Cultivating Eucharistic Amazement

By Julie Koerber, Diocesan Committee on Discipleship

What if you could attend a weekend with your brothers and sisters in Christ and let your heart become even more inflamed with love for The Most Holy Eucharist? What if, just like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, you could take a deeper dive into the teachings of Jesus while having your eyes opened to His Real Presence?

That’s the mission behind Eucharistic Revival 2023: Cultivating Eucharistic Amazement. While the event is being put on by the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, it was an answer to a call from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ three-year plan to restore our understanding and renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Dr. Scott Hahn is the event’s keynote speaker for the May 5th and 6th event at Billings Central Catholic High School. He’s a Biblical Scholar and founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He said the timing is perfect for a Eucharistic Revival.

“The statistics are out there. We’re aware of the fact that a large number of Catholics in America profess nothing more than Eucharistic symbolism,” Dr. Hahn said in a recent interview.

Dr. Hahn goes on to share the story of the Road to Emmaus, when two of Christ’s disciples make the seven-mile trek from Jerusalem, listening and learning from this stranger, never realizing they were in the presence of Christ. When they arrived at Emmaus, it was only through reading scripture and in the breaking of the bread that Jesus revealed himself.

“We have been served up this amazing gift. It’s amazing how unamazed I am at times,” Dr. Hahn said. “This event is to reawaken not only Eucharistic faith and devotion but to really enkindle that kind of Eucharistic amazement just like those two disciples carried back with them from Emmaus to Jerusalem.”

Dr. Hahn says the story of the Road to Emmaus is a powerful one. He adds of all the things Christ could have done on the day after his resurrection, he chose to lead a lengthy Bible study and celebrate the Eucharist —two pillars that will be present during the weekend conference.

“Look, you aren’t going to find yourself with misplaced priorities if you gather with the faithful and allow the Lord to use the word to inflame your heart and at the same time, open up the eyes of faith,” Hahn said of the conference. “He made arrangements then to be present to us every bit as much as he was present to his own disciples.”

During the weekend, Dr. Hahn will be joined by Archbishop Alexander Sample, who Hahn calls a master teacher.

“His expertise is not only in scripture but on the liturgy,” Hahn says. “When we have spoken together and given talks, I have always come away thinking that he is one of the finest presenters I have heard in the hierarchy.”

More than a thousand people will gather that weekend to hear a handful of talks covering all aspects of the Eucharist — everything from how to enter into adoration, how to become a Eucharistic people, learning how to pray not just say the Mass and delving into how our Blessed Mother brings us to Jesus in the Eucharist. There will be Adoration as well as time to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The day will conclude with a Eucharistic procession and Mass celebrated by Archbishop Sample.

Dr. Hahn says, while the weekend will be powerful, he prays that what happens after the weekend will be even more so.

“You can’t keep the faith all that well if you don’t know how to share it,” he says. “Once you learn how to share it, then you own it in a whole new way. You can keep it and pass it along to others in a way that is downright contagious.”

TO LEARN MORE or purchase your tickets for Eucharistic Revival 2023, visit diocesegfb.org/revival

Liturgical Dates

May 3 Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
May 7 Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 14 Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 18 The Ascension of the Lord
May 21 The Ascension of the Lord Observed
May 28 Pentecost
May 31 Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
June 4 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
June 11 Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
June 16 Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 24 Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
June 29 Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles