I have to say that the highlight of the second day of the Eucharistic Congress was of a more personal nature: spending an hour or two in a room with 50+ priests hearing confessions. I am deeply moved by the faith of the people who come, young and old and every age between, and by the great generosity of Jesus, who meets them there with a gift for each one personally, fitted to their heart and to their life situation in that exact moment. It also struck me that in the words of absolution the gifts given are pardon and peace. I don’t think I pay attention enough to the second: peace. Our sins are a profound source of turmoil and confusion, and in giving us pardon, the Lord also gives peace. It was the first thing he said to the disciples when he appeared to them in the upper room after the Resurrection: Peace be with you. 

A speaker last night, Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, recounted several stories, Eucharistic Miracles: her own story of coming to faith as a young girl in a war-torn area, suffering through 4 wars and family turmoil, finding peace in a nearby Catholic Church, being led to the foot of the cross and thinking that the one who suffered in this way would understand her suffering. She spoke of a young boy, Mighty Quinn (Quinn was his first name) 5 years old, whom she got permission to make his First Communion before starting chemotherapy, and to whom she brought the Eucharist every day for 33 days. He went through the therapy with no side effects and lives still. She spoke of a young woman dying of cancer who hoped to live to see her daughter married with the veil she wore at her wedding, instead making the veil into a veil for her First Communion, the mother walking her down the aisle to receive the Lord there before dying soon after. Several other accounts of the power of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, some receiving visible, obvious cures; others, a healing on the other side of death.  She spoke of the miracle as present in either case: it was happening whether seen or not; whether in the way desired or not; whether in this life or on the other side of death.

Father Mike Schmidt also spoke, emphasizing that there can be no Eucharistic Revival without repentance, and that we should be careful of falling from our early love, referring to the words of the Lord to the Church of Ephesus in the Book of Revelation (2: 1-5), beginning to think we are doing alright, not paying attention to what he termed the little fire extinguishers, the small ways in which we dampen the fire of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Which was motive enough for me to go to confession myself, and spend some time hearing confessions. A great privilege and grace. 

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Gregory Kelly, V.G.

PS – I have now encountered 6 priests from the Diocese of Dallas: Father Russ Mower (also in the choir); Edwin Leonard, Kevin Wilwert, Michael Likoudis, Angel Rios, and Eugene Okoli–Father William Mobley is out there somewhere but haven’t seen him yet. Also one Permanent Deacon: Michael Friske. 

What I heard often in the homilies and talks yesterday and today, in the Mass celebrated in the Siro-Malabar Rite this morning, and in a talk to priests and bishops by Bishop Danny Flores of Brownsville, is the importance of the suffering of Christ and our suffering. Bishop Flores spoke of the poverty of Christ in coming and taking on the vulnerability of human life in this world, pouring himself out for our sake and looking for people willing to receive him and become like him in pouring themselves out for others. Jesus was accessible to everyone, allowed people to come close to him and touch him, even those who would seize him and kill him. Bishop Flores said that in our world people want to control everything, not have to depend on anyone, not be affected by the suffering of others, and that we live in a world that constantly invents new ways to reject people. In that way of thinking, poverty and vulnerability are realities to be shunned or fixed, to be overcome and gotten away from. Jesus’ whole ministry was to pour himself out for others and not protect himself from their vulnerability and suffering. We are to do the same, being willing to receive this gift constantly from him, to look for him where he has told us he would be: in the Tabernacle (“this is my Body”), and in the poor: whatever we do or fail to do to them, we do or fail to do to him. At the Last Supper Jesus poured himself, his entire life, into the bread and wine given to his disciples, and given to us now, so that we can do what he did: pour ourselves out for others and be the vulnerable presence of God in the world that he was in his ministry: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9)

Bishop Greg Kelly

PS: I forgot to mention one other priest who is here: Fray Angel Rios, OFM Cap, from Lourdes. And in the meantime, met Fr. Juan Torres, Parochial Vicar from San Juan Diego. Many from the diocese are here.