A “Worldwide Eucharistic Adoration” has been organized for next Saturday, November 21, in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress of Budapest, which will take place from September 5-12, 2021, with a year’s interval given the pandemic.
One can register online, individually or as community or parish on the site dedicated to this “Worldwide Adoration”: https://corpusdomini,iec2020.hu/?lang=fr#/
Already over 1,700 points of the world — as community or individually — have announced their participation on the world map of the online page.
Father Kornel Fabry has been a diocesan priest of Kaposvar, Hungary for 20 years and a member of the Emmanuel Community. At present, he is the Secretary-General of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress. He testifies how he himself was seized by love of the Eucharist at 22, and he explains how one can register.
In Hungary, great witnesses manifested their love of the Eucharist under the Communist oppression, such as Benedictine Father Placid Oloffson, recounts Father Fabry.
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–Q: What is happening on November 21?
–Father Fabry: On November 21, for the seventh time, we invite the world to Adoration and worldwide prayer for one another. This event is inscribed in the preparation for the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, which will take place in Budapest from September 5-12, 2021. As I just mentioned, it’s the seventh time that we invite the whole world to prayer, especially as prayer has immense value in moments such as those we are living.
–Q: How did it begin?
–Father Fabry: In 2017, during the first year of preparation of the Congress, we had the idea to invite the Hungarians to pray together on the eve of the feast of Christ the King. We were surprised to see that 18 countries had taken part in that Adoration. Then, we organized an Adoration again on Saturday, feast of Corpus Christi, and then we organized this Adoration twice a year. We created an Internet site in eight languages to facilitate the registration. We saw that many people prayed willingly with us. Thanks to this Internet site we realized, on a map, the extent of our union in prayer. So even those that are alone are conscious of being part of a much larger community. It’s a message we received from the United States: two priests prayed together, but they wrote to us that, even though they were two, they were certain of being part of a much larger community and that gave them courage and strength.
–Q: How many have registered and of what countries are they?
–Father Fabry: Up to now not far off from 2,000 places have registered in 72 countries, from New Zealand to Canada, from Japan to Chile.
–Q: How does one take part?
–Father Fabry: We ask those that want to take part to register on the corpusdomini site. On the top right one can first choose a language and then three possibilities are offered to them: “Create a new place”; “I join” and “I join from home.”
We suggest to parishes and communities to create a new place, in a church, in a chapel where one can pray together. If I am someone who wants only to take part without organizing a place of Adoration, I must click on: “I join” to find a place where the event is already proposed. In several countries, there is no possibility to go to a church because of the pandemic. In that case, it’s always possible to join us in prayer from one’s home, by clicking on” “I join from home.” In that case, the registration is very simple: it’s enough to enter the country, the name of the city or village, and the postal code.
To invite other people to this Adoration and worldwide prayer, at the bottom of the page one can click on the sharing icons on Facebook or by mail. We encourage each one to share this announcement with friends, family members, so that they are au courant of this possibility to pray together.
–Q: And you, personally, how did you discover Jesus-Eucharist?
–Father Fabry: I was born in a Catholic family of five children. We always went to Mass, prayed at home, so I had the faith very naturally. But it’s necessary to convert at least once in life; it was necessary that the faith I received from my parents became my own. I was 22 when I converted thanks to a retreat of preparation for the effusion of the Spirit. I experienced the love of God and at the same time, I received the exact answer to this question: What is God’s great gift for me? The answer is the following: He-Himself. From that day on, I went to Communion every day to meet Jesus. It was a true conversion because from that moment on, I no longer looked to see who was the priest celebrating Mass, how he preached, how to qualify the music in the church, who was there, etc. Briefly, I no longer looked at “the aesthetics” of the Mass. The most important had become the meeting with Jesus, thanks to the words pronounced by the priest and to the action of the Holy Spirit. It was in the 90s. Since then, for me to celebrate Mass and receive Jesus in my heart, is always a celebration and the summit of my day. Adoration is the prolongation of the Mass. I love community Adoration very much, being a member of the Emmanuel Community, but also silent personal Adoration, because I am persuaded that Jesus wants to speak to us, but in noise, or when one talks all the time, one can’t hear Him. In silent Adoration, Jesus’ voice makes itself heard, but it’s necessary to give Him our time.
In this time that we are living, it’s necessary to be able to appreciate the possibility to go to Mass, or to the church.
–Q: There were great witnesses of the Eucharist in Hungary’s difficult times under the Communist oppression . . .
–Father Fabry: We can in fact think of the prisoner priests during the forty years of Communism, persecuted and deported to the Gulag, for example. One of those priests, the Benedictine Placid Oloffson, celebrated Mass in his bed with a small 10-centimeter high chalice (on display at the Museum of Terror in Budapest). He used unleavened bread received from a Jewish prisoner and squeezed the juice of raisins soaked in water. So, let us do everything possible to be able to go to Mass and Communion to live every day with Jesus.
–Q: This Worldwide Adoration is a stage on the road of Budapest’s Eucharistic Congress. What is Cardinal Erdo’s message?
–Father Fabry: Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop of Estergom-Budapest, invited to take part in this “Worldwide Adoration,” saying: “When Jesus Christ took leave of His disciples after His Resurrection, He sent them into the whole world to preach the Good News. He promised to be with them ”every day until the end of the world.” He is with us in His teaching, His grace, His Sacraments, but especially he is with us in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Holy Sacrament, venerated outside of the Mass. On Saturday, November 21, the eve of the feast of Christ the King, we invite all wherever they are, to Worldwide Adoration. In the present epidemiologic situation, where there is no possibility to gather in our churches, we can unite ourselves also from home, with our personal prayers. Let us take part in this hour of common Adoration as much as possible; join us with your parish, your community or your family! May this Worldwide Adoration be the next stage of our preparations in view of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, and may it make us experience again the love of God, which transforms us!”
