Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 4, 2024

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers for all of us who were on the pilgrimage to Ireland. It was such a blessing for us to pray for all of you at thesacred sanctuaries of Ireland. At thesame it, it is very good tobeback with you again!

What a blessing to have 4 August 2024 fall on a Sunday this weekend! It is the feast day of St. John Marie Vianney, the Patron Saint of Priests. It gives me an opportunity to ask you to pray to this holy man of God for all the priests in your life, past and present. Please don’t forget toprayfor Fr. Vincent and me, that wemay bemen whose heartsmirror the merciful heart of Jesus.

Speaking of men of God, I extend my heartfelt thanks to Fr. Pascal for his generosity in helping to cover the ministerial need of the parish while I was away. Let us pray for him as he now resumes work on his Master’s Degree thesis as well as for his ministry in the Congregation of Holy Cross. Fr. Pascal, may you continue toblessall you encounter.

This weekend is also the beginning of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time. We continue delving into Chapter 6 of John’s gospel. Specifically, in John 6:24-35, we hear Jesusproclaimhimself to bethe true bread of life. Our Lord showsthat just as God the Father provided for the people of Israel in the desert, so he unfailingly provides for us as he nourishes our souls with the Eucharist, His very self. Let usembracethe Lord in the Eucharist without hesitation: it is HE who can saveus!

Tuesday 6 August is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. St. Peter testifies to the truth of this mystery when in his 2nd Letter he writes

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on theholymountain. (2 Peter 1:17-18)

I invite everyone to pray the Luminous Mysteries with the Rosary on this day and to ask our resplendent Lord to transfigure our lives, that oneday wemayparticipatefully in His glory.

Also on 6 August, we will begin a special month-long event to celebrate God-with-us in tangible form in the Eucharist: a Holy Hour Challenge! How many Holy Hours can our parishioners make from 6 August – 6 September ? Are you willing to take up this challenge? What better way to continue the spirit of the Eucharistic Revival following the National Eucharistic Congress! How many hours are you willing to give Jesus? See the Eucharistic Adoration page on our website https:// www.stjohnviera.org/ adoration.

We thank all our women who are participating in the Christ Renews His Parish Weekend. I am sure they are having a spiritual blast! We are grateful to the Team that is hosting the event. Each Team commits to and carries out a 6-month-long preparation for each weekend. Thispreparation is designed toaid their own spiritual growth and toensure that each weekend is an absolutely unforgettable experience for the participants. May all carry the fire ignited during this weekend out to their families and friends, sharing with themtheirrenewed loveof the Lord.

Let us now return to our reading of Pope Benedict XVI’s masterpiece, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. As I have explained previously, we are providing you with this beautiful exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI in easily digestible portions as an aide to renewing agrateful appreciation of the great gift of the Eucharist.

Have a Blessed Week!

With love,

SA C R A M E N T U M C A R I T A T I S ( T H E SA C R A M E N T O F C H A R I T Y : T HE E U C H A R I ST )

CONTINUATION OF THE POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS  OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE EUCHARIST AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF THE CHURCH'S LIFE AND MISSION

P A R T T W O : T H E E U C H A R I ST — A M Y ST E R Y T O B E C E L E B R A T E D ( c on t i n u e d )

"Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (Jn 6:32)

THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE OFFERED TO THE WORLD

CONCLUSION

94. Dear brothersand sisters, the Eucharist is at the rootof every form of holiness, and eachof us is called to the fullness of life in the Holy How many saints have advanced along the way of perfection thanks to their eucharistic devotion! From Saint Ignatius of Antioch to Saint Augustine, from Saint Anthony Abbot to Saint Benedict, from Saint Francis of Assisi to Saint Thomas Aquinas, from Saint Clare of Assisi to Saint Catherine of Siena, from Saint Paschal Baylon to Saint Peter Julian Eymard, from Saint Alphonsus Liguori to Blessed Charles de Foucauld, from Saint John Mary Vianneyto Saint Thérèseof Lisieux, from Saint Piusof Pietrelcina to Blessed Teresaof Calcutta, from Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati to Blessed Ivan Merz, to name only a few, holiness has always found its centre in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

