Opening of the diocesan week of the Eucharist, June 10, 2022 in Lomé / Charles Ayetan / LCA
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The Church will celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday, June 19. As a prelude to this event, Christianity celebrates the week of the Eucharist marked by a novena of prayer which began on June 10. What is the place of the Eucharist in the life of Christians?
” Eucharist: source and summit of all love is the theme of the eighteenth diocesan week of the Eucharist which is being held from June 10 to 19 in the diocese of Lomé (Togo). Initiated by the association Friends of the Blessed Sacrament (Atss), this week dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament officially started on Friday June 10 with a Eucharistic vigil in the deaneries.
“ To be a friend of the most holy sacrament is to choose holiness and to work every day to achieve this holiness. “, said Father Thierry Dayou, vicar at the parish of Saint-Esprit de Totsi, in Lomé, during the opening mass said in the church of Marie Mère du Rédempteur in Adidogomé.
Eucharistic Adoration
A faithful Christian in Lomé, André Lassissi Ogunmola is president of the diocesan council of the association Les Amis du Très Saint Sacrement in the diocese of Lomé. He shares with The Cross Africa his experience with the Eucharist. “ The objective of the association is to work for the advent of the Eucharistic reign of Jesus Christ through the adoration of the most holy sacrament. », declares this devotee of the Eucharist.
“ I experience a deep intimacy with the Lord who offers me the grace of personal transformation “, he confides. ” Eucharistic adoration helps me to be silent and to listen to the Lordhe adds. I experience God’s mercy in my life and this has helped me to volunteer in the service of charities “.
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Member of this association for a dozen years, Anne-Antoinette Kokou, loves Eucharistic adoration. ” I got very upset and couldn’t forgive. But adoration allows me to be calm, peaceful and to be able to forgive. I find there consolation and courage to go through the trials of life. she says. Like her, several other devotees recognize that they have become calmer and calmer, thanks to Eucharistic adoration and exercises of piety, including the duty to do one hour of personal adoration and another hour of collective adoration each week.
“I hear an inner voice”
Respectively middle and high school students, Mario Enyavi and Enok Doumassi participated in the opening vigil of the week of the Eucharist. ” For some time, explains mario, I shiver when I read and I can’t remember my lessons. But a few weeks ago, when I was meditating before the Blessed Sacrament, I heard an interior voice that invited me to read the word of God. What I do immediately, without problem to my surprise. From now on, my comrades are surprised to see me reading calmly “. For his part, Enok recognizes the importance of Eucharistic adoration in his success in the first part of the baccalaureate.
The Friends of the Blessed Sacrament is an international association created on November 17, 1975 on the initiative of Bishop Ottavio Michelini. It was created in Lomé on June 6, 1999 thanks to Father Flavio Mazzata, a Comboni missionary, and is present in 52 parishes in the diocese of Lomé, 8 parishes in the diocese of Aného, 3 parishes in the diocese of Kpalimé and one parish in the diocese of Kara. . The diocesan office of Lomé is planning an awareness mission in Atakpamé.