Month: July 2024

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – As five days of the National Eucharistic Congress concluded with one final revival and a beautiful solemn Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium — Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., stood in Lucas Oil Stadium.

“I have a question for you,” he told the crowd. “This is the 10th National Eucharistic Congress – do you think we should do an 11th one?”

Some 60,000 congress participants – representing 50 U.S. states, 17 countries, and various Eastern and Western churches, and speaking over 40 languages – cheered wildly in the stadium.

They also again rose to their feet to give the U.S. Catholic bishops an enthusiastic standing ovation for making possible the five-day congress with its impact sessions, breakout sessions, special events, revival nights with Eucharistic adoration and Benediction and beautifully celebrated reverent Masses.

The event reflected the diversity of a church all united in the same Eucharistic Lord and eager to use their gifts for a new Pentecost in the church.

The first day of the July 17-21 congress began with an evening revival as the 30 perpetual pilgrims, who had walked the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes, took their final official steps of their eight-week journey into the stadium carrying icons of each route’s respective patron saints – St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, St. Junipero Serra, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the Blessed Virgin Mary – that were put around the altar where the Blessed Sacrament was placed.

“How will we know that we are experiencing Eucharistic revival?” Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., asked in his keynote speech July 17, encouraging everyone to surrender their hearts to the Lord over the next few days. “When we are truly revived by the Eucharist,” he said, “then our encounter with Christ’s real presence in the sacrament opens us to an encounter with him in the rest of our life” and then “spills over in our daily life, a life of relating to others, our way of seeing others.”

Every day of the congress began with most congress-goers joining in beautifully and reverently celebrated Eucharistic liturgies in the stadium — including a July 20 Holy Qurbana, the Syro-Malabar form of the Eucharistic liturgy, prayed in English. Additional morning and evening Masses at nearby sites in different languages, such as Spanish or Vietnamese, or in different forms, such as the Byzantine rite or the older usage of the Roman rite.

Three days of the congress, July 18-20, were split between seven morning impact sessions and nearly 20 afternoon breakout sessions on a variety of topics meant to form, equip and inspire people, including clergy, to live more deeply their faith in light of Jesus making himself truly present in the Eucharist — and how to practically bring what they have learned into their parishes, ministries, groups and families.

The exhibit halls in the Indiana Convention Center were packed throughout the congress, as long lines formed for exhibits such as the Shroud of Turin or Eucharistic miracles. Religious sisters provided a kind of spiritual air traffic control that guided people to the lengthy confession lines.

The convention center was also a place where the spontaneity of joy could be seen and felt. Young people marched through chanting their love for Jesus, while further on, a group of Catholic women, dressed in traditional apparel from Cameroon, sang and danced their love for Jesus and Mary to the delight of people who gathered around them.

Congress-goers had the opportunity to attend off-site events such as The Catholic Project’s panel discussion July 19 that explored the challenges of navigating the dating landscape as Catholics.

Tens of thousands of congress-goers at the revivals — and the liturgies as well — eagerly joined their voices in singing the beautiful hymns and chants, both traditional and contemporary, in English, Spanish, Latin and other languages. The congress saw the musicianship of Dave and Lauren Moore, Sarah Kroger and Matt Maher, as well as the talents of the men’s ensemble Floriani and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

“The reverence was just awe-inspiring, and that’s something I would like to take back to our parish,” Deacon Robb Caputo of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, told OSV News.

The nightly revival sessions created a sensory experience of awe around the Eucharistic Lord, as tens of thousands prayed in silent contemplation before the Eucharist on the altar — illuminated in the dark stadium by spotlights. Adoring Jesus in the stadium, concluding with Benediction, was the pinnacle movement of each evening.

Keynote speakers and testimonies helped keep people’s eyes fixed on Jesus’ personal love for them and his desire to be close to them.

One such nightly revival, focused on healing, indicated the problem with Catholic belief in the Eucharist – was more about the heart than the head, and needed Catholics to repent of their indifference to Jesus.

“Knowledge can make us great, but only love can make a saint,” said Father Mike Schmitz, the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, priest known for chart-topping podcasts “The Bible in a Year” and “The Catechism in a Year.” Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, who survived four wars in the Middle East, recounted how in the midst of her own personal suffering she heard Jesus say in her heart: “That even on the cross and through the cross, we can still choose to love.”

Jonathan Roumie, the actor famous for his portrayal of Jesus in the hit miniseries “The Chosen,” told the audience at the final revival night July 20 after reading Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse from John 6, “The Eucharist for me is healing. The Eucharist for me is peace, the Eucharist for me is my grounding. The Eucharist for me is his heart within me.”

