This Year of Faith is an opportunity to deepen our appreciation and love of the Eucharist. In that spirit, the Diocesan Liturgy Committee is offering a Day of Reflection focusing on the Eucharist.

Monsignor Robert Mazur, Diocesan Director of Liturgy; Carmelite Community of the Word Sister Linda LaMagna, Ministerial Coordinator of the Diocesan Office of Evangelization, and various other members of the Liturgy Committee are making themselves available to visit any parish at the invitation of the pastor and present the reflection.

"Pope Benedict has invited us during this Year of Faith to look more closely at the Mass and the Eucharist, to appreciate it and love it more deeply, and so we're offering this opportunity to gather in prayer to reflect on our most cherished gift – the Eucharist," said Monsignor Mazur.

The Day of Reflection will highlight four specific elements of Eucharist:

• Liturgical Ministers – reflecting on particular ministries and the ways that serving in those ministries draws us into a closer relationship with Christ and with others.
• Proclamation of God's Word – reflecting on God’s presence in Scripture.
• Reverence of God's Presence in the Eucharist – reflecting on the Eucharist as the source and summit of our lives and Christ’s sacramental presence of His Body and Blood in Bread and Wine.
• "Being Sent Forth"/Evangelization – reflecting on our mission of being sent to live what Christ has told us in Word and Sacrament and glorifying the Lord with our lives.

Monsignor Mazur will serve as the keynote speaker at each reflection, and Sister Linda and Liturgy Committee members will address the four elements. The reflection will feature large and small group discussions.

"In this Year of Faith, we want to take a look at the Eucharist and what it actually means," said Sister Linda. "We want it to be more than Catholics going to Church and fulfilling an obligation. We want it to be how the Eucharist allows them to become the best version of their Catholic faith, and allows our hearts to experience the real presence of Christ on our altars each week, Christ present in the Word, Christ present in the gathered assembly, and Christ becoming present in each of us as we go out into the world."

Each Day of Reflection would be open to any individual in the parish, especially those who serve in parish ministries, Monsignor Mazur said. If parishioners are interested in having a Day of Reflection at their parish, he and Sister Linda encourage them to let their pastor know.

Reflections can be scheduled beginning with this Lenten season and continuing until the close of the Year of Faith on November 24. Each reflection will be three hours in length, and can be scheduled on an evening during the week, a Saturday morning, or a Sunday afternoon.