Volume 12, Number 2: Summer 2004

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From the Director

Welcome on board. Fasten your seat belt. This flight is about to take you to places you have never been before (that is unless your name is Robert Rousseau). In this issue of HI LITE, we will visit just a few of the places that Father Bob has labored in establishing the Life In The Eucharist movement — from Toowoomba to Temuco, in all parts of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, the fire of LITE is burning. It has been a great joy to hear from around the world how this ministry of Eucharistic Evangelizing is growing.

On the feast of Corpus Christi, the Holy Father called for a special year dedicated to the Eucharist. In his homily on that day, he said, “Christ, the living bread which came down from heaven is the only one who can appease the hunger of human beings of every time and in every corner of the earth.” It was the dream of St. Peter Julian Eymard to set the world on fire with the flame of Eucharist ardor. It is his vision that guides and directs our mission in leading people to a deeper understanding of the mystery of God’s love manifested in the Eucharist.

Pope John Paul, in speaking on the work of the church in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is emphatic that: “Collaboration is essential to the new evangelization.” He has said that the Church can realize more profoundly and more extensively the consequences of authentic reconciliation with Christ, who opens hearts and enables brothers and sisters in the faith to renew their ways of working together. For the new evangelization, it is essential to have concrete collaboration between the different vocations, the different ministries and the various apostolates and charisms given by the Holy Spirit, whether those of traditional religious institutes or those of new movements and associations of the faithful established more recently.
Yes, the Holy Spirit has blessed the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament with many dedicated women and men working in this new movement of LITE as collaborators and true evangelizers. Much appreciation is owned to the man who traveled many miles to make this dream of Peter Julian Eymard come to where it is today. Thank you, Father Bob!

Fr. William Fickel, sss
Director of the Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing
Houston, Texas

L.I.T.E. in the U.S.A.

The Cleveland, Ohio area remains the leader in the United States in the formation of new teams and attracting new members for existing teams. Louise Borgione and Mel Culek are responsible for successfully recruiting and training many new members to serve on evangelizing teams.

Also in Cleveland, Frank Zalar is heading up a group of LITE team members who are delving into the richness of LITE II – The Old Testament Background to Eucharist. Father Bob Rousseau, SSS developed this program as a follow-up to LITE I. It probes the Old Testament themes that help explain the development of Eucharist in the New Testament and in today’s Church.
From Atlanta, Georgia: The team continues to offer the LITE seminar reports Dottie O’Connor. Several calls received at the Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing (CEE) have been forwarded to Dottie with the hopes of giving them some additional activity.

From Houston, Texas: A “new team” has been formed from the existing LITE team members to present LITE II – The Old Testament Background to Eucharist. These determined twelve people experienced training by Father Bill Fickel, SSS and then presented the seminar at the Most Holy Trinity Church in Angleton, Texas during Lent this year. They have recently undergone intensive self evaluation of the program they gave and are eagerly awaiting an opportunity to give LITE II again. The Houston teams have been looking at new ways to be evangelizers of the Eucharist. Patty Pizzitola’s one day retreat for the women of the parish at Corpus Christi Church titled “Eucharist and Peace” brought great reviews. Patty and her husband, Bubba, joined Fr. Bill Fickel in giving LITE I at St. Mary’s Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma one weekend.

The Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing continues to receive calls for seminars and missions based on the Eucharist. Renewed efforts are being made to nationally advertise the CEE’s programs. The CEE’s energetic director, Father Bill Fickel, SSS, stays busy orchestrating the Houston teams’ activities and taking care of his additional ventures giving missions and making appeals for Food For the Poor.

LITE Seminars are being planned for both United States coasts – California and Florida. In addition to the two Life In The Eucharist Seminars, the CEE has some wonderful one day programs to offer – Eucharist and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Neighbor; and Rites and Truths – all developed by Fr. Bob Rousseau.

The Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing wants you to know about the world of LITE. In response to the CEE’s requests to various international LITE contacts, several articles were received. With thanks to our contributors, we are happy to share with you, our readers, what is happening throughout the world with LIFE IN THE EUCHARIST. We feel it is very important for the teams to stay in touch with each other and to remember one another in prayer.

From the General Curia (Rome)...

