How to lead the Eucharistic Revival in Your Parish with Joel Stepanek

Adam Wright:

Well, once again, Joel Stepanek is with us here on Roadmap to Heaven to talk about the National Eucharistic Revival. And Joel, it’s good to have you with us this morning.

Joel Stepanek:

It is so good to be back this morning.

Adam Wright:

Alright. We’ve been talking about this Eucharistic Revival for a few months here on the show. In fact, our first conversation was with you, and the central theme to every interview we’ve done so far is that for all of us, Eucharistic Revival starts in the heart. It starts with our own selves. I mean, it’s one thing for me to say, “Oh, all these other people need Eucharistic Revival, but I’m good.” No, I need Eucharistic Revival, too. No matter where I’m at in relationship with our Lord. But now is also the time that we’re moving out to the parish level. I look around at the statistics. I think, Bishop Cozzens shared that we have to remember our responsibility at the local parish, in light of the jarring statistics where he said “Seven in ten Catholics believe the Eucharist is merely a symbol”, an encounter with an ‘it’ instead of a ‘who'” and that we’re missing an opportunity to know Jesus. So now is the time to say, “Alright. I’ve been doing this revival in my heart.” Joel, how do I take this to my parish?

Joel Stepanek:

That is a hinge question because how we deal with that impacts how our world transforms. As we enter into this new phase of the Eucharist revival in the United States, beginning on Corpus Christi in 2023, we are going to be looking at what it means to revive our parishes. And there are resources, on the front end I’ll say, there are resources that we are providing as the National Eucharistic Revival that are going to be critical in how you lead these efforts in your parish. But before we get there, I think it’s important to say why have a parish revival at all? Like, why not just have a personal revival or a diocesan revival? The parish itself is not responsible for just the Catholics there. And I think most folks know that. The parish is responsible for all the souls, Catholic, non-Catholic, atheist, and non-denominational Christian, in that particular region, and that’s why we have parishes. We have to ask ourselves: is our parish living a Eucharistic mission? In two ways. One: is it living a Eucharistic mission in how we celebrate the liturgy, in how we teach about the Eucharist, in how we serve those who are marginalized and less fortunate, and in how we facilitate ongoing personal encounters with Jesus Christ? How are we doing there? And if somebody were to come into our parish community who wasn’t Catholic, and didn’t really maybe even know a whole lot about Jesus, but has an innate spiritual sense (because we all do). Would they be able to identify the Eucharist as the source and summit of our parish life by just watching us? And if our answer is, “I don’t know” we need parish revival. The second question is: is our parish going out to people? If we have this great gift of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, we don’t put that under a bushel basket. Our parish has to become the mission center where people go into their community, into their families, into their schools, into their workplaces with this Eucharistic mindset that the Lord has received me, as I have received him in the Eucharist, and now I need to go draw others to this table. So that they can have this intimate encounter with our Lord and find abundant life. If our answer is, “We’re not doing that” then we need Eucharistic Revival.

Adam Wright:

I looked at the press release that your office sent out in advance of what you’re calling the “Parish Leader’s Playbook”, and I love it. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You’re not asking me to come up with what works. We already have people all over the country saying, “Hey, we’ve been doing this, and this works.” So we’ve got a whole host of sources that we can check out and say, “Hey, that might work for my parish.” I’m thinking of these four pillars that you speak of: revival reinvigorating devotion, personal encounter, robust faith formation, and missionary sending. I think of a parish in my neighborhood that every year on Corpus Christi, they have their procession through the neighborhood, and they purposefully go by one of the busiest brunch spots in my part of the city and heads turn: “Who are those people and what are they doing? Why are they parading around with that gold thing? And why is he wearing a cape? What is going on here?” And father goes, “Oh, yeah. We do that on purpose.” And I love what you’re saying, because it seems like the whole idea of this is then when our neighbor says, “Hey, I was eating brunch the other day, and I saw you and the priest and some people, and I had no idea what was going on” that we would be able to answer, “Well, here’s what we were doing, and here’s how we can invite you to be part of what we’re doing.”

