Cardinal Burke tells meeting of families at Walsingham: the Blessed Sacrament is your strength
The cardinal said the transformation of the world begins in the family
Cardinal Raymond Burke has told a meeting of Catholic families at Walsingham that their strength comes from the Blessed Sacrament.
Speaking at Walsingham on Sunday, the feast of Corpus Christi, at a Mass attended by families on the National Association of Catholic Families (NACF) pilgrimage, the cardinal offered “a particular word of encouragement” to the Association.
“Your noble mission of giving moral, spiritual and social support to Catholic families in a totally secularised culture finds its pattern and its strength in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Placing your hearts in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, you will be purified of sin and will be strengthened with the very body of Christ for your only daily conversion of life and for your service of the transformation of the world.
“The conversion of life and transformation of the world, in fact, begin in the family.”
The NACF describes itself as “an association of Catholic families who give one another mutual moral, spiritual and social support in today’s culture which is so threatening to our Catholic family values”. It organises “family days” for Catholic families “to support and encourage one another in the Faith”. The NACF is dedicated to helping families support each other: it is against the “rules” to criticise other Catholics on the family days or to use the event for any external purpose. The NACF also organises the pilgrimage to Walsingham each year.
Cardinal Burke told the congregation: “Through the Eucharistic sacrifice, we become one with Christ in his suffering adding. We have the most perfect communion possible with our Lord in this life, the communion, which anticipates the fullness of our communion, body and soul, with him when he returns in glory on the last day.”
He quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s comparison of the effects of the Eucharist to those of nuclear fission, which sets off a series of transformations.