Fr. Hans van Schijndel, S.S.S., Vicar General of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and International Coordinator for LITE

Since the beginning of 2004, an important change has taken place in the direction of LITE international. As many of you already know, Father Bob Rousseau has taken leave from his responsibility as promoter and director of LITE international. Some 15 years ago Father Bob began this new initiative to spread our eucharistic charism and to enable lay people to become active apostles of the Eucharist in their own context and in their own way. As with all new initiatives, LITE had to go through a process of finding its way and convincing others of its value and usefulness. The fact that at this very moment, LITE has spread throughout many countries all over the world and involves an impressive number of teams ready and willing to transmit their love for the Eucharist to others, is a telling witness to the fruitfulness of this initiative. We could not have reached this point without the untiring commitment of Fr. Bob who invested all his energy, creativity and pastoral intuition into the ongoing development of LITE. The Congregation owes much to him. At the present time, Father Bob is enjoying a sabbatical to regain his physical and spiritual strength.

Father Bob shared with the General Council some of his concerns about the further development of LITE. We will have to reflect further on this precious information from a man with experience in the field. Our forthcoming General Chapter will be a good opportunity to take a stand, as a Congregation, in this matter of sharing our eucharistic charism with others.

It seems to me and to others who have personal experiences of LITE, that it has reached a level of maturity that allows for a different approach in accompanying its ongoing development. The many trained teams with their enthusiastic lay members and SSS spiritual advisers are a certain guarantee that a process will continue. We will have to ponder ways to proceed further in this changed situation. Especially those with a responsibility for LITE on the level of their Province, Region or country have a key role in this process of clarification.

Once again our heartfelt thanks go to Fr. Bob for having given us LITE and we wish for him during this important period of ‘resourcing’ enough rest to regain his strength, enough detachment to be able to draw some conclusions from his commitment to LITE over the years, and enough creativity and courage to pick up eucharistic ministry in another form. Thank you, Bob, and may God lead you to ever new discoveries.

From Fr. Norman Pelletier, SSS, Provincial, Province of St. Ann....

Father Pelletier reported to the members of the U.S.A. province on the activity of the Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing (CEE) and we excerpt from his account given in the report of the Provincial Council Meeting of the Spring, 2004.
The CEE office in Houston continues to function with the able services of our volunteer, Nancy MacRoberts, and the CEE Director, Bill Fickel. The LITE programs continue to be popular but the follow-up to these programs remains a concern. The members of the LITE teams feel the need to have their partnership with the SSS mission of the Congregation formalized. This would require the SSS to establish some policy and guidelines for our lay associates. Greater SSS involvement with the CEE programs and the LITE teams’ efforts are not only highly desirable but seriously encouraged. Greater appropriation on the part of more SSS for this eucharistic ministry would be most welcomed. The CEE continues to evolve in the understanding of its identity and mission.

Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne LITE team has been in operation since Fr. Bob came here in 1996, with four of the original members still active. A few have joined as a result of our seminars and then we gained four more when Fr. Bob gave LITE II in 2001, bringing our team up to ten. We are a multi-cultural team with members being born in Australia, Philippines, Ireland, England, Mauritius and India. The ethnic mix is a benefit as many parishes in Melbourne have lots of migrants. This team has given about a dozen seminars in parishes and our city centre Church in six years and all were well received.

In solving some friction within the group, we took a sabbatical in 2003, engaged a facilitator and did some restructuring. The insights that Fr. Bob gave at the international conference in Dublin in 2001 about handling this kind of situation were very valuable. The team then opted for a thorough retraining which is still going on and should be completed by September. The mini-teams have been reorganized and team members are now busy writing up new presentations with the hope of putting on a seminar in October. Our team coordinator (we prefer this name to leader) is Elaine Ward who represented Australia at the Congress at Glasgow in 2000.

Our multi-cultural Sydney team, beginning in 2001, has twelve members including three married couples. The leader is Judith Brophy who has a doctorate in Egyptology and goes to Egypt every year for a ‘dig’. The SSS community in Sydney, though not directly involved with the team is supportive of this lay initiative.

This team did a long and thorough preparation before putting on their first seminar in the parish of Enmore in August 2003. The seminar was very well received though it was a baptism by fire as one of the participants became disruptive during the final Mass which took everyone by surprise. Fortunately, the parish priest managed to handle the situation quite skillfully so the incident didn’t spoil the happy outcome of the seminar.

The team was invited to present a program on the first three evenings of Holy Week in the parish of Bankstown and decided to use the first of the three C’s, Celebration. One member withdrew feeling uncomfortable about this ‘incomplete seminar’. At the most auspicious moment, the Winter 2004 HI LITE arrived with Nancy’s most encouraging article about being flexible. Their flexibility was further tested when on the second night the witness was unable to attend, so a Eucharistic Prayer was used quite successfully as a meditative contemplation with soft music. The success of their first two seminars has encouraged this team to continue their Eucharistic evangelizing mission.

