A Eucharistic Congress is an international gathering of people which aims to:
- promote an awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Catholic Church
- help improve our understanding and celebration of the liturgy
- draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist.
The Congress normally takes place every four years. The daily celebration of the Eucharist is at the very heart of the Congress. The wider programme of the Congress includes other liturgical events, cultural events, catechesis and testimonies, and workshops during the week of the Congress. The most recent Congress was held in Quebec in 2008 and was a source of encouragement and renewal for the many thousands who took part.
Most people in Ireland are familiar with the fact that a Eucharistic Congress was held in Ireland in 1932. Our parents and grand-parents speak of it as a significant event in their own experience of Church. Since we started preparing for the Congress, people from all over Ireland and even further afield have sent us a wide range of memorabilia relating to the 1932 Congress, some of which will be on display at a special exhibition in 2012.
Archbishop Piero Marini, President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, explains in greater detail the meaning of a Eucharistic Congress in his address to the Irish Catholic Bishop’s’ Conference in June 2009: The Shape, Significance & Ecclesial Impact of Eucharistic Congresses.
Jesus Waits for us Here with Divine Longing
St. Peter Julian Eymard
Adore and visit Jesus, abandoned and forsakenby men in His Sacrament of Love.
Man has time for everything
except for visits to His Lord and God,
WHO IS WAITING AND LONGING FOR US
in the Blessed Sacrament.
The streets and places of entertainment
are filled with people;
the House of God is deserted.
Men flee from it; they are afraid of it.
Ah! Poor Jesus!
Did you expect so much indifference
from those You have redeemed,
from Your friends, from Your children, from me?
Sympathize with Jesus Who is betrayed,
insulted, mocked, and crucified far more ignominiously
in His Sacrament of Love than He was
in the Garden of Olives, in Jerusalem, and on Calvary.
Those whom He has the most honored, loved,
and enriched with His gifts and graces
are the very ones who offend Him the most
by their indifference.
Offer up for this intention all that you have suffered
during the day or week
that Jesus may be loved and adored by all.
Because we ourselves are unable to atone for
so much wrong,
we unite ourselves
to the infinite merits of our Savior Jesus.
Receive His Divine Blood
as it mystically flows from His Holy Wounds,
and offer it to the Father
in perfect atonement for the sins of the world.
Take His sufferings
and His prayer on the Cross
and beg the Heavenly Father
for pardon and mercy for all.
Unite your reparation
to that of the most Blessed Virgin
at the foot of the Cross or the altar,
and from the love of Jesus for His Divine Mother
you will obtain everything.
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