by Melani Manel Perera

The archbishop of Colombo announces the Year of the Eucharist in the diocese to begin next August.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Bishop Malcom Ranjith urges Colombo Catholics to rediscover the central role the Eucharist plays in life and the family. On Sunday, the prelate led the Corpus Christi procession from the grotto in the Kalutara Church to the Grace Kumari Gardens in Katukurunda. Along the way, the faithful, religious and laity (pictured) sang and prayed following the Holiest in its journey through the streets of the city.

“We feel disheartened and discouraged with the difficulties in our lives. So we tend to run around in all possible directions, without knowing that all things are possible for God,” Mgr Ranjith said in a brief reference to the country’s situation now that the 20-year civil is over.

Every day concerns and struggles find rest in Christ. “Our war ended; life must be centred on the Eucharist. It is in the Eucharist that we find all the solutions to our problems.”

In inviting everyone to have a conversion of the heart, the archbishop of Colombo insisted, “The Eucharist is an act of God’s love for man”, one that is too often forgotten or debased as a mere devotional act. Instead, “every time we enter a church we must feel the joy of standing before the Lord in the Eucharist,” the prelate said. We must “tell ourselves: O Lord! How wonderful it is to be here.”

For Mgr Ranjith, it is imperative “families turn to the Eucharist as the source of their connection to God”. For this reason, he has announced that starting next August the Archdiocese of Colombo will celebrate the Year of the Eucharist in order to rediscover the “richness of this gift of the Lord” and base on it “an authentic Christian life.”

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