Toowoomba is a large rural city in the state of Queensland about two hours drive west of the capital, Brisbane. The parish priest, Fr. James Byrne, insisted that Fr. Bob go there while he was in Australia in 2001 and would not take no for an answer, though Toowoomba was not on Bob’s agenda. His persistence paid off and the seminar was given to about a hundred people and a team was formed. This small team consists of six very dedicated men and women who did a long and thorough preparation, initially under the leadership of George McDougall and now with Michael Pyke as leader. Their advertising did not bring any response until this year when they were asked to present a seminar in a small parish about an hour’s drive further west. This was done on five consecutive Thursday nights as farming people find it very difficult to take a weekend off. It’s hoped this seminar will be a catalyst for many others in the diocese. There is no SSS presence in Toowoomba but Fr. James who has a great devotion to the Eucharist has continued to support the team very wisely and generously.

The leaders of the three teams plus myself form a national executive meeting once a year with frequent contact by email or phone. Australia is as big in area as the United States and the phrase ‘the tyranny of distance’ becomes very real when visiting with the three teams all in the Eastern states. However, the tedium is forgotten when I again meet my LITE sisters and brothers who are always so welcoming.

The tension within the Melbourne team highlighted the need for a constitution so a committee is now working on this. Two members from the Melbourne team and one each from Sydney and Toowoomba plus myself have been exploring this for over a year now. We’ll have a face-to-face meeting of the full committee in August and hope to have the project completed before the end of this year.

We’re fortunate that our SSS provincial, Jo Dirks, is very supportive of LITE. Jo has developed a PowerPoint presentation showing the life and times of Fr. Eymard which he will be showing to our LITE teams over the next few months. Jo has used photos of Napoleon at Laffray, Mother Dubouche, Mme Jordan, de Cuers decoration, Fr. Mayet, Fr. Chevrier, Hermann Cohen and Bishop Hartmann, giving a human face to names we’ve read about. This should be a very valuable tool for our LITE people to learn more about our founder.

LITE Australia is also fortunate that our Provincial Leadership Team has been very generous in funding this ministry of Eucharistic Evangelizing which has such potential for spreading God’s kingdom of love, peace and justice.

FROM CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA. . .
Maria Angelica Nunez, Director General of Servitium Christi

This last year we had for the third time, a visit from Fr. Bob Rousseau, SSS, a special grace from God! During the month of November, 2003, he developed two LITE I and one LITE II teams in Temuco, south of Chile and then one LITE II team in the parish of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers in Santiago.

In total, two hundred people were able to deepen their knowledge and faith in the Eucharist. The fruit of these courses are the two teams that were formed in Temuco and one in St. Bernard (Santiago) which are continuing with much enthusiasm in the way Fr. Bob mapped out. Since 1996 we have had five LITE seminars plus the training courses with Fr. Bob. How did we come to receive this privilege in a country that is said to be found “south of the earth?” The Secular Institute, “Servitium Christi” has the same spirituality of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and was founded by one of their members, Fr. Godfried Spiekman, SSS. The members knew the LITE project closely and agreed that it was a very effective way to evangelize lay people and is a follow-up of their own lay apostolate. This idea was taken up by the members in Chile to whom it has proved to be very useful in deepening their Eucharistic Spirituality and helped to interest others in learning more about the richness of this great mystery of love.
We eagerly receive HI LITE and we feel bonded to the great family of LITE. In these few lines, we thank Fr. Bob and we wish him a good sabbatical. We put ourselves at the service of all your directive team and its new leader.

FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
Liz Swinton and Fr. Raphael O'Halloran, SSS

Liz writes that she is very much involved in LITE. Her team presented a weekend retreat in March and a seminar in two parishes during the five weeks of Lent. Anne Ventisei and Liz went to Middlesborough recently and gave an appeal to St. Clare of Assisi and St. Joseph’s Parishes, both of which are keen to have them come and give the program in November.
Presently there are three active LITE Teams in the Province of Great Britain/Ireland – two in Ireland and one in Scotland. The Glasgow team in Scotland is inter-parochial and inter- Diocesan involving some ten members. The team is based at the Blessed Sacrament Community Center at Eymard House, Glasgow.

