Hometown Cherokee

Presenters at this year’s Eucharistic Congress challenged, instructed and inspired the scores of people gathered in the main hall at the Georgia International Convention Center to listen and learn during the general track.

Apologist Steve Ray began his journey to Catholicism on Jan. 1, 1994. “God turned me upside down,” he said. Before he became Catholic, he said, “I would have come (to this Eucharistic Congress) to save you…I saw educated Catholics worshipping a piece of food.”  In a talk laced with Scripture references, Ray used his experiences as a former non-Catholic and evangelical Christian to assert the power of the Eucharist.

Ray, who developed a 10-part DVD series called The Footprints Of God: The Story Of Salvation From Abraham to Augustine, studied the history of Christianity and became convinced that he needed to become Catholic. Using his knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, Ray employed a thought-provoking series of verses and stories from Scripture to show the connections in the books of the Bible in the symbolism of manna, sacrifice, the Passover lamb and the “bread of life.”

The next speaker at the Eucharistic Congress, Dr. Helen Alvaré, is an author and law professor at George Mason University. Alvaré touched on the topics of feminism, marriage and the Eucharist, as well as sharing experiences from her 10 years of work in the pro-life movement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. After spending time with women who had had abortions, she found “their internal brokenness in relationships, in their parenthood” to be heart-rending.

“Fewer are regularly participating in marriage,” she said. “More people are likely to cohabit before, during and in place of marriage.”  Pope Benedict, she said, described the Eucharist as a “sacrament of love, a final act in a lifetime of faithful love, faithful service.”

“This love and service involves both body and soul…The Son gives it all up for us.”  In Catholic teaching, she said, “service is everyone’s vocation.”