With saints who point the way to Christ in the Eucharist

I think if people could have a true understanding of the Eucharist, it would draw more people to the Church.”

Bob Czarnecki, parishioner, St. Stanislaus Parish, Wardsville

SCROLL THE ARROWS to see more photos.

CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from these events.

CLICK HERE to read a related article.

The mortal flesh of two holy men pierced the silence with the witness of their lives.

“Here is the one you’re looking for, the fulfillment of your deepest desires,” their presence before Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament proclaimed.

“You’re never alone, because he is here for you. Prepare a place for him. Come, give thanks and celebrate with him and invite him into your heart.”

Relics of St. Manuel González García (1877-1935) and Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), both of whom came to know Christ by adoring him in the Holy Eucharist, were brought to eight churches in the Jefferson City diocese on successive days in July.

The parishes included: the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City, St. Patrick Church in Rolla, St. Peter Church in Marshall, St. Patrick Church in Laurie, St. Brendan Church in Mexico, St. Joseph Church in Westphalia, St. Stanislaus Church in Wardsville, and the St. Thomas More Newman Center in Columbia.

Each parish offered Mass and Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the presence of the relics of both men, along with presentations about why Catholics revere their memory.

The relics have been displayed in churches throughout the United States as part of the National Eucharistic Revival called for by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2021.

The purpose of the three-year Revival is to reinvigorate among Catholics the belief in and reverence for the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

“It’s beautiful that we have things set up the like this, with these saints leading us to our Lord’s presence here on this altar,” said seminarian Jacob Hartman.

“Invite them to lead you to him!” he advised.

Mr. Hartman, a Holts Summit native who’s in his second year of theology studies at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, spoke on the Eucharist during all eight vigils.

He said that in the Eucharist, Jesus teaches his followers to see and love the way he does: with the heart.

“The Eucharist changes the way we see the world,” Mr. Hartman noted. “It changes the way we see ourselves. It changes the way we see others.”

“Gazing right back”

St. Manuel González García was a Spanish priest and bishop who came to be known as the Bishop of the Tabernacle. He preached and wrote ardently and compellingly on the Eucharist and founded religious communities devoted to cultivating Eucharistic spirituality.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia at age 15, centered his life on the Eucharist in order to grow in his relationship with Jesus. He used his technological prowess to develop a website to highlight Eucharistic miracles (miracolieucaristici.org).

At each vigil, seminarians and young adults who have been helping with Catholic youth camps in the diocese this summer shed light on the legacies of St. Manuel and Blessed Carlo.

Relics — tiny pieces of the earthly remains of each — were displayed in ornate reliquaries before the Blessed Sacrament, where both men spent much of their time while they were alive.

“Jesus is truly present in the tabernacle, and St. Manuel gave his whole life to that,” proclaimed John Paul McGuire, a Mexico native and third-year college seminarian at Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas.

Mr. McGuire shared a quote from St. Manuel, who spent most of his Priesthood reinvigorating the devotional life of a once-dying parish:

“My faith was looking at Jesus through the door of that tabernacle, so silent, so patient, so good, gazing right back at me.”

In taking notice of that gaze, St. Manuel also discovered the sadness Jesus had experienced through his earthly life — “the sadness of ‘no room at the inn’; the sadness of those words, ‘Do you also want to leave me?’; sadness of poor Lazarus begging for crumbs from the rich man’s table; the sadness of the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, of the soldier’s slap, of the spittle in the Praetorium, and the abandonment of all.”

St. Manuel spent his whole adult life working to ensure that Jesus, fully present in the tabernacle in church, would never be abandoned or left alone.

“He made his Priesthood of being next to the Lord in the tabernacle, day-in, day-out,” said Mr. McGuire.

“As close as possible”

Youth camp missionary Haydon Kent spoke of Blessed Carlo Acutis during the July 12 vigil in St. Patrick Church in Laurie.

Mr. Kent shared one of Blessed Carlo’s favorite sayings: “If you want to get tan, you sit in the sun. If you want to know Christ, you sit in front of the Eucharist.”

The speaker shared how Blessed Carlo came to a reverence for Christ despite a lack of any religious practice in his family.

Blessed Carlo stood up for children who were being bullied or marginalized at his school, actively assisted people in need, and put his passion for technology to holy use.

He created a website presenting 35 confirmed Eucharistic miracles — situations in which the presence of Christ’s Body under the sacramental veil of ordinary bread became visible as human heart tissue.

Each time Blessed Carlo went to Mass, he tried to spend 15 minutes ahead of time in front of the tabernacle and 15 minutes afterward, thanking the Lord and “just pondering the existence of the Eucharist,” said Mr. Kent.

Diagnosed with leukemia at age 15, he united his sufferings with Christ’s for the conversion of sinners and for the needs of Pope Benedict XVI, who was then the reigning pontiff of the whole Church.

“What Carlo wanted most was to be as close as possible to God,” Mr. Kent noted. “And now we see in him an example of what that closeness looks like.”

As God sees

Mr. Hartman referred to the Eucharist as “the healing of our love.”

“It teaches us to love as God loves — to move past the physical, that which we can see, and look deeper,” he noted.

That’s essential for seeing past the darkness and ugliness that can be too easy to recognize in other people.

“We are human beings created in the image of God!” Mr. Hartman noted. “So, there is an inner dignity that lies deeper than any of our accomplishments or failures.

