SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame is a world-renowned, albeit somewhat controversial, center of Catholic thought and culture. 

So it’s fitting that when the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came to campus this past weekend, things got creative. 

Theology and theater marked the NEP Marian Route’s two-and-a-half-day presence at the Northern Indiana university, including a panel discussion on the Eucharist’s capacity to transform the Church and the world, and the debut of a brand-new musical on God’s Eucharistic love, inspired by the “mystery plays” of the Middle Ages. 

Entitled “Behold God’s Love: A Eucharistic Musical,” the goal of the musical, which was performed publicly for the first time on July 6, is “to provide audiences with a new way of encountering the story of salvation, the person of Jesus Christ, and the mystery of the Eucharist” through the medium of theater, said composer Carolyn Pirtle. 

“Through the beauty of the music, the scriptural language of the lyrics, the humanity and humor of the dialogue, and the sheer joy of the performers, we wanted to communicate to our audience the love that God has for each and every one of them,” said Pirtle, who directs the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, with the hope that the play might spark a greater love for God and desire “to live and love more like Christ.” 

Notre Dame’s contributions to the pilgrimage made the northern route’s July 5-7 stop at the Catholic university unique. The Marian Route will conclude its voyage in just a couple weeks when it intersects with pilgrimage routes from the east, west, and south in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress, July 17-21. 

But traditional Eucharistic devotions, Masses and plenty of prayers for renewal were also offered over the weekend at Notre Dame, which is often in the national spotlight over questions of its fidelity to its Catholic identity and mission. 

In fact, a Notre Dame theologian who presented at this weekend’s panel told the Register that the Eucharist itself must serve as the basis for renewal at the university and in Catholic higher education more broadly, which is all too often animated by a “frenetic, at times, consumerist vision” that exhausts students and faculty alike, and is undermining Catholic universities’ distinct mission. 

“Can we pause for a moment, wonder and think together, and then commit ourselves together to building a world defined not by power and prestige but Eucharistic love?” asked Tim O’Malley. 

 

‘March on to Victory’ 

The Eucharistic pilgrimage’s Notre Dame stop began on Friday afternoon with a procession onto campus from the nearby parish of St. Therese Little Flower. 

The procession passed by Notre Dame icons like “Touchdown Jesus,” with the stories-high mural of Christ holding his arms aloft, visible from the stands of the nearby stadium where the Fighting Irish play football, and the long line of priests, the canopy-covered monstrance, and faithful participants mirrored in the reflecting pool below. 

A few minutes later, on the way to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for Mass, the Eucharistic Lord passed under the golden dome, where a statue of Our Lady — Notre Dame, in the French spoken by the Holy Cross Congregation priests who founded the university in 1842 —kept watch. 

Eucharistic hymns and Marian devotions were prayed throughout the procession, led by the “perpetual pilgrims” that have accompanied the Marian Route since its start a month and a half (and nearly 1,000 miles) ago at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Northern Minnesota. 

Plenty of ND monograms and Fighting Irish apparel were present in the procession, estimated by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend at 2,000 people, including a green Irish football T-shirt worn by a young boy that fittingly read “March on to Victory.” 

Also participating were several Notre Dame professors and community members, like law school professors Rick and Nicole Garnett, who attended with two of their four children, and described the procession as “a blessing and an inspiration” that was “both prayerful and joyful.” 

Notre Dame theologian Ulrich Lehner, who attended with his wife and three daughters, described the experience as a “demonstration,” not in a political sense, but in a way that “showed” beauty of the diversity of the Body of Christ and the fact that in the Eucharist the Lord “is truly present among us and we can walk with him.” 

Holy Cross Father Mike Palmer, who normally serves as a military chaplain overseas but happened to be on campus this week, also participated in the procession, and described it as “a foretaste of heaven.”  

“To provide a public witness of the faith to all who pass by, literally following after Christ our King — this is what God commands us to do on this earth, and for all eternity.” 

And although campus was less populated than it is during the school year, there were still poignant moments of witness, such as when prospective students stopped to pray or when children at the on-campus daycare center ran to the fence to watch the Eucharist process by. 

 

Panel Discussion 

Following Friday’s procession, the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame offered a panel discussion on the theological and pastoral significance of the Eucharist, an event that was suggested by the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage organizers given Notre Dame’s status as one of the top theological institutions in the world. 

During the panel, which was moderated by Jason Shanks, CEO of National Eucharistic Congress, Inc., O’Malley spoke about the centrality of the Eucharist in Pope Pius X’s maxim to “restore all things in Christ” — or, in O’Malley’s words, “to let every crack and crevice of the cosmos be transformed by the Eucharistic mystery.” 