Congress organizers also made intentional efforts to be inclusive of families and those with disabilities, particularly those with sensory disorders, so they could also experience the congress and participate fully in the experience.

Murielle and Dominic Blanchard of Gallup, New Mexico, navigated the congress with six children aged 8 and under, including 20-month twins, and a baby on the way. They said the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium was key for them, because it provided both formation for their older children and had space for the twins to play.

Throughout the congress, the historic and stately St. John’s Catholic Church across from the Indiana Convention Center’s main entrance fulfilled its role as a spiritual hub. A steady flow of pilgrims came and went from the main church during 24-hour adoration throughout the congress. It had times for silence as well as times geared toward families, where children were invited to get close to the Eucharist, put a flower in a vase near the monstrance, and just adore as beautiful, simple melodies lifted up the packed church in prayer.

More than 1,200 religious sisters and brothers, 1,170 priests, 630 deacons, 610 seminarians and 200 bishops participated in the congress, according to congress organizers. At a press conference July 19, Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez said he had never seen anything like the congress, as a non-papal event, in his 35 years of priesthood.

“You can sense the energy of what’s happening here, which is touching hearts,” he said, adding the experience was making him think about how to respond to the need for the church’s sacraments to be more accessible.

The highlight came July 20 as tens of thousands of Catholics followed behind the truck-pulled, flower-rimmed float carrying the Blessed Sacrament accompanied by Bishop Cozzens and Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson. They walked 10 blocks from the convention center through downtown Indianapolis to the Indiana War Memorial Plaza for what Bishop Cozzens said “might be the largest Eucharistic procession in the country in decades.”

Nancy Leuhrmann of Cincinnati told OSV News the experience, which culminated in Eucharistic adoration and Benediction at the plaza, was “really wonderful, seeing all the people just quiet, reverent and joyful.” Leuhrmann said the security presence didn’t have much to do and she noted the officers thanked the crowd for making their jobs easy.

At the sending-forth Mass July 21, Pope Francis’ special envoy to the congress, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, delivered a homily with warmth, joy and humor that made participants both laugh and feel inspired as he told them, “A Eucharistic people is a missionary and evangelizing people.”

“We should not keep Jesus to ourselves,” he said, exhorting them not to use their time in church to escape others, but to “share Jesus’ tender love” with “the weary, the hungry and suffering … the lost, confused and weak.”

“Go and share Jesus’ gift of reconciliation and peace to those who are divided,” he said, emphasizing, “Let us proclaim Jesus joyfully and zealously for the life of the world!”

Bishop Cozzens revealed there would be another National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in 2025 from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, and possibly an earlier National Eucharistic Congress than 2033.

But he invited people to take this experience of the congress and — echoing Cardinal Tagle’s call for Eucharistic “missionary conversion” — join the congress’s “Walk with One” initiative.

“Commit yourself to walking with one person,” he said. “Commit yourself to becoming a Eucharistic missionary, someone who lives deeply a Eucharistic life, and having received that gift, allows themselves to be given as a gift.”

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – The five days of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis could not have ended in a more fitting way — with the celebration of the Eucharist with more than 50,000 people gathered at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Usually the home field of the Indianapolis Colts, for one last day, the stadium was filled with people adoring and praising Jesus Christ, hearts overflowing with love and gratitude for what they had experienced over the past week.

The Mass was celebrated by papal envoy Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was present in Indianapolis for the entire congress, and who greeted participants in many different languages. In a homily delivered with energy, joy and humor, Cardinal Tagle thanked “the God who is Love … for gathering us a family of faith at this closing Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress.”

Cardinal Tagle, who serves the Holy See as the pro-prefect of the Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization, said he brought with him the “fatherly, paternal blessings” of Pope Francis, who “prays, as we all do, that the congress may bear much fruit for the renewal of the church and of society in the United States of America.”

The message of Pope Francis to congress-goers, he said, was “conversion to the Eucharist.”

As attendees prepared to leave the five transformative days of the national congress, and were commissioned to go forth to spread the Gospel anew, Cardinal Tagle reflected on the connection between “Eucharistic conversion” and “missionary conversion.”

Those who go out on mission are a “gift” to the church and to the world.

“Mission is not just about work but also about the gift of oneself,” he said. “Jesus fulfills his mission by giving himself, his flesh, his presence to others as the Father wills it. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of his mission.”

Where there is “a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal,” it could be that it is “partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness,” he said.

