank you lord amen hallelujah is so pleasing to god so pleasing to god when we do this the angels and the saints are rejoicing when we forgive and there's a couple of other things that i think the lord wants us to pray for in the last year and a half the whole world has had has been living through a pandemic but it's not only a pandemic of covid it's a pandemic of fear there is a a veil of fear and anxiety that is covering the world many people are walking under the oppression of fear and the lord jesus christ is saying to each one of us a child of god does not walk in fear a child of god walks in freedom and in peace and i free you from your fears because perfect love casts out all fear so i just want to ask you don't look at anyone else for the moment in fact close your eyes for a moment have you felt that you have been living with fear in some way over the last many months just raise your hand if you have been experiencing fear in some cases it's different kinds of fear economic fears fears of losing your job fears of health problems many kinds of fear and scripture says that satan keeps the human race in bondage through fear so i invite you to pray this simple prayer with me lord jesus christ thank you that you have died for me and risen from the dead to free me from the power of fear in your name lord jesus i renounce the spirit of fear and i refuse to partner with fear because i trust in you thank you lord amen amen now some of us may need to pray that kind of prayer every day or maybe even more than once a day and choose not to live by fear that doesn't mean that we don't take reasonable precautions but we do it in peace and it with reason not out of fear one more thing i think the lord wants us to renounce together and that is any involvement in the occult because the lord jesus will not share the throne of our lives with false gods he will not share his throne with false gods and any involvement in occultism is inviting false gods and evil spirits into your life so let's pray this simple prayer and if if you have been involved in the occult and have never gone to confession to confess that sin i strongly encourage you to do it as soon as possible go to confession as soon as possible but right now we will just say this simple prayer in the name of jesus i renounce occultism i renounce every false spirit i renounce every idol i renounce every false god and i renounce every spirit that does not acknowledge jesus the son of god who has come in the flesh and i ask you jesus to free me from any ties to evil spirits or to false gods thank you lord amen now having rejected false gods i want to together invite the holy spirit in a new way i believe the lord wants to heal people's hearts today i think he wants to heal those who have had bruised hearts i think there are many here who because of painful experiences in your life have hearts that are bruised or even crushed and the lord jesus wants to heal you and i encourage you when you come forward to receive jesus in holy communion today to tell the lord where you feel hurt or crushed and ask him to heal you i believe he also wants to heal people physically through the eucharist he heals people also through our simple prayers he heals people he wants people to be physically healed today but now i invite us to call upon the holy spirit together would you all stand up for a moment with me and i invite you to lift up your hands to heaven like children asking for good gifts from their heavenly father there's nothing that god loves to give us more than his holy spirit and so we ask you heavenly father you are such a good father give us now your holy spirit holy spirit come fall upon us let us be baptized o god in your holy spirit let us be plunged into your holy spirit in a new way holy spirit come and fill this place holy spirit come and fill the hearts even of those who are watching online right now heal them in their hearts and in their bodies holy spirit come let's wait for a moment and allow him to come just receive allow him to come holy spirit reveal to us the love of the father holy spirit reveal to us that jesus christ is truly the lord and i would like to pray just one more prayer together a simple prayer to surrender completely to jesus to give him every part of our life so would you pray with me lord jesus i invite you to come and reign on the throne of my heart be the lord of my life i give you everything i am i give you my past my present and my future i give you all my relationships and all my possessions jesus i give you full permission to do whatever you want to do in my life thank you jesus for being my lord and savior and for making me a living tabernacle of your holy spirit let your peace and your joy rest upon me i pray in your holy name amen amen alleluia god bless you that was dr mary healey providing today's testimony from here at the hung expo in the 52nd international eucharistic congress essentially completing the work of this morning where we had a catechesis from the cardinal john anaya khan of nigeria and now we had a testimony from dr healey we have the the great pleasure of being joined now on set by archbishop jose palma the archbishop of cebu in the philippines your excellency thank you so much for joining us good day and thank you so much for this opportunity and my part to be able to join ewtn and its broadcast and certainly i bring the greetings of the philippines particularly our people in cebu to all of those present here in budapest as well as to thousands probably millions of tilly who follow ewtn in its broadcast of the 52nd international eucharistic congress well your excellency uh you are in a somewhat unique position that you were essentially the host of the last eucharistic congress in cebu so i imagine you have a lot to think about a lot to offer cardinal erdo as he was preparing what is it like to look back on your experience in hosting yes uh for us it is a privilege to be a lifetime to be host because the previous one was in 1937 you know and 2016 we are the host interestingly the you would note first dublin the philippines and then budapest no hungary this year i mean also dublin cebu philippines and budapest you know the sequence but anyway first of all i really we really thank the lord for that opportunity if not for covid we would have organized around 500 people to come this year you know for the for participation in the eucharistic congress why 500 because this year or at least we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the coming of christianity in our country and we thought it's a wonderful opportunity for people and i know many had planned because after budapest they would have gone to