The Eucharistic Renaissance is here! Welcome Lord Jesus!

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Welcome to the Eucharistic Revival Renaissance!

Pope Leo XiV: Please write your first encyclical on the Source and Summit of our faith!  the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  I believe it is timely,  since I also believe we are in the Eucharistic Renaissance, a fitting completion and next step from the Eucharistic Revivals of recent years.
Dr Paul Kengor, you were spot on in your Crisis mag article and in a recent Drew Mariani Relevant Radio broadcast.   We’ve had enough of this climate change stuff (climate has changed daily since Creation) and ready for the realities of 2025 be addressed in a positive, truth-filled manner.

Why title the Encyclical “Welcome to the Eucharistic Renaissance”?

The evidence is deep AND wide, and you should realize: RECENT.  The table has been set, the Dark Ages are passing.
Catholic converts and reverts are exploding and not just in the US; just this week I met a joy-filled married woman in OCIA at a neighboring parish, and she’s like a Pentecost AD33 waiting like a child on Christmas eve for Easter 2026.   If only we cradle Catholics had the joy and heart of Kristina but the Holy Spirit is so active in reaching the –verts: CONverts AND REverts.
As to evidential categories, just look at this partial list:
1)  We have Jesus’ laser focused words, recorded and not recorded, in Scripture.
2)   A healthy history of Eucharistic miracles like Lanciano 1200 years ago…
3)  the sainted incorrupt
4)  the covenant splitting Shroud of Jerusalem, Edessa and Turin
5)  The CAtholic icon (I know, I must explain) Border Middle Fire or Giza points directly to House of Bread
6) the Stigmatists, like St Pio Pieltrecina
7)  Recent bleeding hosts in Argentina, Mexico etc.
8)  the Marian ‘frequent flyings’ ie apparitions, visits all over the world starting in AD40 with the bilocation to encourage James known as Our Lady of the Pillar.
People of God!  We revive dying dogs and drowning kids but when it is time to celebrate realities hidden in plain sight, let’s DO IT! The story is full of life, but ignorance can be overcome by our new pope Leo XiV; our age needs it NOW.
And Pope Leo is the right one to announce this new historical reality of the Bride of Christ.  He declared himself a “son of Augustine” whose words (hat tip Mr Kengor) are compelling:
“The Lord Jesus wanted those [who] recognize Him to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread. The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. For not all bread, but only that which receives the blessing of Christ, becomes Christ’s body.” ~St Augustine
We, as a Church, have made many “unforced errors” in recent decades; and thanks to the “opponent”, too many distractions like banning only one language, Latin with a vengeance by some and giving baby killing Durben an award, with the bishops showing signs of hope and life in texting/writing/proclaiming it anathema to being Catholics when you honor baby killing and slicing off breasts & penises for those who survive Planned Parenthoodlums. But, we must CELEBRATE, sound the trumpets of the Renaissance, regarding Jesus IS truly present; known from early on in the Bread of Life discourse.  There was a solid caller to Drew and Dr Paul Kendor that day:

“Catholics don’t know what they have, protestants don’t know what they are missing.”

The recent Eucharistic Revival, that was completed in LA at the appropriately named, Queen of the Angels Cathedral on June 22nd, signaled the perennial pilgrims eight finishing their journey from the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
Great things have unfolded, but it is time to move it up. Frankly, I know there’s a lot of printed materials with Revival! all over the letterhead and media, but waiting to 2033 to declare Victory is misguided and yet another, tho soft, unforced error of omission, in my simple and humble opinion.   Weigh the evidence.
AND What more evidence do we need, world?  Briefly, as possible, look at why and how.
THE ACTUAL EVENT.    We already have solid evidence Jesus instituted the Eucharist, bloodlessly offering Himself on the same date, Friday the 13th Hebrew month Abib circa 33ad, then He gave His all on the bloody Cross of Salvation.   Jews’ calendaring shows the next day begins at sundown; Jesus and the Apostles began Holy Thursday AFTER sundown in the upper room, meaning Friday the 13th had already commenced.   And before His blood was dry,  the anxious executioners, the Pharisees et al, demanded His bones be off the wood before Passover commenced.
Three Bible scriptures, in John, Deuteronomy and Exodus, complement each other, and point this out about the importance of the 13th.  The first reflects that unitive day of the institution of the Eucharist and Crucifixion, we know as Good Friday:

John 19: 31Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down.