“When pessimism takes over, we see only darkness, failures, problems, things to complain about,” he continued. “We do not see gifts in persons and events. And those who do not see gifts in themselves and in others, they will not give gifts; they will not go on a mission.”

The cardinal asked those present to examine their own consciences in considering why some people choose to walk away from the Eucharistic Lord, preferring “his absence rather than his presence in their lives.”

“I invite you to pause and ask rather painful questions about this mysterious rejection of Jesus by his disciples — by his disciples,” Cardinal Tagle said. “Is it possible that we disciples contribute to the departure of others from Jesus?

“Why do some people leave Jesus, when he is giving the most precious gift of eternal life? Why do some baptized turn away from the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist?” he asked.”Does our biblical, catechetical and liturgical formation allow the gift of Jesus’ person to shine forth clearly? Does our Eucharistic celebration manifest Jesus’ presence or does it obscure the presence of Jesus?”

Finally, the cardinal said, as attendees go forth, will they stay with Jesus?

“Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus,” he said. “The gift of his presence and love for us will be our gift to people. We should not keep Jesus to ourselves. That is not discipleship. That is selfishness. The gift we have received we should give as a gift.”

He invited them to “share Jesus’ tender love” with “the weary, the hungry and suffering.”

“Go and share Jesus’ shepherd’s caress to the lost, confused and weak. … Go and share Jesus’ gift of reconciliation and peace to those who are divided,” he said.

“A Eucharistic people is a missionary and evangelizing people,” he said. “Let us proclaim Jesus joyfully and zealously for the life of the world!”

During and after Communion, the stadium was filled with strains of traditional Eucharistic hymns, including “Panis Angelicus” and Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The musicians also performed the original score “the Mass of Peace” composed by Dave Moore, the director of liturgy and music for the National Eucharistic Congress, and his wife, Lauren. The Moores, founders of the Catholic Music Initiative, “a nonprofit apostolate that creates beautiful and singable music for Mass,” also performed during the closing Mass and revival session.

Before the mission-sending Mass, the congress held a morning revival. Mother Adela Galindo, founder of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, encouraged them to see Mary as the model Eucharistic missionary and urged attendees to share the visible fruits of what they experienced.

“This is a new chapter in the life of the church, a chapter that we will write with the power of the Holy Spirit,” she said.

“What we have freely received, we have to freely give,” she said. “We must be witnesses and ardent missionaries of the Eucharist and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

At that revival, Chris Stefanick, founder of Real Life Catholic, told the crowd that every Communion is a reminder of God’s love and this demands a radical response by sharing the Gospel with confidence, rejoicing in his love even when life is hard, and above all, striving to become a saint.

“Every single human heart is made for the love that is Jesus Christ,” he said.

“Some people have likened this conference to a Pentecost moment,” Stefanick said. “Ask for the grace that he promised to make us his witnesses.”

At the conclusion of the Mass, Bishop Andew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., stood before the crowd in Lucas Oil Stadium and received a standing ovation.

“I have a question for you,” he told the crowd. “This is the 10th National Eucharistic Congress — do you think we should do an 11th one?”

The stadium roared with approving cheers and applause. He said that congress organizers had already been planning for the next congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption — 2,000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection — but they’re now considering organizing another Eucharistic congress even sooner.

“We’ll keep discerning and let you know,” he said with a smile, to audience laughter.

He also announced another National Eucharistic Pilgrimage next year, starting in Indianapolis and arriving in Los Angeles in time for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22, 2025, and that Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said he would welcome “all of you.”

He also asked the crowd if they would accept the bishops’ invitation to join the Walk With One initiative by identifying a person they can accompany to better know Jesus.

“Commit yourself to walking with one person,” he said. “Commit yourself to becoming a Eucharistic missionary, someone who lives deeply a Eucharistic life, and having received that gift, allows themselves to be given as a gift.”

Already the congress’s fire of Eucharistic revival showed signs of spreading beyond the U.S. as tens of thousands of Catholics left Lucas Oil Stadium in the orchestral afterglow of the final stirring hymn, “O God Beyond All Praising.”

Christina Nugent, 18, traveled with her 20-year-old sister to the congress from Calgary, Alberta, and told OSV News she would love to see a similar event for Catholics in Canada.

Rather than be satisfied with her personal experience of the congress, “this has really pushed me to see what I can do for others when I get home,” she said. “They’re like, ‘If you’re in love with someone, you would tell people about it.’ So if you’re in love with Jesus, you should be telling people about it. That’s my takeaway.”

