Priest’s book on the Mass as sacrifice is a fruit of the National Eucharistic Revival

This is the cover of a book written by Father Jonathan Meyer, who serves in the four parishes of Dearborn County. Published by Dynamic Catholic, it will be released during Holy Week. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

Father Jonathan Meyer’s experience of being a national eucharistic preacher during the 2021-25 National Eucharistic Revival has born fruit in a book he wrote that will be released during Holy Week this year.

The Stations of The Eucharist, published by Dynamic Catholic, is based on presentations that Father Meyer, who serves in the four parishes of Dearborn County, gave across the country during the revival.

It focuses on understanding the Mass as Christ’s sacrifice of himself on the cross and how worshippers can join themselves and all of the many crosses and blessings of their daily lives to him in the celebration of the Eucharist.

In an interview with The Criterion, Father Meyer confessed that he was lacking in this perspective on the Mass at the start of the revival.

“I really didn’t have much understanding really, or the ability to preach on the Mass as sacrifice,” he said. “And the more that I began to preach and teach, I realized that this wasn’t just a ‘me problem.’ This was actually a huge struggle in the Church. The majority of people that I preached to did not understand the Mass as a sacrifice.”

He hopes his book, which he described as “a journey from Genesis to Revelation, looking at how the Mass is a sacrifice,” will be a way to help the revival continue to bear fruit in the lives of Catholics across the country.

“It begins by looking at the first sacrifice ever offered by a man to God, which was by Abel,” Father Meyer said. “And then ultimately it ends with the sacrificial lamb in the Book of Revelation in the wedding feast. So, it takes you from Genesis to Revelation and ultimately just reveals the Mass as God’s biblical and liturgical and spiritual gift to the Church.”

He acknowledged that the revival and his ministry as a national eucharistic preacher bore fruit in his own priestly life and ministry.

“My being invited to be a preacher and what I have learned in the last five years or so has deeply changed my priesthood,” Father Meyer said. “I celebrate Mass differently. I enter into the Mass differently. I pray more deeply at Mass … .”

And he is convinced that lay Catholics can enter into the Mass just as deeply as him and his brother priests can because they have a share in the one priesthood of Christ by virtue of their baptism.

During the revival, Father Meyer frequently spoke about the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist by saying that “the Mass is Calvary.”

“This concept of the Mass being Calvary is deeply important for the life of the lay faithful because it’s how they live out their priesthood of the baptized, which they legitimately have,” he said.

Father Meyer noted the importance of the words said by the celebrant at each Mass: “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”

“When the priest says that, if they don’t understand the Mass as Calvary being made present again,” he said, “then they don’t realize that they could be offering their whole lives, they can be offering their sicknesses, their struggles, their fallen-away children, and they can also be offering their joys and their gratitude.”

The book has an introduction, then 14 chapters, much like the Stations of the Cross, and then a conclusion. Each of the chapters focuses on a virtue, offers an action step based on the chapter’s topic and invites the reader to prayer.

“I myself am kind of blown away and taken back by the way that it’s turned out to really be a deeply biblical, deeply spiritual book,” said Father Meyer.

People interested in the prayerful aspects of The Stations of the Eucharist can take part in an online Holy Week retreat through viewing and praying with two videos posted online per day by Dynamic Catholic starting on Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.

After Holy Week, all of the videos will be available for viewing and can be used by individuals or small groups who are reading or studying the book.

“It’s not just a theological book,” Father Meyer said. “I created it to be a conversion experience.”
 

(For information about The Stations of the Eucharist by Father Jonathan Meyer, or to purchase it, visit cutt.ly/StationsBook. For information on the online Holy Week retreat tied to the book, visit cutt.ly/StationsRetreat.) †