"I HAVE A DREAM." These are among the most quoted words in the English language outside of the Bible. They are the words of Martin Luther King Jr. If he had stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that hot summer's day in 1963 and said, "I have a plan," would the speech have become one of the most memorable speeches of all time? I don't think so. The ability to dream is uniquely human and an extraordinary gift. This God-given ability to look into the future and imagine something better, then return to the present and work to bring about that better future, is remarkable. And yet, sadly, it is massively underemployed in most people's lives. Think on it for a moment. When was the last time you used your God-given ability to chase down a personal dream? When was the last time, together as Catholics, we had a common dream and pursued it with relentless passion? I believe it is time we all started dreaming again. I realize the first response of many will be to tell us why it won't work before we have even begun. But it is time to move beyond this defeatism and dream again as Catholics. Where are the possibility thinkers of our age? Will you be one? This is a time for Catholics to start dreaming, to envision bold possibilities, and to work together in collaboration with God to make those dreams a reality. So, let me tell you a little about my dream, and then perhaps it can become our dream. I have a dream that the whole world would be consecrated to the Eucharist. One person at a time, one marriage at a time, one family at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one parish at a time, one diocese at a time, one country at a time. The whole world consecrated to Jesus in the Eucharist. Join me in this dream and together we can do something bold and visionary. It is a bold dream. But isn't that what is needed? "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid," was Goethe's insight. Those mighty forces are Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and all their angels and saints. Isn't it time Catholics did something bold? It is my fervent hope that my dream will help fuel your dreams and together as Catholics we will become a people of possibility again. WHAT IS CONSECRATION? Consecration is to devote yourself to God and make yourself 100 percent available to carry out His will on this earth. It is an act of unconditional surrender to God. Through the act of consecration, we dedicate ourselves abundantly, wholeheartedly, and completely to the will of God, surrender our distractions and selfishness, and promise to faithfully respond to God's grace in our lives. In the Book of Exodus, after the incident with the golden calf, Moses realized that the people had lost their way, and so he called them together and said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day." (Exodus 32:29) In the First Book of Chronicles, after God chose his son Solomon to lead, David gave everything he had over to God and the people of Israel. And then he asked, "Who else among you will contribute generously and consecrate themselves to the Lord this day?" (1 Chronicles 29:5) In the Book of Joshua, God's chosen people entered the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. Joshua asked the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant before the people and said, "Consecrate yourselves to the Lord, for tomorrow He will do wonders among you." (Joshua 3:5) For the Jewish people, the Ark of the Covenant was God's dwelling place on earth, God's presence among them. The Eucharist is God dwelling among us. And so, today I say to you, with Moses, David, and Joshua: "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord . that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day." "Who else among you will contribute generously and consecrate themselves to the Lord this day?" "Consecrate yourselves to the Lord, for tomorrow He will do wonders among you." 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory is the first ever guide to Eucharistic Consecration. Catholics have consecrated themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Saint Joseph, Saint Raphael, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Anne, the Holy Spirit, the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mediatrix of All Grace, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Czestochowa, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Sorrows, and to the Holy Trinity. I believe it is time we consecrated ourselves to Jesus in the Eucharist-it is time for a Eucharistic Consecration. THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY BEFORE YOU You are about to embark on an incredible journey. This isn't just another book. It is an invitation to participate in a sacred journey-a spiritual pilgrimage. It's a guide that will lead you to the essence of what it means to be Catholic . and it will change your life in the most marvelous of ways. Eucharistic Consecration will take your spiritual life to unimaginable new levels, but it will also energize the way you participate in relationships; ignite a new curiosity about yourself and others; transform the way you think about money and things; re-focus your professional life; liberate you from many of your fears, doubts, and anxieties; make you aware of the hopes and dreams God has placed in your heart; and breathe new life into your appreciation for the genius of Catholicism. Along the way you will meet many people who desperately need what you are holding in your hands right now. I hope you will share it with them. By sharing this Eucharistic way with them, you will become a Eucharistic Missionary, preparing their hearts for Jesus to enter and transform their lives. CRISIS OF FAITH The Catholic Church in America has been in crisis for decades. This is an uncomfortable truth, but one that will not change unless we face it. Modern Catholics are experiencing a crisis of faith. Materialism and secularism have been eroding the faith of Catholics for decades. The result is most starkly recognized in the research that shows only 31 percent of Catholics in the United States believe Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Here are a few more statistics that reveal the depth and breadth of this crisis: More than fifty million Catholics in the United States have stopped practicing their faith over the past thirty years. More than half of all American adults raised Catholic (52 percent) have now left the Church. Only 8 percent say returning to the Catholic Church is something they could imagine doing. We have closed a Catholic parish in the United States every three days for the past thirty-five years. We have closed a Catholic school in the United States every four days for the past twenty-five years. Over the past fifty years we have lost a Catholic priest from active service every day in the United States due to retirement, death, men who have left the priesthood voluntarily or those who have been removed. In 1973 there were 58,000 priests in the United States, the average age was thirty-five, and only 10 percent were over the age of sixty-five. Today there are 37,000 priests in the United States, the average age is sixty-four, and 40 percent are over the age of sixty-five. 3,500 parishes in the United States are now without a resident priest. These numbers are real, but statistics are cold. Behind each of these vast numbers is a human being, and a soul, and a family, often a marriage, and more often than that, parents who suffer wondering why their child no longer goes to Mass and what went wrong along the way. We have all been impacted personally by these statistics. But there is another aspect for us to keep in mind as we chart a path forward. I tried to capture it more than twenty years ago, in the opening line of the first edition of Rediscover Catholicism: "The Church (like so many other things in life) is not so much something we inherit from generations past, or take over from our predecessors, as it is something on loan to us from future generations." The Catholic Church is on loan to us from future generations. The negative trends above are only part of the picture. Wherever the Catholic faith is authentically lived out, the genius of Catholicism still has the power to attract people of all ages and help them make sense of life. In 2014 in the United States there were 708,979 infant baptisms, 44,544 adult baptisms, and 70,117 adults received into Full Communion. Even more encouraging is the data which shows that 43 percent of people who consider themselves cultural-Catholics (Catholic but not practicing) say they can imagine returning to the Catholic Church in the future. We need to forge the kind of future that will bring them back. It is...