After the Mass, Bishop Cozzens told OSV News he is “just filled with so much gratitude for what God has done, and really the power of the Holy Spirit that’s present here.”

“It’s hard to put into words what the whole experience has been, from the beginning to the end, so beautiful and such a sense of God renewing his church,” he said. “I’m so grateful for what God has done.”

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – A Eucharistic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles is being planned for spring 2025, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, announced July 21 at the end of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress’ closing Mass.

Congress organizers had also been considering holding an 11th National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, the “Year of Redemption,” 2,000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, but they’re now discerning organizing an event sooner, said Bishop Cozzens, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress, Inc., which organized the five-day congress and preceding eight-week Eucharistic pilgrimage.

Few logistics for next year’s pilgrimage have been determined, Bishop Cozzens told OSV News following the Mass. The route will likely travel through the American Southwest, culminating in a Corpus Christi Mass in Los Angeles with Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles.

With more than 4 million Catholics, Los Angeles is home to the nation’s largest Catholic population.

“We decided that we want to keep this tradition of a national Eucharistic pilgrimage going, and we’re going to do one next year,” Bishop Cozzens said. “The goal is basically to continue the renewal that’s begun through these Eucharistic pilgrimages.”

As for the timing of next Eucharistic congress, Bishop Cozzens said congress organizers have been inspired by “all the people at the congress saying that we have to do this again, and when we were telling people we’re going to do it in 2033, they would say it’s too late, we might lose momentum in nine years.”

He noted that that sentiment came from congress benefactors and people who have been involved since the beginning.

“Maybe it should be something like the Olympics, every four years,” he said. “I think the impact certainly grew more than any of us expected. And so, since it’s been so impactful, we’re going to discern what will serve the church as we go forward.”

From May 17-18, Pentecost weekend, 30 young adult “perpetual pilgrims” traveled with the Eucharist along four routes, beginning in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas.

Collectively, they traveled through 27 states and 65 dioceses, covering a combined distance of 6,500 miles — many of them on foot — with the help of support vehicles. Their pilgrimage included daily stops at parishes, shrines and Catholic institutions, for Mass, Eucharistic processions and adoration, while experiencing the array of Catholicism in America along the way.

The pilgrims converged in downtown Indianapolis July 16, ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress, at St. John the Evangelist, a historic Catholic church immediately across from the main entrance of the Indiana Convention Center. Speaking with OSV News, pilgrims described the experience as personally life-changing and described seeing its deep effects on many people who encountered the Eucharist through it.

The pilgrimage and congress are part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops launched in 2022 to increase understanding of and love for Jesus in the Eucharist. The close of the congress launches the Year of Mission, during which the bishops are encouraging Catholics to “walk with one” by sharing their faith and accompanying another person to better know Jesus and his love.

 

 

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – Tens of thousands of Catholics walked through the streets of downtown Indianapolis July 20 for what Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens said “might be the largest Eucharistic procession in the country in decades.” But, in prayer during adoration at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, the bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, also said their immense numbers were still “too small.”

“There are millions of people in our own states, in our dioceses, who don’t yet know you,” said Bishop Cozzens, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. In his prayer, he encouraged the throngs of people kneeling in the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza to be missionaries to those who need to be brought to Jesus.

Along with Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, Bishop Cozzens had accompanied the Eucharist on a truck-pulled float, kneeling before the gleaming monstrance.

Thousands had processed behind the flower-rimmed float, slowly making their way across 10 city blocks from the Indiana Convention Center to the Indiana World War Memorial. Others lined the streets, kneeling as the Eucharist passed by.

The procession was a much-anticipated highlight of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress held July 17-21 at the convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium. More than 50,000 passes were sold for the congress – the first national Eucharistic congress in 83 years – but organizers expected the procession to draw from beyond the congress’s registered participants.

The float was preceded by hundreds of seminarians, religious sisters and brothers, deacons, an estimated 1,000 priests and more than 100 bishops and cardinals — including Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the U.S. papal nuncio, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pope Francis’ special envoy to the congress.

At the very front were children, dressed in white dresses and suits, who had recently received their first Communion. They carried baskets of rose petals, spreading them on the ground ahead of the Eucharist.

Immediately following the Eucharistic float, leading music, were a few of the “perpetual pilgrims” who had recently finished the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an eight-week journey from four compass points of the United States with the Eucharist that culminated at the congress.

