Forming Hearts and Minds of Students for Worship

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To understand the place of the Eucharist in Catholic education, we must first understand worship. Here are four elements of worship that Catholic educators should contemplate: worth, training, method, and culmination.

Worship requires worth

Each morning, Catholics and Jews greet the new day with the words of the 95th Psalm of David:

Come, let us sing to the Lord. Shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with praise and Thanksgiving…O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Psalm 95 forms an integral part of Jewish morning prayers and, as Catholics, we received this inheritance and incorporated it into Lauds (Morning Prayer) of the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours. With our Jewish brothers and sisters, we share a fundamental conviction that the first impulse of the day should be worship.

The very word worship reveals the nature of the act. Worship at its most fundamental is to recognize something as having ultimate worth. Another way to put it is to say: to worship is to “make a big deal” of something. In worshipping we acknowledge that we have found something so precious and full of worth that we have to name it. The American novelist David Foster Wallace famously remarked to a group of 2005 graduates of Kenyon College that worship is in no way optional:

This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship. Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

The task of all education, then, is the task of proposing to students what ought to be worshipped, what is worthy. To propose divine worship to students, the highest calling of Catholic education, is to invite them to behold the eternal significance and beauty of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the worth of this Lord Jesus is not self-evident to students inhabiting a world saturated with Tik-Tok stars, influencers, and billionaire entrepreneurs. Despite its challenges, it is the joyful obligation of each generation committed to Catholic education to unmask all that is truly worthless and to propose anew the One who is worthy of ultimate value and supreme worship.

Worship requires training

While worship is the most natural thing in the world to us, it can also seem thoroughly alien. To focus on another… to forget myself for a moment… to not ask, “How long will this take?” or “How much will this cost?” or “What will I get out of it?”… to restrain these impulses will very often feel completely unnatural. The truth, though, is that each of our students was made for this worship and made to find all their joy and fulfillment in discovering this Worth. Yet, just because we were made for worship doesn’t mean learning to worship will be easy. We were made to speak, to walk, and to use our hands, and when these are learned they bring untold joy and fulfillment but learning to do each of these required awkward beginnings and hours of frustrating practice. After those hours, we found ourselves capable not simply of speaking and walking but even of singing and running. Worship, like all these others, while ordained to us, is not automatic to us. Training and practice are necessary to cultivate a real habit of worship. It must be explained, prepared for, done, reflected upon, and done all over again. It cannot simply be taught; it must be caught.

As Catholic schools seek to prepare the ground for Eucharistic revival, we must prepare the hearts and minds of students for worship. Taking time at the beginning of a new school year to explain our rites, practice our responses, and rehearse our music are all seemingly mundane but essential steps in helping us move from merely standing to running in worship. The Church, in her wisdom, has given us liturgies and devotions to be used over and over and over again, so that the music and prayers and responses can be practiced and properly learned, moving from our lips to deep down in our innermost being. In this way, we are slowly being trained, so that one day when we have a moment when we don’t know how or what to pray, words will be given.

Worship requires a method

To train ourselves to acknowledge ultimate worth requires some kind of method. Since man first sought to draw closer to this Power behind all things, what one scholar called the mysterium tremendens et fascinans, the method has been sacrifice. While sacrifice has certainly looked different through the ages, the essential quality remains the same: to sacrifice is to waste something on your God. At the height of Israel’s sacrificial economy, one Passover might see the blood of 250,000 lambs shed. Whether the ancient sacrificial offering was flesh, grain, or oil, the essential meaning of the gift was the same. These things I am offering are precious to me, yet this rare and precious thing is not worth more to me than my God. He is source of all that I have, so He is more precious. He is worth more.

Now, these things are easily accessible to us. They are not fitting sacrifices, because they are too easy. For sacrificial worship to have its proper place in our schools, other sacrifices must be made. For school leadership, it will be the sacrifice of time, something which is so precious, because we have such a limited amount of it. To propose worship to students is to ask Catholic schools to sacrifice time and resources. It is to carve out time from instruction, from organizations, from sports, and from all the other demands of a school day and to “waste it” on Our Lord. It is to “waste” resources (that’s the polite word for money) on music and art and a space that is fitting for a God of goodness, truth, and beauty. If our school liturgies require no waste, then we must ask to what degree they are training for worship.

Putting the blade to instructional time and every other urgent need in a school schedule is no easy ask for Catholic school leadership. What is asked of our students in this sacrificial worship is to offer up something that will seem to many of them even more precious: their sense of dignity, their sense of “not caring,” of aloof “coolness” and social status. For so many of our students, these are precious offerings, but these too must be invited to be placed on the altar. None of these sacrifices will be easy, and if they were, they would not be worthy of divine worship, but by the gift of sheer divine grace, schools and students can be trained.