The Galway LITE team in Ireland has some thirteen members and is also inter-parochial. The Dublin team, based in our Blessed Sacrament Centre, consists of eleven members drawn from around the city. Many of the Glasgow and Dublin members are also active in other aspects of their respective communities’ ministries.

The three teams are quite active in presenting the LITE Programme. The Glasgow team in some instances presents the programme on one night per week over a five week period. The Dublin team presents programmes in the Chapel Hall in Dublin as well as in parish and other outside centres. At this particular time, the team is exploring the possibility of presenting the programme to a group of prisoners in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

In Galway, Sr. de Lourdes, who played such an important role in bringing LITE to life in the late 1990's, retired from the movement in April, 2003. It is to her credit and is a tribute to her unselfish and inspiring work that the lay people themselves took ownership and responsibility for the team and so the LITE movement continues to develop on the western seaboard of Ireland.

There are some new developments that we would like to share with you. Now there is in place a LITE Provincial coordinating team consisting of three Blessed Sacrament priests including the provincial, Fr. Pat Costello and lay leaders of each team. This coordinating team had its first meeting in Dublin in December, 2003 and plans to meet annually in Dublin, Galway and Glasgow. Among the items discussed were recruitment, training, follow-up, publicity, marketing and communication between teams. Secondly, there are now three manuals for teams. These include a Training Manual (covering six sessions of basic training for team membership), the Member’s Handbook (detailing all the information a tem member should know about the presentation of the programme), and an Administration Handbook (covering all aspects of what is involved in preparing for and administering the programme). Thirdly, there has been recruitment of prospective members to each of the teams. In Glasgow, five prospective members are in training. Recently in Dublin, three young men, a young lady teacher, and an older lady had a training day using the three manuals above and also had existing LITE team members sharing their experiences with them. In Galway, four prospective members are awaiting training.

To address ongoing formation, each team continues to hold monthly Masses and meetings and each has an annual retreat in a residential setting. Team members are encouraged to spend a period in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis and in some instances, Manna is being explored as a basis for broadening a team’s understanding of what is meant by Eucharistic Spirituality.

FROM PESARO, ITALY. . .
Fr. Antonio Pedretti, SSS

Last October 2003, a nice “adventure” named LITE began here for a small group of people. Fr. Antonio Pedretti, Blessed Sacrament Father at Sacred Heart Parish, proposed giving a LITE seminar to his parishioners. Father Pedretti had spent some time in the United States to deepen his own knowledge of the LITE movement and to make plans to import it into Italy.
The first seminar given October 17-19 was animated by Fr. Bob Rousseau, SSS, founder of the LITE movement. A French married couple joined Fr. Bob in creating a warm ambiance of welcoming and to share their experiences with LITE. It was a wonderful weekend in which the participants improved their knowledge and love for the Eucharist and shared the beauty and richness of their faith – all this in a climate of deep communion. Fr. Bob, as usual, entertained everyone in a very pleasant way thanks to his particular charisma which allows him to transmit deep values in a simple and joyful way. Twenty-two people attended this seminar. Most of them are catechists, some sisters and others engaged in voluntary activities, Eucharistic ministers and some faithful. At the end of the seminar, Frs. Bob and Antonio asked the participants who would accept the call to continue their involvement in LITE and become team members who would bring the seminar to other people. Everyone was embarrassed and doubtful, fearing the task was beyond their capacities and that they did not have time to commit because of work, parish and family. But, when God is calling, it is difficult to say “no.”

From the original group, twelve decided to face the team training given with passion, interest and commitment by Fr. Antonio. Fr. Bob led the group which was divided into five, representing the five LITE sessions. The training began in November and they met twice a month for five months so they could study each of the topics. The training material, already translated and supplied by Fr. Antonio, helped prepare the team members for their topics.

Because the team felt this time was important for their spiritual and everyday life and because they wanted to share the richness of the seminar with others, they tried hard to complete the training in spite of the various family commitments. Since that time, the individual teams are presenting their themes to the other team members.

Like all new teams, the members still feel an initial fear. They are wondering about their first seminar – to whom it will be given? When? This summer, the time will be spent assimilating and living what has been learned. The group recognizes the importance of this program for the Blessed Sacrament Congregation and the need to reach out to share its charism, to inflame every heart with the fire of Eucharistic love so the Eucharist can become the source and summit of life.

