In new exhortation, Phoenix bishop urges deeper devotion to the Eucharist

From Brian Fraga with Our Sunday Visitor

The same Jesus who walked the Palestinian countryside, who preached, cured the sick and raised the dead “is truly present” in the Eucharist, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix emphasizes in a new apostolic exhortation.

“I think the Eucharist is what we need to focus on. This is the gift he left to the Church. It is the way he remains present with us,” Bishop Olmsted said in a webinar on Holy Tuesday, two days before the release of “Veneremur Cernui — Down in Adoration Falling.”

Released on Holy Thursday, Bishop Olmsted’s third apostolic exhortation is a 14,000-word document that delves into the history, theology and centrality of the Eucharist to the Catholic faith. Citing Scripture and quoting Church Fathers and other saints, the bishop writes that “the greatest anchor” Christians have in the midst of modern turmoil is “Christ Himself, found in the Holy Eucharist.”