Read on regarding Passover 1.O.  Exodus 12  verse 1:* This month (Abib) will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year.a   We know it even today, as the month of Abib/Nissan; coincidentally, today Israel and the Jewish people celebrate their lunar year 5785.

 Brief Chabad/Jewish commentary:

“The very first commandment given to Jews while they were still in Egypt was to create a calendar based on the cycle of the moon: “And G‑d said to Moses … in the land of Egypt … This month is for you, the head of the months; first it is for you among the months of the year.”1
The Midrash points out that the Hebrew words for “this month” are הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶה, lit., “this renewal.” In other words, G‑d showed Moses the moon in its time of renewal and said to him, “When the moon renews itself, you will have a new month.”2
However, it should be noted that the Jewish calendar is actually a luni-solar calendar.  Although the months of the year follow the lunar cycle, we are commanded to keep the holidays in their proper seasons. If we were to only go by the lunar cycle (as some cultures do), we would have a problem. The solar cycle is approximately 365 days, while the lunar year is approximately 354 days, so the lunar calendar would fall behind the solar calendar by 11 days each year, throwing off the holidays. For example, the holiday of Passover, which is meant to be celebrated in the spring, would eventually fall out in the winter.”
~~
Exodus 12:12 “For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land, human being and beast alike, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
13 But for you the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thereby, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
14 This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD; you will celebrate it as a statute forever.
15 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. From the very first day you will have your houses clear of all leaven. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh will be cut off* from Israel.
16 On the first day you will hold a sacred assembly, and likewise on the seventh. On these days no sort of work shall be done, except to prepare the food that everyone needs.
17 Keep, then, the custom of the unleavened bread,d since it was on this very day that I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever.
18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of this month you will eat unleavened bread.
Jews still celebrate Passover 1.O today; but circa 33AD, Jesus changed the calendar for the New Covenant WHILE the old testament version remained in place.   God’s command to “celebrate as a statute FOREVER” is pretty direct.
Recap: Jesus died on a ‘day of preparation’;  we know that the Sabbath day, Saturday was a ‘solemn day’ that week. From Deuteronomy, we know Passover 1.0 is the 14th of Abib.

Deuteronomy 16 and Joshua 5:

“Observe the month of Abib* by keeping the Passover of the LORD, your God, since it was in the month of Abib that the LORD, your God, brought you out of Egypt by night.

Yet another reference to Passover with Moses’ successor in Joshua 5:”

