Pope John Paul II marked Holy Thursday as a day of the Eucharist and the priesthood by sending a letter to all the priests of the world and by signing his new encyclical on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. He writes: "The Church draws her life from the Eucharist . . . The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history . . . The Eucharist creates communion and fosters communion." In the document’s conclusion, the Holy Father says: "In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope."

In an address to a task force on evangelization in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Bishop Michael Warfel of Juneau, Alaska said that evangelization’s concern "must include those who are difficult to love, because God loves them." The bishop observed that "There is no person that is not a beloved of God." He said that there may be people we dislike "because they are shallow, untrustworthy or meanspirited. Likewise, they may have some character defects and lifestyle behaviors that are very troubling. Or they simply may think and believe differently than we do on matters we consider to be vital and essential to the faith." Nonetheless, he added, "it is our responsibility to extend God’s love to them."

. . . "Basically, you cannot give what you yourself do not have," Warfel said, indicating that conversion is essential to evangelization - conversion "both in the sense of an initial opening to Christ as well as the daily surrender required to establish a pattern for life.

A new web site is encouraging parishes around the world to celebrate the silver anniversary of the pontificate of John Paul II on October 16. Patrick Ryan of South London set up the site with his family to show their appreciation and love for the Pope. The goal of the site is to record every Mass celebrated for the Pope on that day and to encourage prayers for his intentions. "We want to create a spiritual bouquet," Ryan told Independent Catholic News. "Would it not be wonderful ifwe could ring the world in prayer on Oct. 16 with holy Mass starting in Fiji, followed by New Zealand and then each country doing likewise as the sun circles the earth until it sets at the close of day off the west coast of Alaska?" Masses for the Pope’s silver jubilee may be registered at the multilingual site www.jp2-jubilee.org.

A two-year teaching program allowing yougn people to earn a master’s degree in teaching while volunteering their services as teachers at Catholic schools is being launched by Jesuit-run Loyola University of Chicago’s School of Education. Known as LU-Choice, it is modeled on the University of Notre Dame’s alliance for Catholic Education program. Loyola participants will earn a master’s degree after two years and will not pay tuition. Participants live in community, share daily life and prayer, and must be willing to share Catholic faith with their students, although participants do not themselves have to be Catholic.