On New Year’s Eve, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston prayed a Holy Hour as the clock turned from 2023 to 2024. Something felt unusual about the approaching year; he felt that something momentous was coming.

That “something” was the National Eucharistic Revival and its Pilgrimage and Congress, he said, which has turned out to be “one of the most surprising and exciting projects that I have ever been a part of.”

Bishop Cozzens, chairman of the board of directors of the National Eucharistic Congress and the point person for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ three-year Eucharistic Revival, said he began imagining a Eucharistic revival in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Eucharist seemed to him to be the perfect anecdote for the loneliness many experienced during the pandemic.

But many Catholics have not returned to regular Mass attendance after the pandemic, the bishop told Tom Halden, director of communications in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, on this week’s episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show.

“We know that post-COVID, about 17% of Catholics are going to Mass every Sunday. That means (about) 80% of Catholics have not had an encounter with the living Jesus in the Eucharist,” Bishop Cozzens said. “Maybe they accept the Church’s teaching, maybe they even say that they believe it, but if they had encountered him, they’d be at Mass every Sunday.”

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is geared toward encounter and mission, with 24 “perpetual pilgrims” starting May 17-19 to travel the full lengths of four routes from the North, South, East and West to meet at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21. The northern route goes through Minnesota, including the archdiocese.

Bishop Cozzens said he hopes that the events will allow many Catholics to encounter Christ in the Eucharist, which will then equip them to be missionaries to invite others to do the same.

“Everybody who is paying attention knows that the Church in the United States needs to move from a maintenance mode to a mission mode,” he said.

This missionary mode of the Church starts with accompanying just one person, the bishop said.

“Who is one person in your life who God is calling you to walk with into the Catholic faith? Just think about if each one of us did that … the multiplication effects of that could have profound effects in our country,” Bishop Cozzens said.

To hear Bishop Cozzens discuss the importance of the Eucharistic Revival, tune into “Practicing Catholic” when it airs at 9 p.m. April 5 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, or when it repeats at 1 p.m. April 6 and 2 p.m. April 7.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes Bishop Joseph WIlliams talking about how to live out the joy of Easter. Also, a transitional deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood in May shares his journey and Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, talks about priestly formation. 

Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.