Then the LORD said to Joshua: Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.e Therefore the place is called Gilgal* to the present day.
10f While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month.
11On the day after the Passover they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day
12after they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.
Fascinating that manna, the bread from heaven ceased as Moses’ successor Joshua honored the Passover on the 14th day of Abib, the first month like our January, in Israel.  Want to see the current Jewish calendar, go to chabad.org to see it is still valid today, though the Mass has superceded, if you will, completed a key reason for Pass over after years of enslavement during ancient times.
God’s Eucharistic PRELIMS IN STONE, TShirts AND MANUSCRIPT.
Note, you just read that God ceased sending Manna, once the released Jews ate of the produce of the Promised Land.  Obviously, Manna was both food AND a Christ prefigurement/symbol, it foreshadowed the life giving gift that happened the same Jewish date/day we know as Friday the 13th Hebrew month Abib.
The Bread of Life, Jesus discusses in the New Testament, is a beautiful reflection of where the Eucharistic Gift first appeared on earth, at the House of Bread (of Life) that we sing about as Beth’Lehem. Sidenote, the Mohammad followers call the City of David “House of Meat.”
What has this to do with a papal encyclical on the Eucharist?
Simple answer: IT’S ABOUT TIME!
Another clue: Giza.  I have written on occasion about the world’s largest structure, built about 2623bc and the stellar clockworks began about 2141 BC 270 miles southwest of Jesus’ birthplace, Bethlehem. It should be noted good research shows that, like the Jews Passover escape in the dead of night, Joseph, with the angel Gabriel’s prompting, headed to Cairo in the dead of night along a vector from Bethlehem skirting the Middle Earth Sea and arriving at a peaceful Jewish settlement that dated back to Alex the Great.  Out of Herod’s evil talons.
I can hear the chuckles, but suppose Giza IS a Catholic icon just not at the top of the page though I have shared briefly with my fave PB&J Fr. Spitzer the genius.
  Giza Pyramid is the translation of Border (giza) Fire in the Middle (Pyro-midos) and sits at the border and middle of Egypt AND more prophetically, at the EXACT CENTER OF THE WORLD; it reflects its name well.   The same day that Jesus celebrated His True Presence in the Bread & Wine, Giza went dark for 3 hours later on Friday the 13th because, as the song goes, “the sun refused to shine” with our Savior on the rugged wooden cross.
Annually, on the seasonal change, the Spring Equinox astronomically, Giza has ZERO shadow at high noon; in fact, it is perfectly aligned millennia later, to north, east, west & south (off only 3 seconds of arc) and its designed in passageway angularity is 26degrees 18 minutes 9.63 seconds.  You need not be a boy  or girl scout to learn that a line at that angle passes from Giza, skirts the Mediterranean and points to and through Bethlehem, you guessed it, 270 miles away.
Think about the truth: God created the universe, all 500 sextillion miles +, for mankind.  To get us to heaven.  Even the seasonal cosmos changes, Equinoxes and Solstices, were designed with theological purposes.  Giza reflects that in many ways: For more details:  “
Evidence:  Eucharistic Miracles CONTINUE today.
Irony: my cell phone digits point to Pope Leo:  714-267-1413.  The 267th pope Leo XiV or 14 who follows in spirit the Great Leo 13th.  You just can’t make this stuff up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~notes
~~~~~~~~Dr Paul Kengor’s article in Crisis Magazine~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There has been much speculation and anticipation regarding the subject of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical. He recently released his first papal document, Dilexi Te, an apostolic exhortation begun by Pope Francis. Leo reportedly made some edits to the document and added some personal reflections, but he largely seemed to leave it intact, apparently wanting to honor his predecessor by releasing the final document that Francis had commissioned. That kind of conciliatory approach is clearly emerging as Leo’s style. Unlike Francis, this pope wants to avoid division and polarization and seems committed to seeking peace—the literal first word of his papacy spoken from the Loggia on May 8, 2025.

Thus, in effect, we’re still awaiting the new pontiff’s first major document.

While I certainly have no inside knowledge as to what Leo’s first encyclical will be, I’m hoping and praying for one decidedly more theological and, in fact, sacramental. I would like to see from Leo an encyclical on the Eucharist—or more to the point, on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

My thinking on this is an informed opinion prompted by two things: First, the painful reality that so many self-professing Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. And second, I’m currently finishing a major biography of Pope Leo XIV, during the writing of which I have both learned about and admired his respect for the Real Presence.

Rejecting the Real Presence

The tragic reality is that substantial numbers of Roman Catholics neither understand nor accept this central tenet of their faith. The data is scandalous. It reveals a deep, decades-long failure of rudimentary catechesis that has resulted in an embarrassingly ignorant laity.

An August 2019 Pew Research Center study found that less than one-third of American Catholics (31 percent) believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” Of this “source and summit” of our faith, nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69 percent) say they personally believe that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are mere “symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

