“During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice, and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1:39-45)
In a sense, the visitation of the pregnant Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth is the first Eucharistic procession, the first Christian pilgrimage, in history. In the image of Mary, the Church is also going out, as we are a Church on the move. We do not walk alone; just as Jesus accompanied Mary on her first pilgrimage, he also walks with us.
Jesus continues to make a pilgrimage with the Church today. From June 5th to 12th, our Eucharistic Lord will visit the Archdiocese of Denver. With the National Eucharistic Revival culminating in the National Eucharistic Congress in July, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will bear witness to the world that Jesus is alive in the Holy Eucharist, affirming His words: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:55).
Despite the crisis of faith in this great truth, many believers across the country have joined this pilgrimage to rekindle their faith and devotion to this most holy sacrament of love. The Catechism teaches that “the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian faith” (CCC 1324). Without this most holy sacrament, the Church would not exist. It is from the Eucharist that the life of the Church emanates.
Are we ready to receive this tremendous Eucharistic pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of Denver? Just as Jesus visited Elizabeth while in Mary’s womb, our Lord, hidden in the Eucharist, is visiting us on his way to Indianapolis this summer. Jesus wants us to receive him and, like John the Baptist, to leap for joy at his presence. This will be an excellent opportunity for us to grow more in love with Jesus in the Eucharist. Such an opportunity may not be repeated in our time.
The National Eucharistic Congress will conclude with the sending forth of the Eucharistic Missionary Year. In the Archdiocese of Denver, we must prepare ourselves in prayer, increasing our ardor and zeal to bring our faith in Jesus truly present in the Eucharist to all places where he is to be received. Just as Mary hastened to visit Elizabeth, we must eagerly become missionaries throughout our archdiocese so that many hearts might be inflamed with love for our Eucharistic Lord.
The Archbishop’s prayer intention for June, the month of the Holy Eucharist, is for the faithful to grow in devotion to the Lord Jesus, present in the Eucharist. We are all invited to join in prayer with Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila so that through the Eucharistic pilgrimage beginning here in Denver the week after the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), our archdiocese may seize the opportunity to deepen our devotion and love for the Eucharist, reigniting in us the missionary identity of the Church.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar! May He be loved and praised by all now and forever!