IMPELMAN: Eucharistic Revival continues in a new school year

(Photo by James Ramos/Herald)

Last month, the National Eucharistic Congress was held for the first time in 83 years in the U.S. When blessing the monstrance to be used at the event, Pope Francis proclaimed that the congress would mark “a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States.”
Here at the Rice Catholic Student Center, we were proud when two of our students were chosen to be Perpetual Pilgrims on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage prior to the congress.

These students, Chima Adiole and MacKenzie Warrens, joined a small group of young adults who traveled full-time from May until mid-July, accompanying Jesus as he drew near to countless communities across the nation on the way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

Why did these two busy graduate students give up their whole summer to journey with the Eucharist across the nation? In Warrens’ own words, “When I first heard about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, the Lord invited me to journey with Him across the country with fellow zealous disciples, bringing Jesus in the Eucharist to people who might not otherwise meet Him and experience His merciful love overflowing from His sacred heart.”

This past Sunday, our Gospel reading was from the sixth chapter of John and ended with verse 51, in which Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

As we heard this proclaimed during Sunday Mass last weekend, we are reminded that Jesus in the form of the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. We are nourished and strengthened when we gather every Sunday for Mass and receive the Eucharist.

Our Church wants us to never forget this truth as next Sunday, the Gospel reading begins with John 6:51! At Mass this coming weekend, we will again listen for a second time as we hear Jesus proclaim that He is the living bread.

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “when we encounter Jesus, we feed on the living God Himself, so to speak; we truly eat the ‘bread from heaven.’” Jesus is present in the Eucharist — a truth very much recognized by our two Rice University graduate students who journeyed across the country with Jesus on their way to the National Eucharistic Congress last month. Their faith was a witness to countless others as they stopped in many communities to share their love of the Eucharist.
At the Rice Catholic Student Center, our campus ministry staff is forever grateful to get to share the love of Jesus with students like Adiole and Warrens during such an important stage in their lives.

We ask for your prayers as we continue to provide the Bread of Heaven for them and countless other college students at Rice University. 

Mary Impelman is the Campus Minister for Outreach at Rice University Catholic Student Center.