FROM THE PHILIPPINES. . .
Dante Chua: Endless Opportunities for Eucharistic Evangelizing

I thought it would be a short-term ministry, one that would fade away in a year or two. Eleven years after Fr. Bob Rousseau, SSS, gave the first Life in the Eucharist (LITE) seminar in the Philippines, we are still at it, hooked, if I may, and for an excellent reason – to share the Good News of Jesus Christ through a life in the Eucharist.

The Life in the Eucharist apostolate in the Philippines is moving forward with much vigor. In fact, the 10th LITE Congress in Manila was held February 7, 2004. The congress gathers LITE Seminar participants once a year to renew their sharing of faith experiences and inspire one another in fellowship and formation. Regional LITE conferences were also held in other parts of the Philippines — the Visayas and Mindanao.

Fr. Miguel Garcia, being the LITE Spiritual Director and Treasurer of the Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses of the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines, is at the forefront of the phenomenal growth of Eucharistic Evangelizing in the Philippines through LITE.

Part of the ongoing formation and skills development for LITE Teams, a two_day workshop on facilitation and presentation skills was held last June at the SSS Provincial House in Quezon City. The same workshop was conducted at the Holy Family Parish in Bicol last July. The Manila LITE trainers enjoyed the 14 hour drive to Bicol to facilitate the workshop.

On the other front, Fr. Armando Tipones says that the Archdiocese of Davao down south in Mindanao, has decided to use the LITE modules for their archdiocesan formation program throughout the International Eucharistic Year in 2004- 2005. Fr. Mandy is now busy training new LITE teams in Davao.

The LITE Team in Manila developed a set of modules for young people– teenagers and young adults. We call it “K_LITES.” K stands for the Filipino word “Kabataan”, meaning “youth”. The results have been amazingly encouraging — young people are asking for more! The K_LITE is one project of the Manila Team.

The LITE apostolate in the Philippines has been a great help to people who hunger for a deeper and more meaningful experience of God in the Eucharist.

Pope John Paul II Convokes “Year of the Eucharist”: October 2004-2005

This past June, on the feast of Corpus Christi, the Holy Father announced a “Year of the Eucharist” that the Catholic Church will observe from October 2004 to October 2005. It will begin with the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, October 10-17. The year will conclude with the next ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in the Vatican from October 2-29, 2005, and whose theme will be, “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.”

This special dedication of a year to the Eucharist challenges those of us who are in the ministry of Eucharistic Evangelizing. Two important documents for our prayer and study are the encyclical letter of 2003, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia.” The second document is a study document in preparation for the Bishops Synod. It concludes with a questionnaire designed to evaluate how the baptized celebrate and live the Eucharist.
The topic of the Synod indicates that the Church lives through the Eucharist, in that she receives from the Eucharist as from a font the divine life which comes from above, and in her mission tends towards it as the summit of her mystery of communion: “The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelization, since its goal is the communion of mankind with Christ and in him with the Father and the Holy Spirit.”

Following are sample questions for your reflection. If you are interested, you can view the entire document at the website: www.vatican.va


1. What importance does the celebration of the Eucharist have in the life of your community and that of the individual believer?

2. What attempts are being made to transmit the teaching on the Eucharist, whole and entire, to your community and the individual believer? Specifically, how are The Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Encyclical Letter Ecclesia De Eucharistia being utilized by priests, and the laity involved in pastoral work?

3. What is the prevailing idea on the Eucharist among priests and the faithful of your community: sacrifice?, memorial of the Paschal Mystery?, the precept of Sunday Mass?, fraternal meal?, act of adoration?

4. In parishes awaiting a priest, how widespread is the practice of celebrating the Liturgy of the Word with the distribution of the Eucharist, over which a lay person or Eucharistic minister often presides? Are the faithful able to understand the difference between such celebrations and Holy Mass? Do they have an adequate knowledge of the distinction between an ordained and non-ordained minister?

5. Have the faithful in your parishes preserved faith in the Lord’s Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist? Do they have a clear understanding of the gift of the Lord’s Real Presence? Do situations exist in Eucharistic Liturgies or the Worship of the Eucharist which might lead to a diminished regard for the Real Presence. If so, what might be the reasons?

6. To what measure must attention be given to inculturation in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist so as to avoid a misunderstood creativity which leads to peculiar and strange practices. What criteria are followed in inculturation?

7. The Eucharist provides growth in the moral life of the Christian. What do the faithful believe about the necessity of sacramental grace for living according to the Spirit and becoming saints?

8. The Eucharist is also a gift for mission. Are the faithful aware that the Sacrament of the Eucharist leads to the mission they have to fulfill in the world, according to their state in life?

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