Drawing heavily from Pope Benedict’s XVI 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est and a 2002 talk on “Eucharist, Communion, and Solidarity” that the future pope gave while he was still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, O’Malley said that the Eucharist is “intrinsically fragmented” if its celebration does not lead to concrete acts of love, since the Eucharist is fundamentally an act of self-gift, and the communion it establishes is rooted in “being loved and loving others in return.” 

“Solidarity is the proper disposition for a Eucharistic people, who have come to see that our worship and our responsibility for each other go together,” said O’Malley, who directs research at the McGrath Institute, adding that Ratzinger’s vision is a “’blueprint” for Eucharistic revival in families, parishes, and society as a whole. 

Katherine Angulo, who directs the McGrath Institute’s Thriving in Ministry Initiative and, like O’Malley, is part of the National Eucharistic Revival’s executive team, shared powerful stories from the more than 60 dioceses to which she has traveled as part of the revival, including moments of beautiful solidarity among clergy in North Carolina and Eucharistic hope in beleaguered Oakland, California. 

 

Musical Makes Its Debut 

But the McGrath Institute’s biggest contribution to the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Notre Dame stop came on stage.  

Sponsored by McGrath, “Behold God’s Love” was originally written with the goal of being performed at the National Eucharistic Congress. But when organizers couldn’t secure a venue in Indianapolis, Pirtle said the pilgrimage’s pass through South Bend presented a perfect moment to debut the musical, with two performances held on Saturday afternoon at the O’Laughlin Auditorium at neighboring St. Mary’s College. 

The three-act musical uses stagecraft and thematic melodies to make connections between a Jewish celebration of Passover, Christ’s actions at the Last Supper, and an early Church Mass celebrated by St. Paul.  

The refrain “On this night we remember” ties a Eucharistic thread through each element, while each act also uses flashback sequences to connect other events to the mystery unfolding, such as the apostles at the Last Supper recalling Jesus’s miracles at the Wedding Feast of Cana or in the feeding of the 5,000. 

“The performing arts move the heart in ways few other things can, and it’s my hope that this production (and hopefully, future productions) will cultivate within the actors and the audience members alike a more profound love and gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist,” said Pirtle. 

This weekend wasn’t the first time McGrath has played an important role in the Eucharistic Revival. Among many other contributions, the institute offered a six-part lecture series in the spring entitled “The Only Solution Is Love: The Eucharist and Catholic Social Teaching.” Inspired by the Catechism’s claim that that “the Eucharist commits us to the poor,” the series included a presentation by the US bishops’ doctrine head, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. 

“We felt we could, at least on our own campus, contribute to this dimension of Eucharistic devotion to the revival,” said theologian John Cavadini, who directs the McGrath Institute.  

 

Eucharistic Renewal at Notre Dame 

Prayers for renewal at Notre Dame and beyond were offered up on Sunday, July 7, the pilgrimage’s final day on campus. At the 10 a.m. Mass, the basilica’s rector, Holy Cross Father Brian Ching, preached on the importance of rediscovering who God is and what he is capable of, while petitions included a prayer that Notre Dame might more closely imitate Mary’s devotion to God.  

Following Mass, the Eucharist was processed around Notre Dame’s “God Quad” before a final Benediction was offered from the steps of the university’s golden domed “main building.” 

Chris Harrington, an alum who is currently enrolled in a summer education leadership program, participated with his alumna wife and their kids. He told the Register that he hopes a Eucharistic renewal at Notre Dame will allow people “to see in their peers a love for Christ in the Eucharist” that will in turn lead others to open their hearts to God. 

Vincent Muñoz, a Notre Dame professor of political science who participated in Sunday’s procession with his family, said he prayed especially that young people grow up with an appreciation for the Eucharistic, and added that it was “beautiful” and “fitting” to see the Blessed Sacrament traveling around Notre Dame’s campus and in front of the iconic golden dome. 

Applying the theme of his talk — Eucharistic renewal — to Catholic higher education, O’Malley told the Register that Notre Dame has a role to play in “offering a robust vision of Catholic higher education in the 21st century that recognizes our unique formation for forming students for leadership in society, while remaining particularly Catholic.” 

The theologian said this would require “robust Eucharistic devotion on campus” among students, faculty, and staff, but also the emphasis that the Eucharist is not only a form of worship, but “a way of life,” that “inspires in them a desire to shape a culture in the world grounded in the self-giving love of the Eucharistic Lord” — as future leaders in education, health, law and politics. 

O’Malley acknowledged that in an age of declining religiosity and financial constraints, administrators and boards of trustees might see such a Eucharistic approach to higher ed as an overly “pious” or even “risky vision. But he insists that it must be at the heart of the mission of Catholic universities like Notre Dame — and hopes that the Eucharistic pilgrimage’s stop on campus will play its part in promoting it.