Lima, Peru, Jan 13, 2020 / 12:00 pm
After controversial remarks last week, the Archbishop of Lima said Thursday that he did not intend to undermine the importance of prayer in the presence of the Eucharist.
"It is essential for us to maintain a level of entering and contemplating the mystery of the Lord made bread for us, the mystery of the transubstantiation as we call it more technically, which means the real presence of the Lord," Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio said Jan. 7.
Castillo's remarks came after he told Lima's synodal assembly Jan. 7 that "no one is converted with the tabernacle." At that meeting, Castillo said that while Pope Francis has mentioned contemplation of the Eucharist as a source of spiritual growth, "no one is converted with the tabernacle. We are all converted from meeting people who ask us questions and who are human dramas where the possibility of encountering the Lord arises."
"I can later sit before the tabernacle and pray and all that, and surely; but it is very rare that I have illumination in a passive state...Contemplation is extremely important but to the extent the faith has been transmitted, somebody communicated the faith to me," Castillo added.