2022 declared Year of the Eucharist
A priest holds a Host over a ciborium. Bishop Carl A. Kemme has declared 2022 as the Year of the Eucharist in the Diocese of Wichita. (Advance photo)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
At this time, I write to announce the observance of a special Holy Year of the Eucharist for the Diocese of Wichita beginning Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022. The Year of the Eucharist will coincide with the beginning of the three-year Eucharistic Revival project proposed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Eucharist, with its many facets, will be the focus of our attention with special emphasis on believing, celebrating, adoring, and living the Eucharistic mystery. I am hopeful that the Year of the Eucharist will help to bring about more and more, the vision of our diocesan Pastoral Plan, that all God’s children will respond to Christ’s call so as to become fully alive as missionary disciples. Jesus reminds us in John 6:53 that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” The Eucharist, then, is at the heart of what it means to be fully alive. We are also reminded in the post-synodal document Sacramentum Caritatis that “the Eucharist is at the root of every form of holiness, and each of us is called to the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit…holiness has always found its center in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.”
During this Year of the Eucharist and beyond, my hope is to bring about in our diocesan life a greater dynamism to the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of the Christian life. As we live this mystery, I hope that more of our brothers and sisters will make the Eucharist the center of their Catholic lives and that those who have left the regular practice of the faith will find their way back to our Eucharistic assemblies. I also hope the Year of the Eucharist will inspire more and more of our people to commit to regular adoration in one of our many adoration chapels. Finally, I hope that with effective preaching and witness, the Eucharist will inspire all of us to be the evangelizers, disciple makers, and faithful stewards the Lord is calling each of us to be now in this new apostolic era of the 21st century.
Many other great things are being planned, including a Eucharistic novena culminating in Corpus Christi processions, which will hopefully take place in most of our parishes next year, an encouragement to bring back to our parishes the traditional Forty Hours Devotion, a diocesan Eucharistic Congress in collaboration with the Midwest Catholic Family Conference in August, and a clergy convocation dedicated to the art of celebrating, which is our duty and honor as priests. As you can see, there are many exciting things being planned. I now invite you to pray for the success of this diocesan Year of the Eucharist so that the Eucharist will be revived and renewed in every part of our diocese and that those who have lost a certain Eucharistic amazement, as St. John Paul II called it, will retrieve and deepen it.
God is present among us on our altars and in our tabernacles. May we never forget the centrality and the importance of the Eucharistic mystery in our lives. May the peace of Christ which is beyond all understanding, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, be with you all.
I remain, Humbly Yours in Christ
+ The Most Rev. Carl A. Kemme, D.D.
Bishop of Wichita