A few years ago, the Church in the United States called for a Eucharistic revival. We organized processions— some of them huge events that travelled across states. We urged priests and deacons to preach more intently about Christ’s great gift of himself in the Sacrament. We taught classes, held retreats, and days of reflection. We revived old traditions like the Forty Hours Devotion. Now, the official Eucharistic Revival seems to be technically over, but the Church—lay faithful just as much as ordained leadership—continues to see a need to call people to the Lord’s table.

Locally, the Eucharistic Revival brought us a rather engaging (and challenging) celebration. The past two Corpus Christi Sundays, we’ve begun our procession at St. Joseph the Worker Parish and marched through the city to St Boniface. We ended with sung Vespers. Even in the hot and sweaty days of mid-June, we saw a decent crowd of people, praying and making public witness of our faith in the Eucharistic Lord.

Now this year will be different. St. Joseph the Worker is still in the process of repainting Annunciation Church, so we’re giving the big celebration a pause. Maybe next year we can return to it!

But here’s the plan for this year. Sunday—two Sundays from now—June 7, we’ll begin adoration at the end of the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Ann’s. The Eucharist will be in the monstrance on the altar throughout the afternoon. We’ll conclude with Vespers and Benediction at 4 p.m. Regular adorers at the chapel will be invited to move to the church for their times. The doors will be unlocked so that anyone can join in this special day of prayer. I’m sharing this with you early, so that we can set aside the time in our busy lives to give a few minutes, several minutes, an hour or so to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.