The pilgrimage of the Congress Bell began in Armagh on St Patrick’s Day. Since then it has made its way around the dioceses of the North. It arrived to us from the diocese of Clogher on Wednesday last. We met it at the Sacred Heart Fathers house at Tanagh on Wedesday and walked with it across the diocesan and county boundaries into Cootehill. It will visit nearly every parish in the diocese over the next week and we will pass it on to the diocese of Elphin. The handover will take place near Kinlough, Co Leitrim, on the Sligo border on next Sunday.

The Bell is the first concrete sign of the coming Eucharistic Congress of 2012. It is a bit like the Olympic torch which will be travelling from country to country before it ends up in London for the next Olympic Games. The Olympic torch heralds the coming of the Games. The Bell heralds the coming of the Congress and invites us once again to prepare ourselves for this important event in the life of the Church. The Congress Bell reminds us of the theme of the first stage of our preparation for the Congress, the theme of gathering. Every celebration of the Eucharist is a gathering. We come together as God’s people. We gather in God’s name to hear his Word, to pray, to worship and give thanks.

The climax of every Eucharist, of every Mass, is of course the moment when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Communion. When we receive the Body of Christ we are united with Christ – in the words of the Eucharistic Prayer – we become one body, one Spirit with Christ. But everyone who receives Communion receives the same Body of Christ, so by being united with Christ, we are united with each other. And that is why we call it Communion. Communion is not a piece of bread, a host. Communion is the same word as community. It means being united with each other. And what unites us together, what draws us into this intimate relationship of communion, is the one Body of Christ we share.

The theme chosen for the Eucharistic Congress is: The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another. The theme was chosen to emphasise this central point about the Eucharist. It is above all about gathering people, bringing people together, reconciling people who have differences, welcoming back people who have drifted away. It’s about bringing us all together to fulfil the final wish of Christ on this earth. Jesus wept tears outside Jerusalem because most of its people rejected his invitation to join him. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!” He prayed at the Last Supper: “May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us…so that the world may believe that it was you who sent me.”

The next big event in preparation for next year’s Congress in Dublin is the National Eucharistic Congress next month in Knock. All the dioceses of Ireland will be going on pilgrimage to Knock on the last Saturday in June, June 25^th. Since our annual diocesan pilgrimage to Knock is normally on the third Sunday in June, we have decided to combine the two events. So there will be no pilgrimage from the diocese on the third Sunday of June this year. Our diocesan pilgrimage will be the following Saturday to coincide with the Eucharistic Congress. I hope that many families will join in that pilgrimage and make it a real celebration of our faith and a resounding act of thanksgiving for the Eucharist we share.

A Congress Candle will be blessed for every diocese in Knock and we will bring our candle back here to the Cathedral the next day. We in turn will have a special Eucharistic celebration on Sunday 26 in the Cathedral here. We will bless candles for all the parishes in the diocese and we will invite people from all the parishes to come here and collect the candle for their parish.

The Bell will shortly resume its journey around the diocese. Today it calls us to embark on our journey of renewing our faith in Christ’s presence among us in the Eucharist. It summons us renew our commitment to gathering with our Christian community to experience Christ’s presence and be nourished by it. It calls us to invite others, who may have become distant or alienated from our community of faith, to come back again and experience once again Communion with Christ and with one another.