Worship requires culmination

It should be obvious to all concerned that the habit of worship we’ve described, in all its beauty and profundity, is incredibly difficult. Not just for the obvious reasons we have spoken of, that training is required and that we are easily distracted and easily turned back in on ourselves. More tragically, though, these lips that speak God’s praises also soon take up gossip and slander. The hearts that we lift up to the Trinity in adoration are often deceitful. And it is for these reasons that the culmination of our worship is nothing we offer. The climax of our school worship cannot simply be preaching, no matter how engaging, or singing, no matter how robust, or prayer, no matter how earnest. These are our acts of devotion, but the crown of Christian worship, the end of Christian worship is not our offering, but His: the Eucharist. Our worship finds its source and summit in the Mass because there, and only there, is found the perfect act of worship and obedience to the Father.

For centuries the children of Israel called themselves to worship, longing for the day when a perfect temple, with holy priests, would offer perfect praise to the Father. Now, in our Eucharistic worship, we encounter the one who in His death declared the worth and beauty of the Heavenly Father. In the eternal Son’s offering of Himself, He gathers up our scattered voices, imperfect singing, and distracted praying, and, united with Him, makes of our worship something glorious and truly worthy.

The journey towards this culmination of our worship is no small labor. We take up this adventure of worship with all the sacrifice and training required, not simply because it is “right and just,” though to be sure it is. We propose right worship to our students because worship is not simply our duty, it is our destiny. It is the future for which every student in our schools was made. One day, when this veil of tears is lifted and we know Him, even as we are fully known, sacraments will cease, but worship, the Revelation of St. John promises, will not. One day it is all we will do, and of it, we will never tire.

Eucharist, The Heart of Catholic Education

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“The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church…. Nevertheless, the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time, it is the font from which all her power flows” (The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 9-10).

We begin with an image. One of the most profound visual statements of the Catholic educational ideal — namely, the integration of the various disciplines of human wisdom in the light of the divine Wisdom incarnate — is portrayed in the tympanum over the right door to the main entrance of the Cathedral of Our Lady in the city of Chartres, France.

Chartres was the sight of a tremendous intellectual renaissance in the twelfth century, which witnessed not only the construction of this magnificent cathedral, but also the founding of a remarkable academic institution, the Cathedral school. This was an institution that brought together in one place for the purposes of research and teaching many of the best and wisest scholars of the day, an institution that would serve as a model for the creation and development of that amazing medieval invention, the university.

For the great scholars and visionaries at Chartres, their challenge was to create an educational framework in which the disciplines of human wisdom might be married to the revelation of divine Wisdom in the person of Jesus Christ. Indeed, this portal sculpture is an artistic expression of precisely that intellectual vision.

If you do an online search for an image of “the seven liberal arts and the western portal at Chartres,” you will find several good photographs of the tympanum, some of which have the characters labeled. In the middle, you will see the famous Sedes Sapientae, or holy “Seat of Wisdom.” Surrounding it in the archivolts are personifications of the seven liberal arts: on the bottom right, grammar, who is teaching two boys to write; moving then to the bottom left, we find dialectic, in whose right hand is a flower and in whose left hand is the head of a barking dog; proceeding around clockwise, we find rhetoric, who is pictured proclaiming a speech; geometry, who is shown writing figures on a tablet; arithmetic, whose attributes have been effaced over the centuries, so no one is sure what she is doing; astronomy, who is gazing up at the sky; and finally, moving to the inner archivolt, music, who is playing two instruments: the twelve-stringed harp and some bells. Underneath each of the arts is a representation of the thinker classically associated with that discipline: Priscian for grammar, Aristotle for dialectic, Cicero for rhetoric, Euclid for geometry, Boethius for arithmetic, Ptolemy for astronomy, and most likely Pythagoras for music, about whom Cassiodorus had related the story that he had “invented the principles of this discipline from the sound of bells and the percussive extension of chords.”

Here at Chartres, we see in concrete, visible form the artistic record of an attempt to integrate human wisdom, as exemplified by its instruments — namely, the seven liberal arts — with Wisdom incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. The visual movement of the image, moreover, goes in both directions. The arts and disciplines of human wisdom are seen as a preparation for an increased understanding of faith: they surround and support the image of Wisdom Incarnate in the center. By the same token, the Seat of Wisdom is pictured at the center as both the source and summit of all human wisdom. Mary sits at the center of the arts as a paradigm — as the “Seat of Wisdom” — because she is a model of one who obediently responded to God’s word, thus giving birth (in her case, quite literally) to God’s Wisdom Incarnate.

This point is emphasized in the two friezes below, both of which illustrate the events of the Christ’s birth. In the bottom frieze (reading from left to right), we see the Annunciation, the Visitation, and in the middle, the birth of Christ, with the angel leading the shepherds in from the right, sheep in tow. In the top frieze, we see Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus at the altar in the Temple. If you look closely, you’ll see that, unfortunately, likely due to violence done to the cathedral during the French Revolution, Christ is missing His head.

I am sometimes asked: “Doesn’t Jesus look sort of a like a loaf of bread?” The answer is, yes, and it’s not just because He’s missing his head. Scholars tell us that these images were carved in response to a Eucharistic controversy raging at the time, in which certain groups were emphasizing the presence of the Risen Christ of heaven in the Eucharist, perhaps to the detriment of an understanding of the Eucharist which might include the living Christ who lived and walked the earth. Here at Chartres, we see an attempt to correct that potential misunderstanding by including within the Eucharistic imagery scenes from Christ’s birth. This theological and historical context helps explain why the artist pictures the child Jesus on top of an altar rather than in Mary’s arms or in a manger.

