“Communion to heal the world” 
Matthew 23.8

The Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ,  has the power to heal the wounds of our world.  The Congress will break open five ways in which the Eucharist heals our families, communities, and world.  The Eucharist can:

1.     RESTORE: It restores our relationship with God.

2.     EQUIP: It empowers us for mission.

3.     SERVE: It commits us to serve the poor and marginalized.

4.     INSPIRE: It calls us to worship.

5.     UNITE: It strengthens the unity of the Church.

Recognizing the healing power of the True Presence of Christ, the Eucharist is the result of encountering Jesus is a deeply personal yet at the same time communal way.   The impact of knowing the transformative Love of Christ changes us and our world. 

All our activity is rooted in prayer! And thus we seek the guidance of our Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to guide our preparation and our activity around our Eucharistic Congress.

Leading up to the Congress in October we ask you to pray.   Parishes have been invited to recognize the First Thursdays of every month as a day to pray specifically for the Congress. As well, there will be a diocesan team available to travel to parishes and host a Holy Hour to help focus on the Eucharistic Congress.  For more information on either of these contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Below is our Eucharistic Prayer.  Please prayer this during your prayer time either individually or as part of group. For example to open or close parish meetings, with prayer or small group , etc.  Just pray!

Prayer for Eucharistic Congress (PDF)

The Congress will happen over four days starting with a pre-Congress Youth Event Thursday, October 17 and concluding on until Sunday, October 20.  We hope you’ll join us!

Click here to see schedule (pdf)

As a means to promote the upcoming Eucharistic Congress throughout the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth, a mission team will travel to different parts of our Archdiocese to host a Holy Hour in the months leading up to the Congress.

This Eucharistic Congress Mission Team will travel to select parishes to host a Holy Hour.  The format of this mini Mission focused on the Eucharist will be a mix of scripture, a reflection on the Eucharist, adoration, exposition, and prayer. This event is an opportunity for the faithful throughout the Archdiocese to renew their sense of the gift of the Eucharist and pray for the success of the upcoming Eucharistic Congress.

A schedule of where and when the Eucharistic Congress Mission Team will host Holy Hours will be shared soon. 

The Youth Night on Thursday, October 17, 6:00pm will be an evening aimed at young people ages 16-35 years old. The event will be an opportunity to reflect on and encounter Christ in the Eucharist. The night will include moments of music, prayer, reflection, an age appropriate talk on the Eucharist, and adoration, fellowship, and time to venerate a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis. This event is free to attend.

Register Now for Youth Event!

The Congress calls us to reflect on how the Eucharist – and our reception of it – heals the world. To help break open the five themes of the Congress we have invited two speakers, Archbishops Richard Smith and Paul-Andre Durochers. Find out more about our speakers:  

Archbishop Paul-André Durocher is the archbishop of Gatineau, Québec, Canada.

Born in Windsor, Ontario in 1954, he grew up in Timmins, Ontario before attending the University of Western Ontario where he completed the Bachelor of Musical Arts, specializing in vocal performance. He then attended St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, completing the Bachelor of Theology in 1981 and the Master’s of Arts in Theology in 1985. He simultaneously completed the Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Ottawa.

Ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of Timmins on July 2, 1982, he taught high school and served in various parishes. He eventually was named Episcopal vicar for pastoral and sacramental affairs and director of the chancery. He completed the civil Licentiate in Canon law with the University of Strasbourg, France, in 1992. During a sabbatical year in 1995–1996, he attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and completed his ecclesiastical Licentiate in theology.

The following year, he was named titular bishop of Ausuaga and auxiliary bishop of Sault-Ste-Marie, Ontario. Ordained to the episcopacy on March 14, 1997, he was entrusted with the pastoral leadership of the French sector of the diocese and of the native parishes in the Manitoulin-North Shore area.

In 2002, he was named diocesan bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall, Ontario, where he remained for nine years. During that time, he served on the Education Commission of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

On November 30, 2011, he was installed as the archbishop of Gatineau, Québec.

Archbishop Richard W. Smith was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 28, 1959. 

He studied at St. Mary’s University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1985.

Ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1987 for the Archdiocese of Halifax, he pursued further studies in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and earned a licenciate degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1998.

Within the Archdiocese of Halifax, he served in a number of positions including vicar general and he was responsible for the pastoral ministry of French-speaking Catholics in Halifax. Archbishop Smith was chaplain to the deaf community in Halifax from 1986-1991. He was also a professor of theology at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ont. in addition to serving simultaneously as pastor of three communities.

He was appointed Bishop of Pembroke on April 27, 2002 by Pope St. John Paul II and ordained to the episcopate on June 18, 2002. He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 18 from Archbishop Marcel Gervais, with Archbishops Terrence Prendergast, S.J., and Austin-Emile Burke serving as co-consecrators.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to the Metropolitan See of Edmonton on March 22, 2007. Archbishop Richard Smith was formally installed as seventh Archbishop of Edmonton on May 1, 2007, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of the Edmonton Archdiocese. He has taken the motto “Fiat Voluntas Tua” (Thy Will Be Done).

Archbishop Smith serves as President of the Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and is past president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2011-2013.

He has also been a member and chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Christian Education, and spiritual adviser to the Catholic Women’s League of Canada. Archbishop Smith is currently a member of the Board of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute.

Archbishop Smith served as General Co-ordinator of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Canada, July 24 – 29, 2022. This was the fourth papal visit to Canada and the first since Saint John Paul II’s journey in 2002.

At the level of the CCCB, the Archbishop currently serves as a member of the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council, and as chair of the Ad hoc committee on Indigenous Issues.

On Saturday afternoon of the Congress attendees will have the opportunity to boldly witness the faith and take part in a Eucharistic Procession.  The procession will start at 4:00pm and start from Saint Agnes Church and process to Saint Mary’s Cathedral Basilica.  The walk is approximately five kilometers.

For those who wish to walk only part of the procession there will be stopping points along the route for a brief prayer and for others to join in.  Once the route and the stopping points are confirmed we will place that information here.  

Our hope is that this procession will witness Christ alive and well in our Archdiocese and so by representing of ALL the faithful including the young, young at heart, members of the Mi’kmaq, parishioners from across the whole Archdiocese, and representatives of the various new immigrant communities.