pilgrimages in some marion shrines and then they would have gone to rome others would have gone to the holy land but because of kovid the plans are cancelled no no more there are only six filipinos here you know two came from our place one in germany and me and my secretary but just the same i bring with you the greetings of our more than 80 million people who are aware that today here in budapest we are celebrating the 52nd eucharistic congress and again i agree to tell you viewers just one beautiful piece of information and on the 11th we have eucharistic celebration virtually because we could not gather the cardinal will speak the non-show will have a message there will be a mass and a sharing of bishops and their experiences and to us it is our way of sharing we may be 11 what a thousand kilometers away you know but we are one with the heart and in spirit in solidarity with budapest and with all of you following us over e wtn there was probably so many fruits so many benefits to your eucharistic congress uh what was some of those fruits did you see an increase of people going to holy mass their participation in mass and also going to eucharistic adoration too as well yes if i have just to look back after what happened in 2016 we can thank the lord that in many ways we see the fruits first of all even in cebu is noted for its cultural heritage churches many old churches which is a gift from the lord they were not destroyed during the war but also even in the distant barrios or barangays you can see how people make beautiful churches because to them this is the house of god and it is here where we celebrate the sacraments especially the mass now many visitors who come to our place would say aha even in this places you have beautiful churches that's one eucharistic adoration chapels yes but to me one of the best expression of the fruits of the eucharist is i'll cite an example with kovid you know and and thousands who were inflicted afflicted by kobe the fruit of the eucharistic celebration to me is seen in what we often you know like uh remind people of the three key words in our own language you say ample prayer second amping meaning we take care you know we try to protect ourselves and our neighbors and third ambit meaning share so for instance last year in the time of coffee every wednesday there is the holy rosary for healing when so many 600 000 you know participate you know virtually you know we connect with various networks praying the holy rosary invoking mother mary to protect us but it's so inspiring to know that many of us many many join that prayer and not only that during the mass there is always the prayer prayer because we believe you know there may be human efforts and human factors but above all it's god it's the grace of god you know that that's the cause of protection and healing second we say amping no a word which means we should also on our particular and so as we say the washing of hands this infection there this is social distancing the face mask the face shield and lately the vaccination we encourage people even now when you visit churches there is my picture there getting the vaccine you know you get the vaccine because the pope says you know vaccination is a sign of of charity to youth your family to your neighbor and most importantly to me it's the ambit the sharing i know many were disenfranchised many lots of work many suffered the difficulty of kobet and so in in places parishes we reorganize people to reach out especially to those who have no work to those who have less food to do so could hardly eat in terms of sharing food sharing resources i know by university they produce drums of alcohol you know reproduce muskets they produce many other hospital you know ways of protecting people but especially feeding because to us that's important very inspiring you know that even if there is kobe people can say we feel the love of the lord through the love of people and i thought that's one beautiful expression of the fruit of the eucharistic congress you've mentioned uh several times now that you had hoped to come with 500 from your archdiocese you've mentioned vaccinations could you describe a little bit about the impact of covid on your faithful and also in your region okay we we have to admit that we are a people who really would have wanted to to to as much as possible go to the to the church you know physically things like that but when it's kind of strange sometimes the government would would be strict you know they would say only 10 percent people attended sometimes thirty percent sometimes fifty percent then they were reduced anyone when the when they allow people no people would come now it's it's uh the problem is not to attract them to come no the problem is when they come it is to disperse them not because we do not want them to be too close no but i do believe when we open the church once again inviting people to come is no problem no this is one but but to me the other important thing there is you know besides the the coming of people it's really the the more fruitful celebration that i have mentioned but but in terms of participation and attendance i say i thank the lord that many are eager to do that one point but even when we were also reminding them please this time do not come and and this is the beauty of the social media platforms because we have organized and we have opened up facebook's no and media broadcasts you know and we try to organize even young people in cebu we have this cebu uh association of those who work in the media you know and uh and we know that especially young people know they they love you know to to get involved in different media platforms or networks and broadcast and so to us the the facebook and broadcast masters also became a way of making people realize this time i may not go but i know i feel connected with sisters and brothers just like i will i will try to borrow the experience in in guadalupe no because during their fiesta no the basilica was closed and so i think their theme was it was mama mary saying since you could not go to my house i will go to your house and what does it mean the pre-celebrate masses they link through the media they put there and the altar the image of our lady of guadalupe and the pope says you receive the blessing you receive the grace and that's what we are sure of course we're praying that all of this will be ended so that we can celebrate mass as it truly should be with the physical process but meantime there is none we do believe the link what's the message that you would give to parents and also to young people and how they can grow in their love for the eucharist and their active