Let me stress that such details are not merely artistic trivia. Lying behind this entire set of images is a very conscious theology of Incarnation and sacramentality. If God has created the world and reveals Himself to us through His creation, then we have the possibility (as St. Paul tells us) of coming to know the invisible attributes of God through the visible things of creation. As in the visible, earthly elements of the Eucharist, we are meant to see the real presence of Christ, the Word made flesh, so also, in the visible, earthly elements of creation, we are meant to see the presence of God’s creative Word and Wisdom.

It would be a similar theology of Incarnation, moreover, that would allow the word and wisdom of God to become incarnate in actual, human language and thus, by extension, present and embodied on a written page such as the Scriptures.

Thus, as the scholars at Chartres understood, we must learn to read both the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture, for they are not mutually exclusive. Rather, on this view, they will ultimately illumine each other because they both have the one God as their Author. Indeed, on the classical Christian understanding of the seven liberal arts, the trivium (or “threefold way”), which includes grammar, rhetoric, and logic, are precisely the disciplines that teach us how to read and understand the Book of Scripture; while the quadrivium (the “fourfold way”), the arts of geometry, mathematics, astronomy, and music, are those that guide us in our understanding of the Book of Nature. The portal image makes clear, however that this reading — whether of one book or the other (and notice that each of the classical thinkers associated with the arts is pictured writing in a book, which is the classic medieval pose for the four Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) —must always be done in the light of the divine Wisdom incarnate.

Note how, in this vision of an authentically Catholic education, all the disciplines are present and effectively integrated. This aspiration to unity and integration of all the disciplines is one that has continued to inspire the best Catholic educational institutions in the centuries since. It was the vision that inspired the nineteenth century theologian and saint, John Henry Cardinal Newman, to write his important and influential book, The Idea of a University, although it was a vision he had nurtured for years. In one of his earlier sermons, for example, he wrote:

Here, then, I conceive, is the object of … setting up universities; it is to reunite things which were in the beginning joined together by God and have been put asunder by man…. It will not satisfy me, what satisfies too many, to have two independent systems, intellectual and religious, going at once side by side, by a sort of division of labor, and only accidentally brought together. It will not satisfy me, if religion is here and science there, and young men converse with science all day and lodge with religion in the evening…. I wish the intellect to range with the utmost freedom, and religion to enjoy an equal freedom, but what I am stipulating is, that they should be found in one and the same place and exemplified in the same persons (Cardinal Newman, in Sermon I of Sermons on Various Occasions).

What is especially poignant in this passage is the marriage imagery: the notion that in setting up universities, our goal should be “to reunite things which were in the beginning joined together by God and have been put asunder by man.” The rule in contemporary universities, however, is to allow our students to fall into (indeed, we often insist that they fall into) one or another of the disciplines, to the detriment of — perhaps even the exclusion of — the others. It is perhaps not inaccurate to say of the faculty and staff of the modern university that they are like the orphaned children of a sad divorce: a divorce not only between human wisdom and divine Wisdom, but also between and within the disciplines themselves. The job of a Christian university, then, is to do what secular culture cannot: unite what has been put asunder by man.

Bridging these divides, uniting what has been put asunder, and integrating what should be seen as a whole, was the challenge set forth by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Ex corde Ecclesiae. Allow me, if I may, to quote the passage I have in mind in full.

The integration of knowledge is a process, one which will always remain incomplete; moreover, the explosion of knowledge in recent decades, together with the rigid compartmentalization of knowledge within individual academic disciplines, makes the task increasingly difficult. But a University, and especially a Catholic University, “has to be a ‘living union’ of individual organisms dedicated to the search for truth … It is necessary to work towards a higher synthesis of knowledge, in which alone lies the possibility of satisfying that thirst for truth which is profoundly inscribed on the heart of the human person.” Aided by the specific contributions of philosophy and theology, university scholars will be engaged in a constant effort to determine the relative place and meaning of each of the various disciplines within the context of a vision of the human person and the world that is enlightened by the Gospel, and therefore, by a faith in Christ, the Logos, as the center of creation and of human history (Ex corde Ecclesiae 35).

Bridging these divides — bridging especially the significant division between what author C. P. Snow once called “the two cultures”: the natural sciences, on the one hand, and the humanities, on the other — is necessary not only for the health of the secular academy, but it is an absolute requirement, as Newman and Pope John Paul II have made clear, for a truly Catholic education. Only if we help our students bridge this divide will we have helped them achieve the kind of unified and integrated human wisdom — both of themselves and of the world — that could serve as the proper handmaiden of the Divine Wisdom Incarnate.

Randall Smith is a Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. He is the author of four books, including How to Read a Sermon by Thomas Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide (Emmaus); Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture of Medieval Paris (Cambridge); and From Here to Eternity: Reflections on Death, Immortality, and the Resurrection of the Body (Emmaus). His next book — the only book-length commentary in English on Bonaventure’s Journey of the Mind into God — will be available from Cambridge University Press in the fall of 2024.

