A mutual desire to remind Catholics that Jesus can quench a hunger no earthly food can satisfy has motivated a mother and daughter to assist in two Eucharistic Congresses separated by the Delaware River … and 47 years.
Susan Ours and Ann Marie Ours, both of Saint Andrew the Apostle Parish, Gibbsboro, shared their contributions to two events designed to remind Christians that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the faith – Susan’s work with the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, held Aug. 1-8, 1976, in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and Ann Marie’s ongoing contributions with the upcoming Diocesan Eucharistic Congress, to be held March 25 in Camden.
Satisfying the hunger of the family
“I was just a normal Catholic school kid,” Susan Ours said about her days at Archbishop Ryan High School for Girls, Philadelphia, where she volunteered as an elementary school tutor and school Mass sacristan. The Immaculate Mary nun who headed the school’s theology department recognized the strong faith of the teen, née Susan Richmond, and nominated the 10th-grader in 1974 as the sole representative from the school for a youth committee charged with helping plan the International Eucharistic Congress – and events leading up to it – two years later.
The Congress’ theme, “The Eucharist, and the hungers of the human family,” was designed to focus upon a different aspect of hunger over the course of its eight days, noted Ours. “Each day of the Congress was dedicated to a specific group of people, all members of the Catholic Church: men, women, religious and clergy,” she said. “Friday was ‘Youth Day, a hunger for understanding.’”
At a pre-Congress retreat, the youth committee created a project called SIGN: Service in God’s Name, wherein youth would complete pledge cards of service hours in their parishes. Ours was responsible for mailing the cards and paraphernalia throughout the Midwest, as well as facilitating retreats in Michigan and South Carolina, and carried the completed pledge cards to the altar during the Congress’ Youth Mass Offertory.
“In addition, during the summer of 1975, we went to parish day camps and performed skits sharing the Congress themes, sang religious songs and facilitated crafts,” Ours recalled. “The Lent before the Congress, I helped in Operation Manna food drives in parishes in Northeast Philadelphia, which later became Operation Rice Bowl.”
All of the planning and pre-Congress events led to a moment Ours will never forget. Now 17 years old, Ours knew she and the friends she had made on the youth committee and in high school would soon be going their separate ways. She and her best friend filed into the Spectrum Arena, what is now the Wells Fargo Center, set on sitting next to each other near the altar.
“My friend took the last seat in a row, and I had to start the next row moving all the way down. Both of us were upset! The next thing I know, an usher asked us to move toward the center of the row. As I turned toward the empty space, Mother Teresa of Kolkata came and sat right next to me,” Ours recalled with wonder. “I was speechless. … She only stood as tall as my shoulder. … Her hands, though, were huge for her height, and enthusiastically held mine in a handshake. Her smile warmed my heart.”
Ours continued, “Mother Teresa went to the altar to speak, and from this small, petite, frail-looking lady came a booming voice calling, encouraging and challenging each of us to be the best possible person, to respect life and to pray for the unborn.”
Reflecting upon the many riches of the Congress of her youth, Ours shared a message with modern-day pilgrims contemplating the Camden assembly later this month.
“Take comfort in our Catholic traditions while exploring this new encounter with Jesus,” she said. “Share and deepen your faith, encounter Jesus in the people you meet, and celebrate in a big way that you belong to a universal Catholic Church.”
Know. Love. Serve.
The Camden Diocesan Eucharistic Congress, to be held at Camden’s Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, bears the theme “My flesh for the life of the world,” and reminds faithful that “the Eucharist is source and summit of the Christian life.”
More than a year in the making, the bilingual Congress is the Diocese’s showcase event of the National Eucharistic Revival’s inaugural year and will feature presentations by national Eucharistic preachers Dominican Father Patrick Hyde and Father Joseph Jean-Louis of the Archdiocese of Miami; witness talks by local lay Catholics; morning and Rosary prayers, and a concluding Mass celebrated by Bishop Dennis Sullivan.
This year, the next generation of Ours women has stepped forward to help.
Ann Marie Ours, who serves the Department of Pastoral Outreach as administrative assistant, has been helping with the Congress planning, including a week full of prayer and workshops leading up to March 25.
The young woman, who earned her master’s degree in theology from the Augustine Institute, Greenwood Village, Colo., eagerly anticipates the impact of the Eucharistic Congress on all who attend – including herself.
“This is not just a program, it’s a movement,” she said. “We want to make people aware of the True Presence, spread the Word through our neighbors in the pews and the outside. It will be exciting to see thousands of people who want to be present, all of them believing, and see it coming to life.”
Her work in preparing for the Congress “has made me more aware of the Eucharist,” Ours concluded. “It is constantly on my mind: in church, in Adoration, everywhere I go. It’s going to be truly wonderful, remarkable, to come to enjoy the faith and be present together.”
For more information on the March 25 Diocesan Eucharistic Congress, visit eucharisticrevivalsouthjersey.org or avivamientoeucaristicosj.org. For tickets, visit camdendiocese.org/ectix.
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