The real presence of Jesus is alive for Bishop William Koenig. He prays for everyone in the Diocese of Wilmington to also come to know it.
That is part of the driving force of the Oct. 5 Eucharistic Congress in Ocean City, Md.
“The Mass itself is most important – to take time to prepare for Mass, which can be just as simple as to read over the readings, just read over the Gospel for that Sunday’s Mass prior to going or go to church 10-15 minutes early and take the opportunity to read them,” Bishop Koenig said in an interview with The Dialog.
“Read them slowly,” he said. “Lectio divina — reading slowly, pausing in silence for a minute or two — is one of the great ways of prayer. Just preparing for Mass is an important thing.
“The other part is Eucharistic adoration that might be offered in a church. But it doesn’t even have to be that. You can come into the church and just spend five minutes in the church with our Lord. And in that case, it’s not so much what you say. One of the great exchanges that I still recall is one of the saints saying, ‘I sit and I look at him, and he looks at me.’ A person just being in the presence of our Lord in itself is prayer.”
The local congress is part of the Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. bishops three years ago as a way to bring people back to the church’s core belief that Jesus is present in the Eucharist during Mass.
Bishop Koenig said his hope is that “we experience being in the presence of our Lord at Mass and are able to reflect in the great gift of the Eucharist, that our hearts burn even more deeply within us. And our love of God and our gratitude of God … that we are able to go forth and tell others as we return to parishes.”
This is the third year of the Eucharistic revival and it’s the year of going forth, being Eucharistic missionaries, the bishop said. Some U.S. dioceses have held Eucharistic Congresses that have happened earlier in this three-year effort, “but I think this is a great time for us because it’s all about how our hearts might be enflamed in order to tell others about our Eucharistic Lord,” Bishop Koenig said.
The event in Ocean City draws on the energy from the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis last July and also the Eucharistic procession led by Bishop Koenig through the streets of Wilmington in 2022.
“What I remember about that was – walking through the streets – I remember the people, the faithful who came and participated in it, but what I also distinctly remember and really savor is the way in walking through the streets of Wilmington, people who are out on the sidewalk, perhaps at a place where they were having a meal, they just stopped and they looked,” the bishop said. “There was this sense of reverence they had as we were walking through the streets. For us, we were missionaries going through the streets with our Eucharistic Lord.”
The call for Eucharistic Revival came from studies revealing that a large number of Catholics did not believe in, or did not understand, the real presence of Christ.
“As a result of that, the bishops said, ‘How is it that we might be able to help people to really grow in Eucharistic amazement?’” Bishop Koenig said. “I really love that phrase, that we’re amazed at the presence of Christ. There’s an awe in our being in the presence of Christ.”
For the keynote address, Bishop Koenig turned to a friend, colleague and expert on Scripture, Archbishop-elect Richard Henning, who was a brother priest when both were part of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. Archbishop Henning is currently the bishop of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, and is set to be installed as archbishop of Boston at the end of October.
“He’s got a tremendous way about him,” Bishop Koenig said. “He’ll be a gift for us to have at the Eucharistic Congress.”
Bishop Koenig hopes the daylong event in Ocean City strengthens Catholics in their connection with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
“It’s a central part of our faith,” he said.
