“Once I have finished this, I will be packing my bag for the trip to Sydney to join over 200 young people of our diocese who left last week to join thousands of youth from around the world to be and pray with Pope Benedict at World Youth Day. It will be a memorable event, and the young people left Long Island in high spirits, eager for this experience of sharing their faith and deepening their commitment to the Lord and His Church.

Mine is the privilege to offer catecheses to English-speaking youth on the three days, Wednesday through Friday, up to the arrival of the Holy Father in Sydney on Friday afternoon. Each morning I am assigned to a new group of 500-600 youth in one of the churches of the archdiocese.

First, I give a catechesis on the theme of the World Youth Day followed by a question and answer period. During that time, priests are available for confessions. Once that is done, we celebrate Mass together and then share a box lunch. While it is a long trip to Sydney and a great deal to do when we get there, it will truly be a blessing from God to be able to be with these young people and share their enthusiasm for the Lord and the Church. I expect, however, that I will be a bit tired but very happy to get home July 22.

Meanwhile, beautiful Long Island is in the midst of another summer that shows us all the beauty of God’s creation and the wonders of his gifts to us on this island. With summer also comes a chance for us all to relax and recharge. Every year I remind the priests that they too have to take some time off, that all of us need “down time” and that we should take advantage of where we live and the wonderful friends we all have. Every year I also get a number of letters from parishioners telling me I should set a dress code for Sunday Mass because too many come to church as if they were going to the beach.

I must say I sympathize with those who have written to me. While I am not going to try to institute a “dress code,” I think we all can agree that we all should dress appropriately for Sunday Mass in the summer and in all seasons of the year. When we stop to reflect on the awesomeness of what the celebration of the Eucharist is, so many aspects of our own approach to Sunday Mass fall into place. For example, when we come to church, especially if we can come as a family, do we make our preparation one that we can share with one another, talking about the importance of Mass and the fact that this is the privileged place of our encounter with Jesus in His Word and in His Sacrament?

When we arrive, do we enter our parish church with a sense of awe that we are coming into the place where we are always at home because it is the home of our Lord and Savior who is always waiting for us in the tabernacle, eager to welcome us and eager to hear us in the quiet of our own hearts respond in prayer to Him? We are not going to the mall. We are not going to the theater. We are going to worship God, a solemn obligation incumbent on every human being. And for us, members of the Body of Christ, His Church, when we worship God, we do so by celebrating together the greatest gift Jesus left us: the Eucharist. Our worship is the perfect worship of thanksgiving. Our worship places us as a people before the Triune God. He speaks His Word to us. We are formed by that Word of the Scriptures that the priest or deacon opens up for us to enter more deeply into our understanding of the mystery. We offer him our prayers and petitions for the needs of the Church and the world, conscious that we are supporting one another by these prayers and reaching out to one another, especially to the neediest and most vulnerable among us.

When the bread and wine are brought forward, they are our offerings which symbolize the offering we make to the Father through our Head, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit. When we are united, one in mind and heart as His people, gathered around the altar, the priest prays in our name that most wondrous of prayers, the Eucharistic Prayer by which we are joined to Christ’s one offering of Himself on the cross, an act made sacramentally real and actual as the priest prays the words of institution and we affirm by our Amen the wondrous act of our redemption made real on the altar which is Christ.

We ready ourselves for the sharing of communion as we pray the Lord’s Prayer and spiritually support one another in the reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord. And as we receive the priest’s blessing, we go forward back into our daily lives, transformed by the encounter of the Body of Christ with the Body of Christ so that we might live in the world animated by His sacramental gift that the world may look to us and believe in Him who has transformed us by His love.

As a boy, I remember we always wore a jacket and tie to church even at the beach. I don’t think that is necessary today. But appropriate dress is as much our responsibility now as it was then. I also remember the priests reminding us that school might be closed and we might be on vacation, but that does not mean we can take the summer off from Sunday Mass. That is still necessary today. The early martyrs of North Africa proclaimed a truth that is as true today as it was then: without the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot be; we cannot live; we cannot survive. This summer, enjoy your vacations and relax in this beautiful weather. And bring that joy with you every Sunday to Mass with a mind and heart fixed in thanksgiving on the Lord and a dress and a demeanor that shows that we wish to show Him and one another the honor and respect due to Him who eagerly awaits us and lovingly gives Himself to us in the Sunday Eucharist.