What Is “Eucharistic Education”? Why Do We Need It?

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The need is acute. Christ our Lord’s greatest gift to His Church—the gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist—is being neglected by far too many Catholics. The pews are emptying, vocations are plummeting, and the Church is graying because those not attending Mass on Sundays do not realize what they are missing. The King of Kings yearns to enter under their roofs, but He finds closed doors. “We are too busy,” they mutter, as they shuffle from soccer practice to scouts. “We have access to everything on our phones. What need is there for church?”

The time has come to address this crisis of faith head-on. One entity in the Church is specially equipped for this challenge—the Catholic school on the primary, secondary, and university levels. The Catholic school can inspire Catholics to love the Blessed Sacrament through Eucharistic education.

What is “Eucharistic education”? It is more than teaching about the Eucharist, though such teaching is certainly included. Eucharistic education places the Eucharist at the center of a school’s life—its academic curriculum, its formational programming, and, to the extent possible, its extracurricular activities. All of these elements receive their shape from the Eucharist and are ordered to leading students to a deeper love for it. In other words, the Eucharist is the summit and source of a school’s life.

The first step toward a Eucharistic education is explicitly including the Eucharist in every area of a Catholic school. It should be stated in a school’s mission statement: the school exists to develop its students’ personal relationships with Jesus Christ, who is fully present to them in the Eucharist. It should be included, in varying degrees, in both the titles and the content of religion classes at all grade levels. It should feature prominently in religious events in addition to Mass: visits to the chapel, Eucharistic adoration, an annual Eucharistic procession. It should be showcased in artwork and other decorations spread throughout the school building.

When the Eucharist is incorporated into the mission statement, into course titles, and into school décor, administrators, teachers, and campus ministers receive support and motivation to make these stated goals a reality in their classrooms and programming. Once it is clear that every person in the school is scaling the same summit and receiving power from the same source, the day-to-day work of Eucharistic education becomes easier and more exciting.

In the academic realm, religion courses take the lead in providing a Eucharistic education. Regardless of grade level, religion courses typically are divided by theme: God and creation, Jesus Christ, the Church, Sacred Scripture, the sacraments, and morality. In a Eucharistic education, the Eucharist is taught in every course, not just the courses on sacraments including the Mass. The essence of what the Eucharist is, in varying depths depending on the grade level, is repeated every year. In addition, the different course themes allow for different accents on the Eucharist: Scripture courses examine both the Old Testament types of the Eucharist and its New Testament description; morality courses underscore how we live the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity; courses in ecclesiology and Church history highlight how the Church, like the Eucharist itself, is the Body of Christ and how, in the words of St. John Paul II, “the Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist.”

Religion class lessons are essential, but they are only as strong as the religious programming that makes these lessons become flesh before students’ eyes. That is, religion classes and the celebration of the sacraments are mutually enriching, and the success of one depends on the success of the other. Every effort must be made, then, to ensure that Masses, celebrations of the sacraments, and other religious events, such as holy hours and retreats, treat the Eucharist with the utmost devotion and reverence.

This requires some soul searching on the part of administrators and campus ministers, as the tendency in today’s Catholic schools is to involve multiple students in administering these religious events. The intentions in assigning liturgical roles to students are noble, but the reality of doing so is that the solemnity and the unique character of the Eucharist diminishes if students see their peers handling the Eucharist and taking over roles in the Mass that belong to adults. In particular, students serving as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion should be avoided: in the minds of students, if a peer can touch something, then that something is not special. To that end, schools can help foster deeper devotion to the Eucharist by encouraging students to receive Holy Communion on their tongues. Students know that they cannot touch precious objects, be they in the home or in a museum. If they are instructed similarly on the Eucharist, they will learn how special the Eucharist is without using books or memorizing definitions.

A key feature of Eucharistic education is that it permeates all curricula, not merely the religion courses. Art, music, Latin, literature, history, and science courses can all include lessons on the Eucharist that, in varying ways, present the Eucharist as the heart of Christian life. These lessons are not catechetical; such instruction occurs in religion course. Rather, these lessons engage students’ hearts and imaginations, which are essential components within a person’s faith life.

In art classes of varying grade levels, students can learn creative ways to depict the fact that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ. They can also study paintings that do the same. In music classes, students can learn the great Eucharistic hymns in English and in Latin. For students studying the Latin language, these hymns take on much more meaning, as they can both reiterate and learn anew grammatical features and vocabulary. In addition to the standard prayers (Pater Noster, Ave Maria), students can begin class with the Eucharistic prayers (Adoro Te Devote, Tantum Ergo) that they can recite, sing, and memorize.

There are not many stories or literary works that include the Eucharist as a major plot element, but incorporating the few that do into the curriculum will allow students to see in an imaginative way how essential the Eucharist is to our lives. Middle school students can read the Chronicles of Narnia with its theme of sacrifice. High school and college students have two short story options: “A Hint of an Explanation,” by Graham Greene, and “Benediction,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the C.S. Lewis novel Till We Have Faces.