This most holymystery thus needs to befirmly believed, devoutly celebrated and intensely lived in the Church. Jesus' gift ofhimself in the sacrament which is the memorial of his passion tells us that the success of our lives is found in our participation in the trinitarian life offered to us truly and definitively in him. The celebration and worship of the Eucharist enable us to draw near to God's love and to persevere in that love until we are united with the Lord whom we love. The offering of our lives, our fellowship with the whole community of believers and our solidarity with all men and women are essential aspects of thatlogiké latreía, spiritual worship, holy and pleasing to God (cf. Rom 12:1), which transforms every aspect of our human existence, to the glory of God. I therefore ask all pastors to spare no effort in promoting an authentically eucharistic Christian spirituality. Priests, deacons and all those who carry out a eucharistic ministry should always be able to find in this service, exercised with care and constant preparation, the strength and inspiration needed for their personal and communal path of sanctification. I exhort the lay faithful, and families in particular, to find ever anew in the sacrament of Christ's love the energy needed to make their lives an authentic sign of the presence of the risen Lord. I ask all consecrated men and womentoshowby their eucharistic lives the splendour and the beauty ofbelonging totally to the Lord.

95. At the beginning of the fourth century, Christian worship was still forbidden by the imperial Some Christians in North Africa, who felt bound to celebrate the Lord's Day, defied the prohibition. They were martyred after declaring that it was not possible for them to live without the Eucharist, the food of the Lord: sine dominico non possumus. (252) May these martyrs of Abitinae, in union with all those saints and beati who made the Eucharist the centre of their lives, intercede for us and teach us to be faithful to our encounter with the risen Christ. We too cannot live without partaking of the sacrament of our salvation; we too desire to beiuxta dominicam viventes, to reflect in our lives what we celebrate on the Lord's Day. That day is the day of our definitive deliverance. Is it surprising, then, that we should wish to live every dayin that newnessof life which Christ has brought us in themysteryofthe Eucharist?

96. May Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate Virgin, ark of the new and eternal covenant, accompany us on our way to meet the Lord who In her we find realized most perfectly the essence of the Church. The Church sees in Mary – "Woman of the Eucharist," as she was called by the Servant of God John Paul II (253) – her finest icon, and she contemplates Mary as a singular model of the eucharistic life. For this reason, as the priest prepares to receive on the altar the verum Corpus natum de Maria Virgine, speaking on behalf of the liturgical assembly, he says in the words of the canon: "We honour Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God" (254). Her holy name is also invoked and venerated in the canons of the Eastern Christian traditions. The faithful, for their part, "commend to Mary, Mother of the Church, their lives and the work of their hands. Striving to have the same sentiments as Mary, they help thewhole community to become a living offering pleasing to the Father" (255). She is the tota pulchra, the all-beautiful, for in her the radiance of God's glory shines forth. The beauty of the heavenly liturgy, which must be reflected in our own assemblies, is faithfully mirrored in her. From Mary we must learn to become men and women of the Eucharist and of the Church, and thus to present ourselves, in the words of Saint Paul, "holy and blameless" before the Lord, even ashe wished us tobe fromthe beginning (cf. Col 1:22; Eph 1:4) (256).

97. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may the Holy Spirit kindle within us the same ardour experienced by the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) and renew our "eucharistic wonder" through the splendour and beauty radiating from the liturgical rite, the efficacious sign of the infinite beauty of the holy mystery of God. Those disciples arose and returned in haste to Jerusalem in order to share their joy with their brothers and sisters in the faith. True joy is found in recognizing that the Lord is still with us, our faithful companion along the way. The Eucharist makes us discover that Christ, risen from the dead, is our contemporary in the mystery of the Church, his body. Of this mystery of love we have become witnesses. Let us encourage one another to walk joyfully, our hearts filled with wonder, towards our encounter with the Holy Eucharist, so that we may experience and proclaim to others the truth of the words with which Jesus took leave of his disciples: "Lo, I am with you always, until the end of theworld" (Mt28:20).

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 22 February, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, in the year 2007, thesecondofmy Pontificate.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

(252) Martyrium Saturnini, Dativi et aliorum plurimorum, 7, 9, 10: PL 8, 707, 709-710.

(253) John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 53: AAS 95 (2003), 469.

(254) Eucharistic Prayer I (Roman Canon).

(255) Propositio 50

(256) Benedict XVI, Homily (8 December 2005): AAS 98 (2006), 15.