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ADDRESS OF
PAUL VI TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE FORTY-FIRST INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC
CONGRESS
Saturday, 19 April 1975
As we
prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery and its special re-enactment in the
days ahead, we turn our thoughts to an event that will take place next year: the
Forty-first International Eucharistic Congress.
By its very
international nature, this Eucharistic Congress is an event of worldwide
importance.
From many
parts of the world men and women will assemble to honor the mystery of Christ in
his Eucharistic Sacrifice and presence, and to proclaim his Lordship. At the
same time they will open their hearts, with new sensitivity and fresh concern,
to the many urgent needs of their brethren - the just aspirations and legitimate
anxieties of mankind. And to all these hungers of the human family, the
Eucharistic Congress will offer, with confidence and loving faith, the only - the
perfect - solution: Jesus himself, who said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me will never be hungry and he who believes in me will never thirst” (Io.
6, 35).
We pray
that the nature of this ecclesial event will be readily understood and esteemed
by all in the dignity of its purpose and in the simplicity and reverence due to
its fulfillment. May Mary the Mother of Jesus and Mother of his Church obtain the grate for
all men to recognize that her Son, who is “the Messiah, the Son of
the living God” (Matth. 16, 16) is indeed the true Bread of Life who
alone can satisfy the hungers of the human family.
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