History courses offer many opportunities for teachers to add events that most certainly will not be included in the average textbooks but fit perfectly into the traditional chronologically divided periods. For example, when studying Roman history, students can read the letter from Pliny to Emperor Trajan, written in 110 AD, inquiring what the former should do with the Christians in his territory; Pliny briefly describes the celebration of Eucharist at that time. Medieval history can include the first Eucharistic heresy of Berengarius of Tours and the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi. Courses on the Protestant Reformation can contrast Luther’s heretical theology of the Eucharist with that of Catholic theology. American colonial history can include the French Jesuits of New York and the Mohawks’ attack on St. Isaac Jogues which was motivated by their belief that the saint’s implements for Mass were instruments of black magic.

Science class seems the most unlikely of places to discuss the Eucharist, but, in a secular age, it provides the perfect forum for studying the Eucharistic miracles that have taken place over the centuries, particularly the ones of the twenty-first century that occurred in Poland, India, and Mexico, and that have been studied with the latest scientific instruments. The segue for presenting the miracles could be the study of blood types or of muscle composition. The Eucharistic miracles offer so much to today’s students. First, they offer scientific support for their faith in the word of Jesus Christ that the Eucharist is really His body and blood. Second, they help overcome the popular notion that faith contradicts science. Third, their wondrous nature helps capture not only students’ intellects, but their imaginations as well. As students speculate how it is possible that these miracles came about, they are forced to consider God’s power over creation, a power that can transform ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Amidst the variety of academic disciplines and other activities in a school, it can be difficult to unite them all with a single theme. Eucharistic education provides that unity by directing, like a skilled concert master, all of a school’s elements in a harmonious orchestra in which students, teachers, and parents all know the tune. The tune is union with Jesus Christ, who is truly present in the Eucharist. As students study the Eucharist, they study Jesus. As they spend more time with the Eucharist and fall in love with it, they fall in love with Jesus. In helping students grow in this love, the Catholic school has fulfilled its mission. Eucharistic education will lead students to the Bread of Life.

 

Eucharistic Literacy: Forming Teachers as Effective Catechists

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At Mass, you often see mothers whispering into the ears of their squirming toddlers. Occasionally you can catch the words, “Look, it’s Jesus!” Shortly after the consecration, the congregation echoes loudly this whispered declaration of faith, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the word, have mercy on us.” Both confessions are needed to help the child see who is present on the altar; who is present to us in the Blessed Sacrament. Eucharistic literacy begins with the family and is supported by the parish family.

What, then, if these great truths learned at home and at Sunday Mass are largely forgotten the rest of the week? In secular schools, Christ is disregarded as irrelevant to daily life, and learning is focused on career readiness and a secular worldview that pretends Christ never redeemed the world. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that most young adult Catholics who never had a strong Catholic education do not believe the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

There is a need for the Eucharistic revival, and Eucharistic literacy through Catholic education is a crucial component. The revival can take many approaches, but at Sophia Institute for Teachers, we have seen the importance of forming Catholic educators: parents, catechists, and teachers. This mission extends beyond giving them the tools to teach, but also inviting them to experience Divine Love through the Sacraments. How can teachers proclaim, “Look, it’s Jesus,” without knowing His gaze upon them?

There is much that Catholic schools, dioceses, and colleges can do to form educators who are already hired. Since 2014, the Sophia Institute has provided day-long catechetical workshops for tens of thousands of Catholic educators around the country, and we are happy with the impact of this simple solution. A theological scholar’s more intellectual sessions are balanced with practical, pedagogical sessions from a Sophia master teacher that model concrete ways to make these concepts present to the students. The teachers’ imaginations are fed, and then they are sent home with lesson plans to use with their students. But most importantly, there are sessions for reflection and prayer, with the Holy Mass at the center of the day. 

At our recent workshop on the Eucharist called, Encountering God’s Love in the Sacraments, Franciscan University’s Dr. James Pauley made four points for teaching students during this Eucharistic Revival:

1 | teach and show them how to deeply invest,

2 | help them develop fluency in Sacramental language,

3 | help them see the Mass as the supreme encounter with love, and

4 | provide them a joyful witness to Jesus in the Eucharist.

All four of these points were incorporated into the pedagogical sessions hosted by our master teacher, Jose Gonzalez. He led teachers in meditating on the mysteries of the Eucharist through sacred art. They learned, some for the first time, about how the Old Testament revealed the gift of the Eucharist in the New Testament. And Jose drew on his experience to offer engaging ways to speak and teach about the Mass and the Liturgy. All these activities were ordered to the joyful experience of Holy Mass and Adoration together.

The results were encouraging: 93 percent of attendees reported feeling more confident and renewed in teaching the Faith, 89 percent gained new lesson ideas, and 93 percent learned new content about the Eucharist. These figures align with typical feedback from our workshops.

This is how we will see a genuine revival in our schools. Teachers of all subjects must see that the goal is not only familiarity with the doctrine of the Eucharist, but leading young people and their families to an authentic encounter with the Lord through the Eucharist. Strengthening Eucharistic literacy among students—helping them truly know and gain some understanding of the mysteries of the Eucharist—begins with hiring teachers who themselves are “literate” in the Church’s teaching and devotion to the Holy Sacrament. But just as ongoing formation is needed in all subjects, so is catechetical formation for all teachers.

