A small book arriving in Sydney parishes this week carries a rather large ambition: to help every Catholic in the Archdiocese fall in love again with the Eucharist.
The Walk with Christ Parish Companion, prepared by the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation (SCE) is being delivered in hardcopy to parishes from this week. Drawing on formation resources developed for the International Eucharistic Congress 2028 and adapted for use across the archdiocese and beyond, it has been designed to do something more enduring than fill the weeks before a single afternoon in the city.
“Our preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress are not simply about preparing Sydney to host an event in 2028,” said Sydney Centre for Evangelisation director Daniel Ang.
“It is about asking how this moment can renew the life of the Church for years to come. The work we are doing with parishes now, offering this kind of formation for leaders, working with other dioceses, parish renewal conferences and creating a parish ambassador network are about creating the conditions for that deeper and more lasting fruit: helping people encounter Christ in the Eucharist, grow as disciples and carry that encounter into the life and mission of their communities. In this sense the legacy of the Congress begins now.”
Practical, flexible, and built on request
The Companion contains six formation modules, each weaving together Scripture, the teachings of the Church, prayer, personal reflection and group discussion.
They are deliberately built to be flexible: a parish group might work through them over six weeks, a school might take one at a time, a ministry team might use a single module as a retreat afternoon or a family might simply sit with the reflections around the kitchen table.
The focus, though, is on the Companion being used within a small group context in the parish, as it is a resource that will help parishioners gather in communion with one another, as Christ intends.
That practicality is not accidental. The resource responds directly to requests from across the archdiocese for something concrete: a way of turning enthusiasm for Eucharistic renewal into something a community can actually pick up and use on a Tuesday night.
“I am very excited to introduce this into our parish,” said Fr Dariusz Basiaga SDS, parish priest at St Luke’s, Revesby. “It gives us the opportunity to dive deeper into Christ, going as deep as we can, to have a relationship, an intimate relationship with Him.”
While the immediate horizon is Walk with Christ 2026, the Eucharistic procession led by Bishop Richard Umbers, which this year moves to the Solemnity of Christ the King on Sunday 22 November, the longer horizon is 2028, when Sydney hosts the International Eucharistic Congress, Eucharist28.
“May this Companion deepen your parish’s love for the Eucharist, strengthen communion, and inspire our public witness of faith,” said Secretary General for the Congress, Bishop Richard Umbers. “I look forward to you joining us for Walk with Christ on 22 November 2026 as we come together as one Church, united in our Eucharistic Lord.”
What the Companion is really built for, though, is what happens in between, and after.
Ambassadors on the ground
The SCE’s Parish Renewal Team will work alongside parish ambassadors to support this formation, helping communities find the way of using the resource that best fits their own life and rhythm.
Tania Rimac, of the Parish Renewal Team, said, “We want to be ready to receive and nurture the fruits of the Eucharistic Congress, and that begins in the life of our local communities — forming and encouraging parishioners to lead, to serve, and to welcome others into a deeper relationship with the Eucharistic Lord. At the heart of that work is our own encounter with Christ, allowing Him to form us so that, in turn, we can accompany others.”
The first of four Parish Ambassadors gatherings begins on 3 September.
In the languages people pray in
Translated versions are being finalised and are expected online next week, with editions in Arabic, Chinese, Tagalog and other languages. The Sydney Centre for Evangelisation will be working with the archdiocese’s migrant chaplains to support formation and help make the resource accessible to Sydney’s many cultural and language communities.
“We hope these translations will allow people to enter more deeply into this journey of Eucharistic renewal through the languages and communities in which their faith is lived,” Ang said. “Working alongside our migrant communities, we want the journey towards 2028 to be enriched by the faith, cultures and gifts they bring to the life of the Church. They are not simply communities to be represented at the Congress, but co-hosts who will help shape the way we welcome the world to Sydney.”
Encounter, then mission
The Companion rests on one simple conviction: that an encounter with Christ in the Eucharist is not meant to stay in the pew. It flows outward, into communion with one another, into mission, into the ordinary witness of Catholics who have been changed by what they have received.
The Walk with Christ Parish Companion (English version) is arriving in parishes now and is also available on the IEC website here.
In time, an adapted edition of the Companion will be made available to the wider Church in Australia and internationally, allowing the wisdom of its contributors to continue forming communities and bearing fruit throughout the years of preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress and beyond.
