There are some who look at the Eucharist from the perspective of personal piety. It enhances their relationship with God. The Pope is not one of these. This does not mean that the Pope does not think that the Eucharist enhances the individual's relationship with God.

He thinks that, but he also thinks much more than that. He thinks, for example, that greater Christian devotion to the Eucharist can help heal a world torn by terrorism and racked by poverty.

He says this in the 31-page letter, released in Italian at the Vatican on October 8, written to launch the Eucharistic Year that will run from today to October 2005.

The theme of "Stay with Us, Lord" (Mane Nobiscum Domine) is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The text opens with the words of those disciples to Jesus: "Stay with us, for it is toward evening." In the Eucharist Jesus continues to walk with us and to introduce us to the mysteries of God.

Mane Nobiscum Domine is the third in a series of recent documents on the Eucharist. Pope John Paul offered his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia in April 2003; it was followed one year later by an instruction on liturgical abuses, Redemptionis Sacramentum, prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship.

The Pope will officially open the Eucharistic Year with a Mass at the Vatican this morning. He will later greet, via satellite, the closing session of the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Eucharistic Year will be concluded on October 29, 2005, at the end of a month-long Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, the Pope said, furnishes Christians with spiritual energy and a plan for living. It is the ideal way for the faithful to identify with Christ's message and his saving sacrifice, which should in turn have an impact on peace and justice issues in the wider society, he said.

"The lacerated image of this world, which has begun the new millennium with the spectre of terrorism and the tragedy of war, calls on Christians more than ever to live the Eucharist as a great school of peace," he said. This will help form men and women as architects of dialogue and communion, at every level of social and political life, he added.

The Eucharist should also bring Catholics closer to the world's poor because it manifests Christ's "extreme form of love" - one that replaced domination with service as the governing principle in human affairs, he said. The Pope urged local communities to adopt concrete expressions of solidarity and charity for the poor during the Eucharistic year.

"I am thinking of the drama of hunger that torments hundreds of millions of human beings, of the diseases that afflict developing countries, of the loneliness of the elderly, the needs of the unemployed and the misfortunes of immigrants," he said.

He told Catholics that the authenticity of Eucharistic celebrations will be demonstrated largely by the love shown to others and by the care given to the needy. The Pope touched briefly on many points he developed in greater detail in his encyclical on the Eucharist last year, including the need to understand the Eucharist not simply as a shared meal or a symbol, but as a real encounter with Christ.

He urged obedience of liturgical norms, including those on reception of Communion, and suggested that every local parish use the Eucharistic year to study in depth the church's rules on proper liturgy. The respect shown the Eucharist as the real presence of Christ should be evidenced in such things as tone of voice, gestures and moments of silence during the Mass or Eucharistic adoration, he said.

During the press conference given by Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, to launch the letter, he spoke at some length on one particular aspect mentioned in the letter. The Pope said: "We are not afraid to speak of God and to hold high the signs of the faith. Those who think public professions of faith represent an intrusion on civil society or encourage intolerance are wrong."

Cardinal Arinze emphasised that we cannot accept that we be stopped from practising our faith. "This is not a concession made by governments or by other religions... Our faith is not a contraband article. It is good news, joyful news that we want to announce at midday. We have nothing to hide, and we aren't hiding our identity," he said.

The Pope's letter on the Eucharist can be accessed on the Vatican's Website www.vatican.va

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