We invite dioceses to schedule workshops with the Sophia Institute for Teachers, or schools and colleges can follow a similar model in their teacher formation programs. One key is to ensure that each workshop attendee leaves with all the tools they need to continue what they began. We provide multiple lesson plans, following the example of Our Lord by both informing and giving personal witness. Teachers tell their students, “Look, it’s Jesus!” by what they say, the content they teach, and how they behave. The lesson plans offer consistent support, guidance, and encouragement.

Just as ongoing formation is needed in all subjects, so is catechetical formation for all teachers

To help develop “fluency in Sacramental language,” as Dr. Pauley recommends, our Spirit of Truth series of lesson plans immerses the students in vocabulary from an early age. For example, we don’t wait until 5th or 7th grade to introduce the word “transubstantiation” but begin in 2nd grade, when most are preparing to receive First Communion. The students are guided to find the root of the word “substance” and make the connection with the word “transform,” even if the concept is not completely mastered for many years.

We hope that through the encounters with the Lord facilitated by these lessons, teachers will see their pivotal role in the classroom. The teacher stands alongside the parent, proclaiming to the children, “Look, it’s Jesus.” This requires a vibrant faith, fluency in the Sacramental language, and a personal connection with Christ. Belief in the Real Presence can only come from God by grace, but teachers can lead students to Him.

 

Eucharistic Liturgy: A Q & A with Archbishop Cordileone

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It was a special honor for The Cardinal Newman Society: in June, President Patrick Reilly had the opportunity to interview Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in a public conversation about the renewal of sacred liturgy and Catholic education. 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileon

Archbishop Cordileone is a hero of ours. He has been a champion of faithful education, standing in support of clear moral standards for San Francisco’s Catholic school teachers. He also has a special dedication to traditional and reverent liturgy through his Benedict XVI Institute, which sponsors beautiful Masses and new sacred art and music, and as ecclesiastical advisor to our Task Force for Eucharistic Education.

One of the pillars of our Task Force is renewing Eucharistic liturgy: improving music, prayer, and reverence in Catholic school and college liturgies. So when Archbishop Cordileone hosted the international Sacra Liturgia conference near San Francisco last June—featuring former Vatican officials Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal George Pell—we jumped at the chance to co-sponsor the event and present a special session with the Archbishop. Here are some excerpts.

Reilly: Let’s start with this concept of Eucharistic education. The Vatican’s documents on Catholic education have made it clear that the sacraments—both participation in the sacraments and also formation of students to receive sacraments—are foundational to an authentic Catholic education. Yet the surveys show that upwards of 70 percent of young adult Catholics today do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Thinking particularly about Catholic education—Catholic schools, Catholic homeschooling, college level—what immediate priorities would you recommend for improving a Eucharistic education in our Catholic institutions?

Abp. Cordileone: We need to make sure the catechesis is correct, is solid, is convincing. But catechesis is more than what’s taught with words. It’s what is experienced. It’s what is lived. It’s especially how our worship is conducted. And it’s the culture of the whole school. 

I would focus then on renewing the liturgical life in the school and focusing on the ars celebrandi which, as [Cardinal Sarah] pointed out, is not just the celebrant of the Mass, but it’s everyone. Everyone has a role in the Mass so that it’s celebrated properly. What kind of music is sung? What are the movements like? Are those who serve the Mass, are they taught to present themselves reverently, to walk gracefully with true liturgical sense? These are little things, but they add up, and they create a sort of an atmosphere…

I mean, there are so many riches the Church has to offer. …This is a Catholic birthright, all the beauty the Church has to offer the world. We need to open up these treasures to young people.

Reilly: Catholic intellectual development is also a birthright. It’s a right of baptism to be able to understand the world and understand reality through the light of our faith. Is there something that maybe more needs to be done in terms of the Church fully embracing the different modes of education, the growing variety of types of education, and not being stuck in one particular model?

Abp. Cordileone: I do believe we need more sort of versatility in the forms of education. I think we’re still trying to transition into a new reality, although we are making progress. But you can’t replace the idea of schools run by religious orders—nuns and brothers and priests…

The Church has, I think, been slow to enthusiastically embrace homeschooling, because we’re so invested in our schools. It’s part of our Catholic identity as Catholics in the United States. We are so proud of our Catholic school system and we’re very invested in that. So I think we’ve been a little bit reticent. But I like the hybrid idea, supporting parents who want to educate their children at home, but having opportunities for them to come together.

Reilly: The Vatican recently issued a document on Catholic education—on Catholic identity in our schools. One of the major emphases of that document was on the witness and the formation of the teacher. And so, when we talk about Eucharistic education, trying to teach young people to behave as if the reality of Christ is within them, how important is it that Catholic educators themselves model this Eucharistic lifestyle?

