Bishop Solis reflects on National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in Utah

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The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City has been a beneficiary of God’s boundless blessings. It was a distinct honor for our local Church to be a part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. During this past week in Utah, many of our Catholic faithful gathered to adore the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as part of the Eucharistic Pilgrimage making its way to Indianapolis, Indiana for the National Eucharistic Congress in July.

The processions participated in by the faithful highlighted the fundamental belief of every Catholic in the Holy Eucharist, the great sacrament and the summit of our Christian life. It was a precious moment to witness the love, reverence and devotion of the people to God’s unimaginable gift – the gift of himself in the Holy Eucharist.

It was an awesome sight with a powerful and very clear message: “The living, loving and saving God is with us.” Jean-Marie Vianney, a saintly parish priest, captured the awesome mystery of the Real Presence of God in the Holy Eucharist. He said, “The soul hungers for God, and nothing but God can satisfy it. Therefore, he came to dwell on earth and assumed a body in order that this body might become the food of our souls.”

Christ continued to walk among his people on the roads of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Logan, Cache Valley in northern Utah; in the lush green meadows of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Park City; into the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City before processing up South Temple for Adoration at the St. Catherine-Newman Center; and on the soil of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Fort Duchesne. Jesus continued to walk among his people in a humble auditorium outside of Roosevelt and was welcomed in St. James the Greater Catholic Church in Vernal before proceeding to Denver, Colorado.

Everywhere Jesus walked among his people during the pilgrimage, and one could not but be touched by the outward display of love, reverence, affection, joy and excitement. People everywhere were seen kneeling on rough, dusty paths. An on-duty police officer genuflected as his King processed by. Young mothers pushing strollers lifted up their infants to be blessed by our Lord’s Presence; seminarians bowed profoundly, foreheads touching the ground, to honor him whom they desire to follow more closely.

These past few weeks were and continue to be a time of great grace for all of us and a profound reminder that like the Christians of every age we cannot survive without the Eucharist. Yes, it was very obvious; the faith of many on the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist was rekindled and renewed, and their hearts opened to receive the outpouring of God’s abundant grace. Many who had been away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation for many months and even years poured out  their souls to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who accompanied the Eucharistic Pilgrims on their journey through our state.