UST's St. John Paul II Institute presents Fr. Boguslaw Migut, a visiting professor from Poland, who will speak on "The Eucharist for the Life of the World: Eucharistic Renewal in the School of John Paul II and Benedict XVI" at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Link Lee Mansion, 3800 Montrose Blvd., Houston, Texas, 77098. His talk is in response to the challenges of the Catholic Church in the United States and its pastoral program focused on Eucharistic renewal.

Fr. Migut declares that Pope Francis, in the Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi, writes, "With post-modernity people feel themselves even more lost, without references of any sort, lacking in values because they have become indifferent, completely orphaned, living a fragmentation in which a horizon of meaning seems impossible." 

Fr. Migut believes that "postmodernism also results in rejecting the Eucharist as a sacrament of God's love for man and love in the social dimension. To meet these challenges, the last three popes tried to form Catholics to participate in the Eucharist. Pope Francis focused on human formation, following Fr. Romano Guardini, while John Paul II and Benedict XVI focused on theological and spiritual formation. Teachings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI come to the rescue here, as they rebuilt the foundation for understanding the Eucharist and participating in it."

Dr. David Fagerberg, Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, supports Fr. Migut's premise, saying, "He is a superb guide through these clarifications, identifying significant scholars and schools of thought (including the situation in Poland). His model of mystagogical theology invites a fruitful opportunity to appreciate the gains received from synthesizing liturgy and theology."

Fr. Migut is a professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, and chair of Theology of the Liturgy. During the academic year 2023-2024, Fr. Migut holds the visiting professor position at UST. From the beginning of his research in systematic theology, he was focused on liturgy and sacraments. He intended to create a synthesis of theology around the liturgy. Fr. Migut called such theology mystagogical theology.