January 28, 2024

Bishop Byrne to speak at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

REGIONAL
Staff report

SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Bishop William D. Byrne will be the keynote speaker at the 19th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast (NCPB) to be held Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, D.C.  Bishop Byrne will speak on this year’s NCPB: “Be of Good Cheer! The Eucharist, The Source and Summit of our Faith” and specifically will reflect on the National and International Eucharistic Congresses.

“I am delighted to be speaking on the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Here in the Diocese of Springfield, we had a Year of the Eucharist which moved into the parish phase,” said Bishop Byrne.

“If people understood that Jesus was truly present, lives would be changed and churches would be filled. I want to invite everyone, those practicing and those who have been sitting on the sidelines, to fervently seek Jesus, who wants to give us the peace that the world cannot give,” the bishop said.

The Diocese of Springfield is planning a pilgrimage to the National Eucharistic Congress which will be held in Indianapolis in July. This is the culmination of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s National Eucharistic Revival, which began in 2021. The diocesan Year of the Eucharist, which ran from Nov. 21, 2021-June 2023, refocused the faithful on the central teaching that the Eucharist is truly Christ’s body and blood. Christ instituted the Eucharist on the night of the Last Supper when he said, “Take and eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26).

“This year’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast presents an opportunity for our nation’s foremost Catholic leaders to look past our differences, and to unite in prayer for the future of our nation, and our world,” said NCPB event chairman, Mark Randall.

“At a time when joy, peace and unity have been utterly discarded, and Catholics, and ultimately the truth itself, are attacked around the world, it remains paramount for all the faithful to stand up and to fearlessly unite in defense of the truth, and our faith. Nowhere is true unity more perfectly achieved than in the Holy Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our faith,” said Randall.

The annual gathering attracts more than 1,000 of the nation’s most influential Catholics in Washington, D.C., to pray for the direction and leadership of the country. 

Past NCPB speakers include: Archbishop Borys Gudziak; Archeparch of the Ukranian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia; public speaker and Bible teacher Jeff Cavins,; President George W. Bush; Justice Antonin Scalia, and Cardinal Robert Sarah.