Last weekend, thousands of Catholics – many of them young – gathered at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis where they spent 5 days listening to inspired talks about our faith, worshipping together as one body in Christ, and adoring Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament. If you haven’t had an opportunity to do so yet, take a few minutes to look up photos taken on the first night of Adoration, where an entire stadium filled with families and young people fell to their knees to honor our Lord in the Eucharist. It is breathtaking to see!
The National Eucharistic Congress is the centerpiece of the American bishops’ three-year program to help all of us develop a deeper relationship with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament and to invite others who have left the Church or don’t know Christ to come back to Him with humble and contrite hearts. In conjunction with this national event, our own diocese will also be hosting a Eucharistic Congress later this year on October 5th in Ocean City, MD, to bring all of us together with the hopes of making us missionary disciples, seeking out the lost and most abandoned to remind them of God’s Mercy as found in Holy Communion.
I realize that there are so many things that vie for our time and attention these days, but as you plan for the Fall, please prayerfully consider bringing your family (or yourself and a friend) and join fellow parishioners as we pilgrimage to worship Christ in the Eucharist and be transformed to become His Love for others. More information can be found in our bulletin and website about the deanery bus available for this Diocesan Congress. From what I understand, seats are filling up fast.
A friend of mine texted me while in Indianapolis with her parish’s youth group, and she shared this one sentiment that captures everything the national and diocesan Eucharistic congresses are supposed to be: “I have never loved our Church more than I do in this moment,” she wrote. “To think that Jesus loves us so much that He stays with us this way in the Blessed Sacrament – and look how many came running to love Him in return.”
How truly blessed we are as Church.