“I HAVE A DREAM…”
These are among the most quoted words in the English language outside of the Bible. They are the words of Martin Luther King Jr. If he had stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that hot summer’s day in 1963 and said, “I have a plan,” would the speech have become one of the most memorable speeches of all time? I don’t think so.
The ability to dream is uniquely human and an extraordinary gift. This God-given ability to look into the future and imagine something better, then return to the present and work to bring about that better future, is remarkable. And yet, sadly, it is massively underemployed in most people’s lives.
Think on it for a moment. When was the last time you used your God-given ability to chase down a personal dream? When was the last time, together as Catholics, we had a common dream and pursued it with relentless passion?
I believe it is time we all started dreaming again. I realize the first response of many will be to tell us why it won’t work before we have even begun. But it is time to move beyond this defeatism and dream again as Catholics. Where are the possibility thinkers of our age? Will you be one? This is a time for Catholics to start dreaming, to envision bold possibilities, and to work together in collaboration with God to make those dreams a reality.
So, let me tell you a little about my dream, and then perhaps it can become our dream.
I have a dream that the whole world would be consecrated to the Eucharist.
One person at a time,
one marriage at a time,
one family at a time,
one neighborhood at a time,
one parish at a time,
one diocese at a time,
one country at a time.
The whole world consecrated to Jesus in the Eucharist.
Join me in this dream and together we can do something bold and visionary. It is a bold dream. But isn’t that what is needed? “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid,” was Goethe’s insight. Those mighty forces are Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and all their angels and saints. Isn’t it time Catholics did something bold?
It is my fervent hope that my dream will help fuel your dreams and together as Catholics we will become a people of possibility again.
WHAT IS CONSECRATION?
Consecration is to devote yourself to God and make yourself 100 percent available to carry out His will on this earth. It is an act of unconditional surrender to God. Through the act of consecration, we dedicate ourselves abundantly, wholeheartedly, and completely to the will of God, surrender our distractions and selfishness, and promise to faithfully respond to God’s grace in our lives.
In the Book of Exodus, after the incident with the golden calf, Moses realized that the people had lost their way, and so he called them together and said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord… that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.” (Exodus 32:29)
In the First Book of Chronicles, after God chose his son Solomon to lead, David gave everything he had over to God and the people of Israel. And then he asked, “Who else among you will contribute generously and consecrate themselves to the Lord this day?” (1 Chronicles 29:5)
In the Book of Joshua, God’s chosen people entered the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. Joshua asked the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant before the people and said, “Consecrate yourselves to the Lord, for tomorrow He will do wo
