FALL RIVER, Mass. — Joy comes from always giving thanks to God, Catholic author and speaker Chris Stefanick told conferencegoers this past weekend.

“There’s not a single grateful thought in hell,” Stefanick said.

Stefanick, who had the crowd laughing, clapping and yelling “Amen” frequently, was the headliner Saturday at Diocesan Day of Eucharistic Encounter, a Diocese of Fall River event organized in conjunction with the National Eucharistic Revival that the country’s bishops continue to lead. More than 1,000 people attended.

The popular speaker noted that Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. It refers to the body and blood of Jesus, changed from bread and wine through the actions of a priest during Mass.

During the first of his two talks, Stefanick, host of the EWTN show and podcast Real Life Catholic, gave examples from Scripture, history and his own family life to show his audience how to pursue joy through messy life situations.

“Joy is not the reward at the other side of the battle. Joy is the strength to get into the battle,” Stefanick said.

One example of joy he shared was the time his father had a heart attack and an emergency room doctor said he couldn’t do anything about it because his dad’s arteries were so clogged. His father asked for a rosary and pressed it to his chest, Stefanick said.

“Then he looked at me and said, ‘I’m posing for my casket.’”

The crowd erupted in laughter.

“Humor in a moment like that would be insanity if it weren’t sanctity,” Stefanick said. His father survived.

Stefanick said his own spiritual awakening happened when his parents dragged him to a retreat when he was in eighth grade.

“So I love coerced religious experiences. Some of you are having one right now,” he joked.

What struck him so powerfully during that retreat, he said, was the sight of an approximately 70-year-old joyful man “standing there praising God.”

“I want what he has,” Stefanick recalled thinking at the time.

 

 Controlling Your Response

Stefanick pointed out that the United States is in the midst of internal conflict.

“How many conservatives hate liberals? How many liberals hate conservatives? This is not the country I grew up in,” Stefanick said.

That conflict extends to the Church, he said.

“If you want emotional comfort, please don’t google ‘Catholic news,’” he said.

But reacting emotionally is not the solution, he said. He offered as an example a U.S. Navy SEAL who told him that when he hears gunshots, his first response is not to hide but to think. Catholics, he said, need a different spiritual “muscle memory” to react properly to difficult circumstances.

“You can’t control all your triggers, but you can train how you respond to them,” Stefanick said.

The answers to spiritual problems, he said, are “stupidly simple.” They include giving thanks to God in all circumstances, loving yourself as a child of God and making friends and drawing them to God.

 

‘You Are What You Eat’

Bishop Edgar da Cunha, the bishop of Fall River, celebrated Mass in the morning in the former high school’s standing-room-only gym.

During his sermon, the bishop quoted a saying of Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress, who said during the huge gathering in Indianapolis in July and during the months leading up to it that the point of the National Eucharistic Revival is not “to start a program” but “to start a fire.”

“What a simple yet powerful statement, right? I want to borrow that from him and tell all of you here, my dear friends: We are here not to start a program, but to start a fire,” Bishop da Cunha said, “a fire of God's burning love for each one of us, a fire of the Holy Spirit transforming lives, a fire of the Holy Spirit guiding all of us in our actions and decisions and choices in this world.”

Bishop da Cunha made a reference to an old commercial that used the proverbial saying “You are what you eat.”

“If you think of physical food that fills us and nurtures us and gives us energy and strength and keeps us healthy and alive, it’s true: We are what we eat,” Bishop da Cunha said.

The same holds true with the Eucharist, he said, making a reference to the Prayer After Communion for the liturgical memorial of St. Augustine, Aug. 28.

“When we come here, we are making a promise, a commitment and a prayer to ask the Lord to sanctify us; that being made members of his body, which we are, the Church, we may become what we have received,” Bishop da Cunha said.

The diocese’s newest priest, Father Bryan Bangs, who was ordained June 1 and is now stationed in a parish on Cape Cod, encouraged young men in the audience to take one concrete step toward considering the priesthood.

He described his own calling, which he said started when he read a book about St. John Bosco when he was about 13.

He had objections to the idea; he wanted to get married, and he didn’t like the idea of public speaking. But a diocesan retreat helped nudge him in the direction of the priesthood, as did time praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

“You know, I don’t just bring up Eucharistic adoration now to try to cleverly tie it into the theme of Eucharistic revival. I bring it up because I think — I know — that I’m a priest today because of the Eucharist, because I was able to spend this time in the presence of Jesus, to learn about his love and about his friendship with me,” Father Bangs said.

“It was during that time spent in adoration, many Holy Hours, that I think my own will started to line up a bit more with God’s will,” he said. “I realized that the priesthood was something that I actually wanted for myself. I wanted to be able to serve God in that specific and dedicated way, because I knew how much he loved me, and I wanted to be able to bring that love to other people.”

 

It’s All Joy

During the lunch break, a line of conferencegoers lined up for a chance to get Stefanick to sign a book and speak briefly with him. The Register asked several why they came to the conference.

“I came because I love Jesus, and I want a closer relationship with him. And I believe in him, and I believe in the Eucharist; but I also have human failure, and I question him. And I’m asking the Holy Spirit to come into my life, to heal me,” said Michelle Cordeiro, of Acushnet, Massachusetts, who teaches at the Catholic school at her hometown parish, St. Francis Xavier.

“We’re all sons and daughters of God, and Jesus came for all of us. We’re all sinners, and that’s why the Eucharist is here for us — so we can get that grace and overcome our sinfulness,” Cordeiro said.

Stefanick’s description of joy struck a chord with her.

“I’ve got to find joy through the messiness,” Cordeiro said.

Caleb Martin, 22, who graduated in May from nearby University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with a degree in electrical engineering, worked as a volunteer at the event.

“It’s a good movement. It’s a really good message with the whole Eucharistic Revival, and getting people to focus more on the Eucharist and what it really is,” said Martin, who works in Newport, Rhode Island.

Martin said Stefanick reached him with his morning talk.

“One of the things was how he was saying the battleground between heaven and hell is right here in our heads,” Martin said. “We need to be fighting for heaven and not respond to other things, the people who are spreading misinformation about the faith. We need to be fighting for the faith.”

Deacon Tony Pimentel and his wife Karen, of nearby New Bedford, who attended the event Saturday, also watched much of the National Eucharistic Congress in July — because they got COVID-19 at the same time.

As for Stefanick’s morning talk, Deacon Pimentel said, “The thing that struck me the most was how critical it is to be joyful and where joy comes from.”

“When’s the last time you wanted to spend time with a miserable person?” he said. “We have joy in the Eucharist, and we forget that.”