participation at mass at this point i'd like first of all to thank our own parents you know because they are the ones who brought us up i i am happy when parents bring the little children you know before the church and i tell the priests never mind if they cry never mind if they are noisy church is a dying church yeah because to me you know the little children are the future of the church yesterday i was happy when i see three little girls there in the celebration the byzantine church my point is to me a very important aspect of christian life is when parents realize they are the first catechists they are the first teachers it is from them that the children should learn the prayer the importance of of going to church the importance of devotion the importance of joining the procession you know those things because that is done in our place you would see in a celebration so many young children in fact i have the habit wherever i go for fiesta before the final blessing i will say all the children come here in front no and then we say a special prayer for children oh they're very happy if you spread them with water no blessing and the parents are happy you know because they know that also because santo nino the child jesus is very popular no and we say ah this is the fiesta of the children so the little children come no i think this is one way of encouraging them we mentioned about children's choir ah the parents are happy that we have uh adults and uh of course but the children and many ways we are but i should say again the first catechesis the first teachers are the parents and it should start with the home yeah i want to correct myself too i i meant a crying church is actually a churches that is alive not a dying church i meant to say that came out kind of wrong but i wanted to clarify myself yeah yes well your excellency um the philippines is one of the largest catholic countries in the world what role do you see for the philippines in the life of asia and the evangelization of asia well of course we're aware that the biggest catholics first of all is brazil the second mexico and third philippines even if we are small we are happy with that how about evangelization the theme of the fifth centenary the final year is mission you know it's like reminding people we had been christians for many years now is a time for reaching out for mission now is the time when we would say we are gifted with faith we shall share the faith how do we do that there are many communities congregations that try to promote missionary activity and they really send people to other places we try to encourage them but to us even if from the minor people they may not be seen as official missionaries but we said our lay people our lay people because many of them are in many parts of the world seeking work seeking employment we said wherever you are you know that you are missionaries because you share the faith how do you do that first by living up to your christian life and when people see you you know performing your your duty and becoming a good christian they will be attracted but of course there is a more active way of inviting people you know to join you in prayer for the celebration of the eucharist we know filipinos who wherever they are they become leaders in the churches very active in activities for instance in church work choir readers leaders you know the various activities of the parish there are there are many ways you know leading inviting people to participate in the novena in the rosary in the various paris activities to us now they do not have to you know to come out like preachers there are on stage no but the way they live and in an ordinary way try to be good to neighbors to people visit them invite them to the gathering of christians and prayer services like that to us these are wonderful ways it's been my experience that people the filipino people especially are people of great devotion people who love to pray with our hearts and that's that's one thing that you don't have to have a master's degree or a doctor's degree to evangelize do you just just be a person of great devotion you say you said it right now because to us it's just a question of inviting a friend inviting a neighbor there people you know that work with you you want to join us you know for the novena for the prayer session for the prayer gathering they would say it doesn't last long no but when you got there for all of this it's apparently simple no but i know it touches the heart i know it strengthens the faith i know that they make give hope to people and give inspiration to people yes well your excellency uh thank you so much for your time with us uh we all were very edified by your homily at the mass here on tuesday and uh our prayers and our thanks to all of your faithful in the philippines and all of our prayers for them and uh our gratitude for the support okay so i also would like to thank ewtn for this opportunity i would encourage you you follow ewtn in the broadcast of the eucharistic congress you know that you may be away but i know that as you listen to the broadcast your hearts are in this congress and i know that the lord will bless you so again uh thank you ewtn for this wonderful ministry and thank you all of you god bless would you mind extending a blessing to those watching and especially the filipinos that are watching at home that couldn't be here yes loving father we thank you for this wonderful opportunity for us to gather here in hungary in budapest and we thank you for the 52nd international eucharistic congress how inspiring it is to see you know so organized and so varied in themes and wonderful shaders reminding us of the beauty of life that draws its strength from the eucharist all my springs are from you are in you so the spring of your grace lord is from your love your eucharist bless all of us gathered here bless ewtn bless our people in the philippines and bless all who in their hearts thirst and long for you you are the spring that give nourishment you are the spring that give life and may almighty god bless all of you the father and the son and the holy spirit amen amen archbishop jose palma from cebu in the philippines that concludes the catechetical and testimonial session for this morning from here at the hung expo in budapest hungary if you want to keep up with everything that we're doing here at the eucharistic congress go to ewtn.com forward slash iec that's ewtn.com forward slash iec stay tuned for our ongoing coverage here at ewtn of the 52nd international eucharistic congress [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 119min 38sec (7178 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021