The Bishops of the United States are calling all its Catholic members to a deeper relationship with God through a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This year 2023 – 2024 is designated for “Parish Renewal”. We, the Franciscan “people in the pews” should be in the forefront of this renewal – through our prayers; our conversations; bringing others with us to Mass and/or Eucharistic Adoration, etc.  To assist us in this endeavor, resource materials like banners, fliers & prayer cards have been designed and are available free of charge for digital download for personal printing and also available for order – see website links below.

While the Eucharistic Revival has been designed as a “stand alone” project, it doesn’t have to be. We should be able to incorporate the core meaning and goals of this project – a closer, deeper relationship with God through Jesus – into all our programs and projects, especially in our “Centennial” events.

Jesus, the God-Man, is our tangible, relatable link to God in the Trinity. For St. Francis, an ever deepening relationship with the God Who made us and all things created was foundational to his existence. “Walking in the footsteps of Christ” was the easiest and most perfect way of attaining this goal.

Here are some links to the Eucharistic Revival website:

Eucharistic Revival – General Overview:   www.eucharisticrevival.org

Get Involved: How Will You Respond? (eucharisticrevival.org)

Free Digital Parish Resources – Eucharistic Revival (English & Spanish)

“If we but paused for a moment to consider

attentively what takes place in this

Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of

Christ’s love for us would transform the

coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and

gratitude.”

St. Angela of Foligno

[Italian Franciscan tertiary and mystic]

Eucharistic Revival Image:  https://stcdio.org/eucharistic-revival/when-is-it-taking-place/

https://www.secularfranciscansusa.org/2023/07/04/eucharistic-revival-stage-two/

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Magazine Spring issue #109)

By Vickie Klick, OFS

This is the third TAU-USA in which you have heard about the Franciscan centenaries being celebrated in 2023-2026. In addition to articles here, the National Fraternity has appointed a task force to help our celebrations to be as widespread and universal as possible. There are six of us on the Centenary Task Force; as you can see from our regional fraternities, we span the continental U.S.

Dcn. Terry Barber, Troubadours of Peace

Israela Garcia, Our Lady of Guadalupe

Vickie Klick (chair), Mother Cabrini

Terri Leone, St. Katharine Drexel

Patrick Martin, St. Margaret of Cortona

Carolyn Townes, Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis

2023 is going to be a busy year for us, with TWO centenaries to help celebrate, as well as planning our work. The NEC has asked us to plan a face-to-face event at Chapter and a Zoom event open nationwide each year and to create a common calendar of centenary events from across the country. We are also creating/collecting resources and ideas for centenary celebrations and posting them on our section of the website: https://www.secularfranciscansusa.org/franciscan-centenary-celebration/

We cannot do this alone, of course! We are asking for a representative/contact from each regional fraternity to collaborate with us. He or she will provide input for the shared national Centenary Calendar and in general will be a conduit of information to and from their regional fraternity. It will not be a big time investment, but it will be a good way to help everyone in your region participate more fully in the centenaries. If this interests you, please let your regional minister know.

It is important that these centenaries are being celebrated by the whole Franciscan family, not only the Secular Franciscans. One of the most important tasks for each region to undertake NOW is to reach out to the friars and sisters in their area to find out their plans and to see how we can participate, as well as to invite them to participate in our events. In most cases, we hope this can be facilitated by the regional spiritual assistant(s).

We are planning to offer a nationwide Zoom celebration of Greccio, probably the weekend before Thanksgiving. In subsequent years, however, we would like to partner with a regional fraternity each year to take their regional celebration “online.” As you start looking ahead to celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Stigmata in 2024, if you think your regional event might be a candidate to be shared completely or partly online, we would love to hear from you.

Please watch our website for ideas and resources for regional and local fraternity events for each of the centenaries. We will be adding new materials regularly between now and the Easter of St. Francis in 2026.

https://www.secularfranciscansusa.org/2023/07/03/national-fraternity-centenary-task-force/