Benedict XVI calls Brazilians back to Eucharistic heart

Vatican City, May 9, 2010 / 13:15 pm

After the Regina Coeli, the Holy Father addressed the people of Brazil, who will be celebrating their Eucharistic Congress next week. He asked that all people, priests and faithful, "rediscover that the heart of Brazil is in the Eucharist."

The 16th National Eucharistic Congress will be held in the capital city of Brasilia May 13-16.

Sending a special greeting to the people of Brazil after the recitation of the Regina Coeli in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, the Holy Father prayed that they rediscover that the heart of Brazil is in the Eucharist.

"It is rightly in the Mostly Holy Sacrament of the Altar that Jesus shows his will to be with us, live in us and give himself to us," he said in Portuguese.

Through adoration, the Pope continued, we are led to recognize the primacy of God, who is unique in being able to transform the hearts of men, bringing them to union with Christ through his Body.

"Receiving the Body of the risen Lord, we experience a communion with a Love that we cannot keep for ourselves," Benedict XVI taught. "It demands to be communicated to others so as to build a more just society."

He closed the greeting by asking priests to cultivate a "profoundly Eucharistic spirituality" in the example of St. Jean Vianney and invoked the intercession of the patroness of Brazil, Our Lady of Aparecida, that they become "true Missionary disciples."