All in all we need another breach in the wall.

It was toward the end of a Sunday liturgy that I first heard the phrase "Eucharist without walls." Within the walls of St. Benedict's Abbey, tucked into the southeast corner of Wisconsin, Father Kevin Murphy, O.S.B. made mention of this pastoral letter penned by Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Sklba.

Eucharist without walls. Unlike many church document titles, this one stuck in my mind. When it still reverberated in my mind several weeks later, ! contacted the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to get a copy. And when it arrived in the mail, I approached it with the curiosity I have for a well-named novel.

The full title of this pastoral letter is "Eucharist Without Walls: A Vision of the Church for the Year 2000." It reflects on "the challenges of being Catholic in a new millennium ... in being Church with fewer priests, amidst populations shifting to new locations, and with the unprecedented growth of lay ministers."

The letter suggests four primary challenges for all Catholics: (1) participate in Sunday Mass and encourage others to do so; (2) fully live the Eucharist through outreach to others; (3) share your enthusiasm for faith with others; and (4) take on personal spiritual renewal to prepare for the Jubilee Year 2000.

It's the second of these four challenges, living the Eucharist fully through outreach to others, that the ear-catching phrase "Eucharist without walls" most echoes for me. "We must make every parish truly Eucharist without walls," the letter says. "Eucharist is not just a single act that happens in church. We take the Eucharist with us into the marketplace, to where we live, work, and recreate." This is a far cry from the past overemphasis on the moment of Consecration, a far cry from the old "Jesus and me" spirituality that at one time imbued eucharistic piety, and a far cry from the present-day overly theatrical productions of liturgy in some post-Vatican Il precincts.

Vincent Donovan, in his book The Church in the Midst of Creation (Orbis, 1989), asks, "Is it possible that the true and ultimate meaning of the church, and the final meaning of the sacraments, can be found only outside the church, in the arena of the world, in the midst of creation?"

If the answer to this question is yes, then church bureaucrats would no longer exclusively concern themselves with who has the power to administer the sacraments, how much grace can be accumulated by receiving them, and proper rubrics of the rites. Creative and competent theologians and liturgists would need to continue their work to bring this expansive reality of Eucharist to the Catholic consciousness.

This pastoral letter emanating from Wisconsin highlights the symbiotic relationship between the rite of Eucharist within the church and its practice outside the clerestory. "Eucharist without walls" is a powerful image, a great thought, and, if fully practiced, surely would "stretch out to cover the land with goodness."

Should this seismic shift in Catholic consciousness occur, even if it takes a few years longer than the upcoming millennium, we would truly become a church who both celebrates and lives Eucharist without walls. Let's do it.

Peter Gilmour ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.