Joel Stepanek:

Yes, I love that. That is so bold because you could do a procession that doesn’t go by the brunch place on Sunday morning. But to plan it that way so that there is this jarring encounter with the Lord that people have, where they ask questions of their friends and neighbors, that’s what parish life ought to be. It nourishes us and sustains us, so there’s an inward focus to our parish. But I think one of the challenges and why we need revival is that our parishes have become maybe a little too inward-focused. They’re about services that I get there. It’s about a club that I go to. I don’t mean to seem banal with these things, because I know for many of us who go to a parish, the focus is receiving the Eucharist in our Eucharistic Lord. But I think we all have a tribal mindset of, “Well, this is my parish and there’s something in it for me here.” But the parish is also a place that we go out to do this missionary work so we can bring more people back into the parish and it can grow. So I love the idea of a procession that goes by a brunch spot. But that’s what the Parish Playbook is about. Bold ideas. What is the next step for our parish? These are best practices of what a Eucharistic life looks like at a parish. What I love about the Parish Playbook is every parish can take the next step. No parish in the United States is going to look at this playbook and say, “We check all the boxes.” Even if you think you check all the boxes, what’s the next iteration of that? What’s the next level of that? And I think everybody’s going to find something there that will challenge them and help them dive more deeply into what it means to have a Eucharistic culture at their parish.

Adam Wright:

Now as someone who used to work on the pastoral staff of a parish for many years, pardon me standing on the soapbox here for a moment. But I think many times, even myself included, we presuppose: “Well, Father’s got that taken care of. Father will do that.” Well, Father needs help. Father’s got a lot going on. He has the sacraments first and foremost to attend to, and then there’s usually the administration of the parish, as well as meetings for spiritual direction and other things. We can all be ready to assist Father in these efforts at revival in the parish. So this is for you and I, friends. This is for you and I to say, “Father, we’re ready to help out. What do you need us to do?” Now Joel, for those who are saying, “Alright, Father’s asked me to help out. He said, ‘In fact, could you go find out what’s going on with this and report back?'” Where do we find information on this playbook for parish leaders, and how can we get that and share it with Father or share it with the parish council, whoever it may be?

Joel Stepanek:

There are two places that people need to go to. The first is eucharisticrevival.org/lead. That is a collection of all of the resources a parish is going to need to lead the efforts of Eucharistic Revival. And that’s a great place check out the Parish Playbook, you can download it there, as well as other pieces of content that will help a parish lean into the year of parish revival. The second page is eucharisticrevival.org/parish-point-person-recruitment. If you are one of those people who’s raising your hand right now and saying, “How can I help Father out?” or your priest has asked you, “Hey, I need your help as a parish point person.” I think that this is the page you want to go to, and you will sign up there to receive more information on what it means to be a parish point person: the person who’s going to really shepherd and champion these efforts on behalf of your pastor. So you’ll sign up there. You can download some important pieces of information on that page as well, but then we’ll be able to communicate you as a National Eucharistic Revival team to empower you and your parish to do this good work.

Adam Wright:

Alright. Well, Joel, I wanna thank you for being with us to shed some light on what we can do at the parish level today. And let’s not forget that this all culminates a year from now with the National Eucharistic Congress. And I’m really excited because I know that through a good chunk of our listening area, one of the pilgrimage processions to Indianapolis is going to pass through. And then folks from all over the country are going to be gathering in Indianapolis. 80,000, I think is the capacity at the football stadium there where the Colts play, and it’s going to be quite the event, the National Eucharistic Congress. You can find out all about that as well at the websites Joel just gave us. But, Joel, I look forward to it. It’s going to be fantastic.

Joel Stepanek:

I’m looking forward to it as well. It’s going to be a historic moment in our country.

Adam Wright:

Alright. Check out the Eucharistic Revival, friends. In the meantime, we’re going to take a break here on Roadmap to Heaven. Don’t go anywhere.