‘Food for this journey’

Earlier this summer, Kim Reid processed half a mile along Grand Boulevard in north St. Louis, with Jesus in the Eucharist leading the way.

Several people stopped to ask what the group was doing along the route from St. Josephine Bakhita Parish to St. Alphonsus “Rock” Church. A woman shouted from her car: “What is that?”

“It’s Jesus,” Reid joyfully shouted back, as the woman gave her a thumbs up.

The eucharistic Jesus she processed with over Corpus Christi weekend is the same Jesus that Reid encountered nearly 20 years ago when she entered the Catholic Church. It’s the same Eucharist that has sustained her faith journey through a parish merger and health issues and what prompted her to attend the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

“I am here because I love the Eucharist,” she said. “I am Catholic because of the Eucharist.”

Reid was among an estimated 700 people from the Archdiocese of St. Louis attending the congress, which included liturgies and opportunities for adoration, a variety of morning impact sessions with several themes — encounter, empower, renewal, cultivate, awaken, abide and encuentro (in Spanish) — afternoon general breakout sessions and evening keynote talks for all in attendance.

Reid was raised Baptist. Years later, as an adult, she attended a Catholic funeral Mass for a friend’s mother and was moved by the experience.

“I was so awestruck by the Mass, by the way they incensed her casket, by the way her family stood around it,” she said. “And I sat there and said, I want a Catholic funeral. But then I think, I guess I’ve got to be Catholic?”

That began a four-year journey of discernment. She started asking questions and sought advice from a friend’s dad who was a permanent deacon. She visited several Catholic churches. A Catholic friend at work noticed Reid was questioning and suggested she come with her to a eucharistic Holy Hour. Reid later began attending adoration at St. Augustine Church in St. Louis and had a profound and emotional interaction with Jesus in the Eucharist.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” she recalled. “My prayer was, ‘Lord, I want to know where you want me to worship you.’ And I was praying that to the monstrance.” Later as she was cleaning at home, she came across a stack of old photos. On the top was an image of her at St. Peter’s Basilica, which she visited in 1996 during a trip to Europe. It was the answer she was looking for. In 2005, Reid was received into the Catholic Church.

In March, Reid was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer, and it’s renewed her desire for intimacy with the Eucharist. “I asked God to heal me. Whether He heals me or not, is not a big deal in a way, but I kind of feel like every time I go to Mass, I’m receiving that viaticum in a way, like food for this journey,” she said.

Being at the congress has been a chance to celebrate the Eucharist with thousands of other Catholics, she said. It’s also been a reminder to invite others to know the eucharistic Lord, just as she was invited all those years ago.

Reid said the Eucharist also sustains her and other Catholics at St. Augustine, Our Lady of the Holy Cross, St. Matthew the Apostle and St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist, four north St. Louis parishes that are in the process of merging to become a new parish. (St. Matthew has a pending appeal with the Vatican.)

“I tell people that I know that this is difficult,” she said. “This is the time when you need food for this journey. We are on this road to Emmaus … and in this journey that we’re on to becoming a new parish, the one thing that we all share is a love for the Eucharist. We have to trust that God is going to be with us.”