The National Eucharistic Congress and Pilgrimage is introducing pilgrims to Byzantine Catholic Eucharistic traditions, with its emphasis on the mystical nature of the Holy Eucharist. Two Byzantine churches and one Byzantine monastery participated in the pilgrimage, while the congress will offer two opportunities to attend Divine Liturgy. 

“I think in a world that is moving so fast forward, the Eastern Catholic Church looks backward, and anytime we go backwards, that’s when we get most creative ideas to go forward,” Father Andrew Summerson, pastor of St. Mary’s Byzantine Church in Whiting, Indiana, told the Register.

Mike Aquilina, author of The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers and other books on the early Church, spoke to pilgrims on July 1 at St. Mary’s Byzantine Church, a participating church on the pilgrimage, about the early Church teachings on the liturgy and the Holy Eucharist. 

“The liturgy was the most important concern for the first generation of the Apostolic Fathers,” Aquilina told the Register. “St. Ignatius of Antioch talks about the Eucharist as the medicine of immortality and the blood of God, so we’re using these great expressions to fan the flames to restore enthusiasm from when the Eucharist was new in the world.”

A 2019 Pew Research survey revealed only 31% of primarily Latin Rite U.S. Catholics believed in the Real Presence — a statistic that helped spark the National Eucharistic Revival (although another 2019 poll, by EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research, found that “49% believe in the Real Presence,” adding, “Figures among the ‘most active’ Catholics (defined as those who say they accept all or most Church teachings) are substantially higher; 66% of them believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist.”).

Eastern Christians have historically not shared this concern about the faithful not fully understanding the Real Presence.

Father Summerson said one reason is the dogma is embedded in the Divine Liturgy through their prayers, fasting, music and the use of incense.

“It’s getting into out muscle memory before it’s getting into our brain cells,” Father Summerson said. 

Father Christiaan Kappes, academic dean at Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and lecturer at St. Vincent Seminary, said the priest blesses bread to be consecrated before the Divine Liturgy in a ceremony called prothesis, which means “that which is placed before.” During the liturgy, the priest and deacon process around the church carrying the blessed bread and wine before the consecration.

“We honor the gifts for what they are about to become. They're types, or anticipations, of the Body and Blood, and provided with reverence. It’s blessed bread, and it’s shown a kind of reverence as blessed bread,” Father Kappes said.

Like the Early Christians and Orthodox Christians still, the Byzantine Rite uses leavened bread for the Eucharist. Only the center of the loaf, called the Lamb, is marked with a stamp and consecrated. The rest remains blessed bread, which anyone, baptized or unbaptized, can receive.

Father Kappes said in many liturgies, a server waves the blessed bread, also called antidoron, over the consecrated Lamb so that Christ himself blesses it.

The Eastern Churches’ historical location and cultural circumstances also allowed for a stronger belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, according to Father Kappes.

“Historically, the Eastern Churches have not had university culture, so a lot of the issues with Eucharistic controversies arose in a learned culture in the West,” Father Kappes said. “In the East, a lot of the Church’s resources were more pastoral, concerning how to keep the Church surviving under domination of Islam.” 

Following the tradition of the Eastern Fathers, the Byzantine Church emphasizes the doctrine of theosis, referred to in the West as “divinization,” the idea of man being united with God. 

“After we receive the Eucharist, we become one body and one spirit with him; there’s this idea of being incorporated, a moment of union of body with body and soul with soul where you’re occupying the same space as Christ,” said Father Kappes. “It’s a privileged moment of divinization in the Eucharist where the transformative grace is handed on by Christ himself.”

The Divine Liturgy is a joyful celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, so the congregation stands during the Consecration instead of kneeling, according to Father Summerson. 

“It’s not traditional to kneel in Nicene Christianity — we witness to the Resurrection, in Greek anástasi, which means “to stand up,” he said.

Latin Rite Catholics are familiar with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, but a less formal version of it exists within the Byzantine tradition. According to Father Kappes, the Orthodox spiritual book The Way of a Pilgrim recommends the faithful spend time in prayer in front of the Holy Gifts.

Pilgrims on the Marian Route of the Eucharistic Pilgrimage participated in a Byzantine procession with both the Body and Blood of Christ in a ciborium and prayed before the Holy Gifts at St. Mary’s Byzantine Church.

Rather than containing the Eucharist in a monstrance, the whole church, in Byzantine thought, is a tabernacle for the Lord, Father Summerson said.

Caitlin McEnery, cantor at St. Mary’s, said she met pilgrims who shared her love for the Lord and asked questions about Byzantine Catholicism.

“It was really beautiful to combine both the Eastern and Western lungs of the Catholic Church into one big event and to see the Latin Rite and Eastern Rite traditions being combined in one service,” McEnery said.

Father Summerson said the unity between Eastern and Western Catholics during this stop on the pilgrimage was the most “effective cooperation” he had witnessed between the two traditions. He said Western Catholics can learn from the Eastern Catholic experience around the world. 

“Anywhere there is tremendous suffering in the world — Ukraine, the Holy Land, Lebanon, Ethiopia — Eastern Catholics are right there, not only surviving, but thriving, and tending to the world,” he said. “If you want to know how the Gospel can endure and help sustain the world in its suffering, Eastern Catholics are leading the way.”

TUNE IN: Take part in the the following Masses by watching EWTN:

Friday, July 19th at 4:00 PM — Byzantine Hierarchical Vigil Divine Liturgy with Bishop Robert Pipta at St. Athanasius Byzantine Church

Saturday, July 20th at 8:30 AM — Syro-Malabar Qurbānā with Bishop Joy Alappatt (presider) and Archbishop Borys Gudziak (preacher) in Lucas Oil Stadium