YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST Bishop Sweeney proclaimed 2022 the Year of the Eucharist in the Paterson Diocese on Dec. 8, 2021. The Bishop is shown during the Consecration at Mass Oct. 10 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, celebrating the feast of Senor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) with the Peruvian community from across the Diocese.
STIRLING The importance of how the Eucharist effects their lives was clearly evident in witness talks given by parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul Parish here as part of the parish’s Family Faith Formation (FFF) program earlier this month.
In his witness talk, Shawn Gallic told 110 families at recent sessions of the faith community’s FFF program, about the power of the Eucharist in his own life in his three minute talk.
“The Eucharist strengthens us in our journey. Jesus can be with us on a daily basis, not only when we call on him during hard times,” said Gallic, who is married with nine children and started attending daily Mass as a child with his five other siblings.
The witness talks were held after three Masses on two weekends this month. Maria DeLuca, another St. Vincent’s parishioner, who spoke about how the Eucharist brought her closer to Christ, followed him.
The two recent witness talks were inspired in part by “Helping Others Encounter Jesus in the Eucharist,” a virtual talk on March 23 to 100 catechetical leaders and catechists in the Diocese by James C. Pauley, who is a theology and catechesis professor at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Sponsored by the diocesan Catechetical Leaders Association (CLA) and the diocesan Catechetical Office, the talk was held during the Year of the Eucharist, which Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney declared in the Diocese for 2022. During this yearlong celebration, the faithful are urged to deepen their understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist and strengthen their relationship with Jesus.
“Tell your story [about the Eucharist], so people can verify what we are teaching with real human experience,” Pauley said. He urged churchgoers to witness to the liturgy to others after Mass with statements, such as “the Gospel really challenged me today” or “I can’t believe that I received Jesus in the Eucharist” — instead of talking about football or goings-on in town.
Deirdre Nemeth, St. Vincent’s director of faith formation, attended the presentation and was moved by Pauley’s central message: that Catholics need to become more comfortable giving testimony about the power of the Eucharist to transform lives and relationships with God and other people. The recent testimonials on the Eucharist at St. Vincent’s also follow the parish’s tradition of inviting the faithful to witness after Mass or in religious education, such as FFF, Nemeth said.
“The witnesses spoke to the fruits of the Eucharist and how it impacts their lives,” said Nemeth, who noted that St. Vincent’s FFF ties into the Year of the Eucharist because it is centered around the Mass. Some of these sessions have featured witness speakers. “We received a lot of positive feedback from families. It was very powerful,” she said.
In her talk, Deluca said she walked away from the faith as a young woman but her parents continued to pray for her to return to the Church. In her 20s, she walked into a church and was struck by the revelation: “ ‘My Lord and my God lives here.’ The Eucharist became very important in my life from that point on,” she said.
At St. Vincent’s, Gallic runs a men’s group, Christi Fidelis, that recently finished eight sessions about the Eucharist at their Saturday meetings in the parish hall, followed by Mass upstairs in the church. The 35 men of the group watched a video by Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles and founder of Word on Fire Ministries. Live presentations included one on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Eucharist and another on making the Eucharist part of the home, Gallic said.
“The Second Vatican Council says that the laity has a call to holiness and a call to evangelize. We can’t do that without the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith,” Gallic said.
Over the years, St. Vincent’s has encouraged parishioners to witness publicly to the faith. Father Richard Carton, pastor, has asked people to get up and talk after Masses or has held question-and-answer sessions, so the faithful can “get the view from my side of the Eucharistic table,” he said.
“The Eucharist is the center of what we are and what we do. Everything flows from that. It makes our lives richer,” said Father Carton, who noted that St. Vincent’s held Holy Hours during Advent and Lent.
Lessons in FFF that tie into the Mass and the Eucharist include ones on Eucharistic miracles, parts of the Mass, Baptism, which leads to the Eucharist, and the family, known as the “Domestic Church,” Nemeth said.
The program requires children to attend one of three Masses on two weekends monthly with their parents, followed by a 30-minute interactive catechetical session. At the live sessions, which ended last week, they worked together on activities, such as putting the parts of the Mass in the correct order. Parents also engaged in conversations with their children and other families. For the other two weeks, families complete work at home, Nemeth said.
“Family Faith Formation brings families together to go to Mass and practice the faith. It encourages parents as the primary teachers of faith for their children,” said Nemeth, who wrote a curriculum for FFF at St. Vincent’s.
Terri Appuzzo, a married mother of eight, ages 10 to 21, with two children in FFF and another in the Confirmation program, said that the witnesses to the Eucharist “inspired us to live out our faith.
“I love that the speakers each had a story and told it with honesty,” Appuzzo said.
Her son, Caleb, 13, said of the witnesses, “It’s nice to hear someone talk about faith and give us an example to follow.”
Watching the witness talks on the Eucharist for one FFF session at St. Vincent’s was Father Yojaneider Garcia, director of the diocesan Office of Catechesis and Faith Formation, who said, “It was very touching to me.
“After this experience I was convinced that our students need to hear the real experiences that the adults have when they participate at Holy Mass. We teach and show so that our students can try and do. In this way, we help our students to become active protagonists in receiving and giving through the salvific work of Jesus,” Father Garcia said. “We must create the culture to talk more about what happens in the Holy Eucharist, the fruits when we have an active participation, how it is fundamental in our spiritual life, and how they transform our lives,” he said.