“The Eucharist trains us to follow God in that line of thinking and see each other and ourselves as he does,” he said.

That’s part of what makes the Eucharist the greatest gift — “that it allows us to love as God loves and to see how God sees.”

It’s also an invitation to trust God fully, despite any limits the earthly senses may present.

“The Lord desires to love us,” Mr. Hartman noted, “but in our fallen state, we turn from him. We do not recognize him.”

So, in the words of the late Pope Benedict XVI, “Jesus Christ became flesh so that he might become bread.”

He carries forth his incarnation in the Eucharist and allows people to receive him and be in communion with him.

“His resurrection 2,000 years ago was not the end of salvation,” Mr. Hartman emphasized. “It continues today!”

A pivotal moment

“It’s a holy moment in there,” lifelong St. Stanislaus parishioner Carol Davidson stated after taking part in the July 15 vigil in Wardsville. “A heavy moment, but an extremely holy moment.”

She came because she felt like she needed an attitude adjustment.

“And if I came and spent some time with Jesus in the presence of (St. Manuel and Blessed Carlo), maybe I’d leave with a better understanding of where my heart should be,” she said.

She initially questioned the timing of the vigil, with the parish picnic scheduled to take place the following day.

“I thought to myself when I went in, ‘We’re supposed to be home making pies right now,’” she acknowledged.

“And then it came to me that this is probably the most opportune day to be here, because there’s so much activity going on all around and there are even more people here than usual,” she said.

St. Stanislaus parishioner Bob Czarnecki didn’t know much about Blessed Carlo or St. Manuel before coming to spend time praying in the presence of Christ and the relics.

“I have this love for the saints,” he said. “Any time I get a chance to pray with them or venerate a relic, I take the opportunity to do so.”

He brought two rosaries to touch to both relics, linking his own prayer life to the physical reality in which both saints lived.

Mr. Czarnecki was interested to learn about both men and found it intriguing that Blessed Carlo lived part of his life in this century.

“I know they were both promoters of belief in Christ’s presence in the Eucharist,” Mr. Czarnecki stated. “And I feel the same way. Because the Eucharist is at the center of our faith.

“I think if people could have a true understanding of the Eucharist, it would draw more people to the Church,” he said.

“The more I learn about it, the more I am drawn to it and the more I love the Catholic Church because of it,” he added.

Present, future saints

Natalie Clark, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Edina and a student at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, was one of the young-adult missionaries traveling with the relics across the diocese.

“It’s been a very interesting experience,” she said. “It transforms the way you look at everybody you encounter, because we’re here with relics of two physical, real saints, who were of flesh and blood.

“They’re tangible and they’re right in front of you,” she said.

She now counts Blessed Carlo and St. Manuel among her friends.

“We’re all called to sainthood, just like these real saints in front of us, and someday, we’re all going to be relics,” she said.

She’s convinced that both men would want people to know that everyone was created for a specific purpose, and that God works through the gifts and desires he places in each person.

“Blessed Carlo’s passion was technology and electronics, and that’s where he found his ministry, using the internet, which can be such a force for evil, as a force for evangelization and for good,” she said.

Ms. Clark loves considering how St. Manuel, upon approaching the abandoned church and scattered people he was sent to serve “had to fight against every one of his instincts, telling him to run away.”

“His life calls us to dwell always and completely in Christ in every action that we do,” she said.

That necessity starts with the Eucharist, she noted, “but it continues with each person using the gifts he or she has been given to help build up the Body of Christ and make him present to all people.”

“A moving moment”

Forty-six parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul Parish of Pettis County traveled to the July 11 vigil in Marshall.

“It was an amazing and memorable evening!” stated Jennifer Cordia, St. Vincent de Paul Parish’s communications secretary.

“It’s a great honor to have something like this take place in our diocese,” Linda Adams, a member of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Ozark, said during the vigil in Laurie the next day.

“I’ve been reading and watching and learning about the Eucharistic Revival for a while,” she stated. “I’m excited to see things starting to take root with it.”

Lisa Reinkemeyer, a member of St. Andrew Parish in Tipton, said she hopes the prayer vigils and talks on the Eucharist will help renew interest in Eucharistic Adoration in parishes throughout the diocese.

“It’s a great time to reinvigorate that,” she stated.

Kenny Davy and his parents, Kenny and Sunny Davy, stopped in Laurie on their way back to Ohio from visiting Doane University in Nebraska.

The younger Mr. Davy is preparing to serve as a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary in Doane this fall.

“We stopped here as sort of a vacation, and we looked online for a church that has Adoration,” the elder Mr. Davy noted.

The family saw the opportunity to take part in the prayer vigil as a gift from God.

“It’s been so much more than we expected,” said Mrs. Davy. “It’s been a very blessed day for us.”

The younger Mr. Davy said an important message he took from the vigil was to keep spending time with Christ in Adoration.

“That’s something the Lord really wants from us — to spend time with him and be truly present,” he said.

Other participants shared their enthusiasm online.

“It was truly a moving moment and so refreshing to see passion about the Eucharist coming alive,” Lori Oberndorfer, a parishioner of St. Patrick Parish in Laurie, stated on Facebook.

“I continue to pray that the belief of the True Presence within the Holy Eucharist increases,” she said. “May we continue to encourage reverence during the consecration and within the Sacred Union of Holy Mass.”