That study was pre-Covid. During the pandemic, many Catholics abandoned Mass altogether. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, given that many didn’t believe they were actually receiving Jesus in the Eucharist anyway. Subsequent surveys have yielded similarly disturbing numbers.

A survey released in 2023 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) found that only 17 percent of Catholics go to Mass each week. Though belief in the Real Presence is higher among those who attend weekly, the overall numbers are still troubling. In the CARA study, a 51 percent majority of Catholics said that they believe that their Church teaches that “the bread and wine are symbols of Jesus.”

Other data could be shown. But the point is that way too many self-identified Catholics reject a core tenet of their Faith—one of the Church’s seven sacraments. They don’t believe what they were taught from the time of their first Holy Communion.

Pope Leo’s Appreciation for the Real Presence

The good news is that the new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, early in his pontificate has already shown his great respect for the Real Presence. He has a history of demonstrating that reverence, from the time he was a newly ordained priest to becoming the head of the Augustinian order in 2001.

In his opening words from the Loggia after being chosen pope on May 8, Robert Francis Prevost proudly described himself as a “son of Augustine.” He constantly quotes Augustine. He knows the venerable saint exceedingly well. And of course, Augustine (354-430) knew the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist exceedingly well.

“The Lord Jesus wanted those [who] recognize Him to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread,” wrote Augustine. “The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. For not all bread, but only that which receives the blessing of Christ, becomes Christ’s body.”

Sadly, many self-identified Catholics would be perplexed by what Augustine was saying. They do not recognize Christ in the breaking of the bread. Two thousand years ago, the disciples on the Road to Emmaus recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, as did their Church henceforth. But millions of professing Catholics today do not.

One of Augustine’s most moving discourses on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was his analysis of the Expositions on the Psalms (ca. 400) 33,1,10. There, Augustine commented on Psalm 119:109. Applying an Old Testament passage to the New Testament, Augustine asserted: “For Christ was carried in His own hands, when, referring to His own Body, He said: ‘This is My Body.’ For He carried that Body in His hands.”

According to Augustine, when Jesus held the bread at the Last Supper, He was holding Himself in His hands.

And yet, large swaths of Catholic do not believe that such a miracle takes place today in their parishes when their priest, in persona Christi, consecrates the host.

Of course, their pope most certainly believes it. And perhaps their new pope, Leo XIV—student, scholar, and son of Augustine—can help return them to this core doctrine of their Catholic Faith.

To that end, the faithful got an encouraging sign in the opening weeks of Leo XIV’s pontificate. In a powerful display, the new pope led the faithful in a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome during Corpus Christi Sunday on June 22. Faithful Catholics know that such processions are an uplifting gesture, dating back to the 13th century. Unfortunately, these processions are not done each year by every parish. Moreover, they have not been done consistently by the Bishop of Rome himself. When Pope Francis participated in a Corpus Christi procession in June 2024 (his poor health prohibited him from walking), it was the first time he had done so since 2017.

The new pope, however, led the procession himself. Leo XIV made no grand announcement and did not have the Vatican press office promote the event. He simply, silently did it. He led a 45-minute procession nearly a mile in 90-degree heat between the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. The pontiff led a massive gathering of 20,000 pilgrims through the streets of Rome, hoisting high a golden monstrance encircled by precious stones.

In his homily at St. John Lateran, the pope said that “the procession” was a “sign” to the world that “we will feed on the Blessed Sacrament, adore Him, and carry Him through the streets. In doing so, we will present Him before the eyes, the consciences, and the hearts of the people.” They would do this both for “those who do not believe” and for those who believe, “that they may believe more firmly.”

On that, the son of Augustine quoted Augustine saying that “Christ is truly present” in the bread that the faithful see and consume: the Eucharist “in fact, is the true, real, and substantial presence of the Savior, who transforms bread into Himself in order to transform us into Himself.”

Here was the new pope teaching the faithful about the Real Presence. The head of the flock knows not only that the sheep need to be fed, they need to be led. They need to be taught. Catholics badly need catechesis on the Real Presence not only from their priests and Religious Ed classes and RCIA; they need it from the top—from the Vatican, the magisterium, the Holy Father.

As for Pope Leo’s first encyclical, well, there are countless worthy subjects demanding his attention. And yet, few seem as worthy as the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It is the source and summit of our faith. Here’s hoping and praying that we will get that faithful leadership from our Holy Father in the not too distant future.

Author

  • Paul Kengor is Professor of Political Science at Grove City College, executive director of the Center for Vision and Values. He is the author, most recently, of The Devil and Karl Marx (TAN Books, 2020). He is also the editor of The American Spectator.

In his homily at St. John Lateran, the pope said that “the procession” was a “sign” to the world that “we will feed on the Blessed Sacrament, adore Him, and carry Him through the streets.

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