CONEY ISLAND — The Diocesean Eucharistic Revival that had been set for Saturday, Oct. 7, was postponed due to heavy rain, but that didn’t stop one church from moving ahead with its own celebration on Oct. 8.
The Church of St. Leo in Corona held a Eucharistic procession around the church that drew the participation of hundreds of parishioners. The joyous procession demonstrated that excitement over the diocese’s Eucharistic Revival is growing as diocesan officials move forward with plans to hold the large-scale gathering sometime this spring.
On Oct. 4, the Diocese of Brooklyn made the decision to postpone its Eucharistic Revival, an event that was expected to draw more than 6,000 of the faithful to Maimonides Park in Coney Island.
The revival was planned as a day of prayer, live music, a Eucharistic procession, a Mass, and other expressions of faith. Keynote speeches and songs of praise to be performed by singers and the Diocesan Choir were to have been featured.
Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for evangelization and catechesis for the diocese, said an exact date for the rescheduled revival has not been selected. “We are looking at a couple of different possibilities,” he added.
He called the Oct. 8 procession at St. Leo “a wonderful expression of faith” that proves that the people of the diocese are hungry for exactly the type of religious gathering the revival promises to be.
While organizers said that much of the planned program — including the musical performances — will remain intact, the venue will likely change. “We will hold it indoors,” Father Gibino said.
Thousands of gift bags containing prayer books, commemorative pins, information cards in English and Spanish, and other keepsakes will be stored at Our Lady of Angels Church in Bay Ridge until the spring.
The gift bags were filled by more than 60 student volunteers from St. Bernard of Clairvaux Parish and other churches in the diocese’s B11 Deanery during a session at St. Bernard Catholic Academy in Bergen Beach on Sept. 28.
Father Gibino further noted that the revival will place a heavy emphasis on families, in the hope that families would be “energized to really be committed to worship and to be committed to the Eucharist.”
The diocesan celebration is one of thousands of grassroots gatherings taking place across the country as part of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival, launched by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2022.
The National Eucharistic Revival will culminate in 2024 with the National Eucharistic Congress, which will take place July 17-21 in Indianapolis.
The various celebrations surrounding the National Eucharistic Revival are designed to promote a main tenet of the faith — that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and that Communion isn’t merely symbolic.