Abp. Cordileone: It reminds me of that now oft-quoted line of Pope St. Paul VI from Evangelii Nuntiandi, about how the world looks for witnesses more than teachers, and if it looks for teachers, it’s because first they’re witnesses. The teachers do have to be a witness to the identity and the mission of the school. …It’s forming the culture of the school, so that people who appreciate that culture will be drawn to it, and those who don’t will be repelled by it…

School departments have to be very careful about whom they hire in any discipline… not just in religion courses, philosophy courses, but in every discipline. And to try to actively recruit from, again, the good and faithful Catholic colleges and universities.

Reilly: Your Excellency, we certainly appreciate your example and your strength in continuing to improve Catholic education and to bring the faith to as many young people as possible. So thank you, and God bless you!

How to Promote Eucharistic Devotion at Your School

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Teaching young people about the Eucharist is important, but as Pope St. John Paul II warned in Catechesi Tradendae, the academic life can become too “intellectualized” without sacramental and Eucharistic devotion. Our students need to know of Christ’s Real Presence in the Mass, but then they need to love and adore Him.

At Donahue Academy, a parish K-12 school in Ave Maria, Fla., that I am honored to lead, we have taken several steps to promote Eucharistic devotion. Of course these are not the only ways of doing it, but they might suggest ideas for other Catholic educators. 

1. Make devotion an explicit, visible part of the mission

Our School’s mission statement declares it to be a place “in which students encounter Christ and pursue excellence in all things. Our students will deepen their love of God and others through the pursuit of all that is true, good, and beautiful.” 

We express that mission visibly in our school seal, which includes images of our parish church, a monstrance, a stylized Sacred Heart as part of a shamrock (our school’s team name), a book, and the words Christum novisse (encountering Christ). The seal serves as a story platform where we share how students will encounter Christ and pursue excellence through the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), their love for God and each other (the Sacred Heart), and their studies (the book).

While other schools will have unique articulations of their missions, all Catholic schools hold a common mission outlined by the Church. This mission is articulated in The Cardinal Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity in Education:

1 | Inspired by Divine Mission

2 | Models Christian Communion and Identity

3 | Encounters Christ in Prayer, Scripture & Sacrament

4 | Integrally Forms the Human Person 

5 | Imparts a Christian Understanding of the World

One can quickly see how devotion to the Eucharist hits all five principles. The Eucharist is the summation of everything we are trying to do as a Catholic school. If students get the Real Presence right, everything else naturally falls into place.

2. Make Mass a central, reverent, and frequent part of school life

Offering daily Mass creates a strong, vibrant Catholic culture. At Donahue Academy, we have a slightly longer school day (15-20 minutes based on grade level), and by offering Mass without a homily, our worship ends in 25 minutes. Mass is held in the gymnasium, and even that helps build community by having one grade set up in preparation for Mass and another grade tear down. The worship space is kept dark, with Gregorian Chant playing as students arrive. We kneel directly on the floor or in the bleachers, stressing the importance of reverence even when it seems a bit uncomfortable. 

Daily Mass is required for grades K-8, but with parental permission, grades 9-12 can select Mass or a silent study hall that begins with reading the daily Gospel. Approximately 80 percent of our high school students voluntarily attend Mass. On Fridays, Mass attendance is required, and a short sermon is added along with beautiful, sacred music sung by a choir. We invest heavily in our choir and shower them with treats and awards as they serve multiple functions in our community. We heavily recruit and entice students to join the choir to ensure its elevated status.

In addressing the current loss of Eucharistic devotion in the Church, Father Peter Stravinskas has said, “Clear, unambiguous, orthodox teaching on the Holy Eucharist must be bolstered by unequivocal signs and symbols in the sacred liturgy. Students desperately need a sense of the sacred, of mystery, and of awe in God’s presence. To get students to encounter Christ in the Eucharist, we must do Liturgy and worship extremely well.” 

In celebrating the Eucharist, we Catholic educators should be thoughtful, intentional, and spare no expense in time, effort, or accoutrement to fill this need. The challenge is real, and the response must be guided by the Spirit and the rich traditions of the Church, of which so many students and parents are unaware. Great things await students under such direction! 

3. Make the Tabernacle accessible 

We turned our most central and visible classroom space into a beautiful Eucharistic chapel, big enough for an entire class to visit. Every day our students walk by the chapel, prompting many to stop in for a visit. When the faculty “catch” the students praying or vice versa, powerful values are communicated and quietly strengthened. The ease and naturalness of a Eucharist encounter goes a long way!

4. First Friday Adoration

The U.S. bishops’ conference emphasizes that Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament flows from the sacrifice of the Mass and serves to deepen our hunger for communion with Christ and the rest of the Church.

For younger students, we start small with some singing and prayers, but we slowly help them grow in the ability to dwell peacefully in silence before the Lord. Each class takes time to adore Christ throughout the day, and we include the entire school in Benediction. The space is kept dark and prayerful with candles and lingering incense.

For the older students who may spend up to a full-class period in His Presence, we have Rosaries, Bibles, prayer books, and journals on hand.  Also, at our first and last faculty meetings of the year and our Christmas celebration, the faculty gather for 30 minutes of Adoration and Benediction to pray for each other and their students.

