Pobożność eucharystyczna i kult Eucharystii poza Mszą świętą
The Eucharistic devotion and the cult of the Eucharist outside the Mass

Summary/Abstract: St John Paul II wrote in his last encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, that the “Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by praying before it outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the very wellspring of grace” (EE 25). Therefore, the Church not only places a special emphasis on the Holy Communion but it also proposes that the faithful develop the Eucharistic devotion in themselves, by a deepened participation in the Holy Mass. Why should it be the Eucharistic devotion? It is because every Mass teaches us how to establish mature relations with God and other people. Thanks to Mass we mature to perfect love, which we learn by the contemplation of the mystery of Christ. The real Eucharistic devotion should be theophanic, christocentric and pneumocentric, meaning that it should be focused on the Holy Trinity and have both a personalistic character – oriented towards the personal God, and an ecclesial one – which teaches the openness to the Church. The Eucharistic devotion demands not only the participation in the Mass but the cult of the Eucharist outside of Mass as well. Hence, the Church has developed three forms of such cult: exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic procession and Eucharistic congresses. Exposition and adoration express the recognition of the miraculous nature of Christ and encourage to unify with Him. The Eucharistic processions indicate the nature of the Church, which is a community on a pilgrimage to heaven. Eucharistic congresses, in turn, whether organized locally or at a more extended level, always express a living Eucharistic devotion and countering religious indifference.

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