OCEAN CITY, Md. — As the daylong Diocese of Wilmington Eucharistic Congress is brought to a close, watch live or on replay as Bishop William Koenig and dozens of priests concelebrate the concluding Mass at Roland Powell Convention Center.
More than 2,000 people are joining the event.
“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.
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.