5. Eucharistic processions

We offer a Eucharistic procession during Catholic schools week, with stations set up around the outside of the school. We find that having a Rosary procession in October prepares for the needed reverence and focus to achieve a school-wide Eucharistic procession in January. It is important to keep silent and focused and, when appropriate, kneel on the bare ground as a community in worship and humility. Again, the fruits of this are real and even spectacular! 

Magdalen College

Eucharistic Living in College

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Among young adult Catholics, nearly three-quarters do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It’s a staggering statistic, but it’s not all that surprising given the state of our culture and many college campuses today.

Most colleges, even many wayward Catholic colleges, give little regard to the commands of Jesus Christ. Students face toxic campus environments with high rates of binge drinking, drug use, and a rampant hook-up culture. They’re taught from a secular worldview and may be fed false theology.

Now imagine four years—some of the most formative in life—immersed in a truly Catholic culture and education. It’s life-changing! Students are taught proper theology that explains the Real Presence in the Eucharist. And they learn how to live a “Eucharistic life” with Jesus Christ at the center.

At a faithful Catholic college, you’ll find students encouraged to pray, receive the sacraments, form good friendships, grow in modesty and virtue, have good clean fun, and discern their careers and vocations in prayer. These are fruits of Eucharistic living. 

The pillars of Eucharistic living 

One faithful Catholic college that encourages Eucharistic living—that is, helping students live according to the reality of Christ within them—is Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.

“Saint Francis of Assisi wrote more about the Eucharist in his writings than anything else—and he lived the Eucharist! He called his followers, and he calls us today, to be devoted to the Eucharistic Lord,” explains Father Jonathan St. André, TOR, vice president of Franciscan life at the University. 

We “encourage ‘Eucharistic living’ on campus by making the Eucharist the center of our lives,” Fr. St. André explained, pointing to daily Mass, Sunday Mass, perpetual Adoration on campus, the Festival of Praise that includes Adoration and praise and worship music, and a message delivered one Saturday evening each month. 

Flowing out of the sacraments, “Eucharistic living” is encouraged through the “experience of living in small faith communities called ‘households’ where students live like Jesus Christ, with other students seeking to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and going out to sanctify the world.” Nearly half of the student body lives in a household, in which students share life’s ups and downs, pray together, and hold each other accountable.

Additionally, “our professors strive in the classroom to communicate the integration of faith and reason in every discipline.” Fr. St. André added, “We also encourage our students to see that they possess great dignity as creatures of body and soul, and this is manifest in their humanity; a humanity ennobled by the gift of the Eucharist.” 

Beauty encourages Eucharistic living

The Eucharist is at the heart of Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, N.H., where beautiful liturgy, art, sacred music, and Catholic culture help students live a Eucharistic lifestyle.

“Scenic mountain vistas are the backdrop to Magdalen’s 100-acre campus atop Mount Kearsarge, and a brick and granite chapel stands at the center. It is the intentional hub of the community,” explains Tristan Smith, director of collegiate choirs at Magdalen. At midday, all classes and activities are paused for daily Mass. Liturgy of the Hours, all-night Eucharistic adoration, and Eucharistic processions are frequent on campus. 

Magdalen is intentional about exposing students to beauty, which leads them to Christ. Students learn chant, polyphony, and classic hymns, they write Byzantine icons, and they participate in reverent liturgy in both Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms.

Holy Week liturgies on campus are especially impressive, with Gregorian Chant included in Palm Sunday Mass and Spy Wednesday Tenebrae Service, and bells and Alleluias marking the Great Easter Vigil. “All our efforts combine to render our best gifts of beauty to God,” the College declares.

“When visitors stop by Magdalen College, they often express wonder at the hospitality of students, the reverence of the liturgies, or the rich harmonies of the 70-voice choir. Upon departing, visitors feel like they are leaving home,” remarks Smith. 

“They are not wrong,” he says. “When young Catholics invite Christ into their heart, He makes it His home, seamlessly and effortlessly. The Eucharist is our resting place; a resting place that we at Magdalen College call home.”

Living with Christ 

With the Eucharist at the center of campus, students at faithful Catholic colleges are encouraged to make a right ordering of priorities and a right way of living. 

That’s exciting to a growing number of college-bound students, such as Sarah Davis, who is The Cardinal Newman Society’s 2022 Essay Scholarship Contest winner. Davis is a freshman at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., this fall because she wants to “maintain and augment” the foundation she’s received in the faith, “rather than having to struggle to keep it.”

“I am convinced that a faithful Catholic college which is strongly devoted to the Eucharist will uniquely and positively impact my religious, moral, intellectual, and social formation,” explains Davis. While many students lose their faith in college, Newman Guide colleges are helping students grow in faith rooted in the Eucharist. 

And it’s no wonder, therefore, that Newman Guide colleges are disproportionately preparing students for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Christendom College has fostered more than 90 vocations to the priesthood. Approximately 10 percent of alumni of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., have pursued a religious vocation.

Ultimately, the goal for all students at faithful Catholic colleges is Jesus Christ Himself. Rather than sadness and a college experience that spirals them into sin, faithful Catholic education leads students to lasting happiness and holiness.