Walking with them in the Indianapolis procession was Will Peterson, whose nonprofit Modern Catholic Pilgrim had organized the pilgrimage. Behind them were Knights of Columbus, knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, walking closely together, and other perpetual pilgrims from the national pilgrimage. The procession also included Catholic dancers reflecting their cultural traditions.

As the Eucharistic float pulled away from the conference center along Capitol Avenue, in the shadow of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church — the site of the congress’s perpetual adoration chapel — and under a skyway emblazoned with the words “These Roads Lead to Revival,” a crush of people left the sidewalks to walk behind the Lord.

The float turned right down Maryland Street and then left on Meridian Street, a central Indianapolis corridor, passing storefronts, office buildings and restaurants, and curving around the Monument Circle roundabout. When it arrived at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, Bishop Thompson and Bishop Cozzens disembarked.

Bishop Cozzens processed with the monstrance, followed by Bishop Thompson, toward a stage at the base of the memorial, where musicians were singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet. When they reached the stage and its temporary altar, they secured the monstrance in its base for adoration and knelt before Jesus in the Eucharist.

As people made their way into the park, many knelt on the grass or the sidewalks as a soprano sang “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent.” With the hot July sun beating down on the pavement, people knelt, wept or raised their arms, or simply sat and contemplated the Blessed Sacrament.

After another hymn, Bishop Cozzens read from Matthew 13: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

Kneeling before the Eucharist, he prayed, “Jesus we know the procession we made today is a symbol, a sign of our earthly pilgrimage, and it’s not over. … We know that you want all people to follow you. Jesus, we will walk with them. Jesus, bring them to us. We want to walk with them towards you, Jesus.”

He continued: “Jesus we have experienced in these days together just a small taste of heaven. Show us, Lord, who you are. … Make us, Lord, your missionaries to every corner of our land.”

Bishop Cozzens’ six-minute prayer led into adoration with praise and worship music, the song’s refrain simply a repetition of “Jesus.”

After Benediction, the Eucharist’s repose and the final stirring chords of “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name,” someone shouted, “Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long Live Christ the King!”) — to which the multitude gave a loud shout of “Viva!” People began dispersing well after 5 p.m., with most making their way to Lucas Oil Stadium for the congress’s 7-10 p.m. final nightly revival session, which was to feature Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and the Word on Fire apostolate; speaker and podcast host Gloria Purvis; actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in “The Chosen” miniseries; and musician Matt Maher.

Participants marveled at the procession’s size and meaning, both for them personally, and for the wider church in the U.S.

During adoration, tears filled the eyes of Irene Mantilla, an immigrant from Peru now living in Chicago. The 60-year-old said she recalled God “parting the Red Sea” of difficulties in her life and accompanying her. “And I’m still walking,” she said.

Father Roger Landry, a Columbia University chaplain who had traveled the full length of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Seton Route from New Haven, Connecticut to Indianapolis, said the procession was “by far the greatest one that the country has had since before World War II.”

“I was so happy that the Eucharistic congress and the Eucharistic pilgrimage featured this extraordinary Eucharistic procession,” he said. “And that we all had the privilege to be able to walk with Jesus and tens of thousands of others, thanking him for never abandoning us and always walking with us through life.

He was also grateful for this tremendous witness to proclaim to Indianapolis and the entire U.S. “what the nature of the Christian life is.”

“It’s a journey with Jesus, not here to Indianapolis, but to heaven,” Father Landry said.

Theresa and Craig Gilley from Alabama had arrived early at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, and said that it was Jesus alone who had brought them to Indianapolis and to the procession.

“I’ve thought to myself, you know, you can see him in any church on any corner, but there’s something about all of us getting together that is really cool, especially being from the South where there’s not really a lot of us (Catholics),” Theresa Gilley said.

“It’s really exciting to be able to show not just the city of Indianapolis, but the whole country what Catholics really think and really believe,” Craig Gilley added.

Among the first communicants leading the procession was Elaine Saunee, with her mother, Melanie Saunee, of Destrehan, Louisiana. Elaine Saunee received her first Communion 14 weeks ago and was excited to be in the procession, wearing her first Communion dress and a veil crafted from her mother’s wedding veil.

“To be able to walk with him (Jesus) in procession and to witness to the rest of the country is a desire you have as a parent, to bring witness to their faith,” Melanie Saunee said, her voice filling with emotion.

Frederick Williams, a seminarian with the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, described the procession as “such an incredible opportunity.”

“You know, going into it, I was kind of skeptical,” he admitted. “My feet were hurting from walking all week already. But, you know, as soon as I sort of gathered with my brother seminarians here, seeing the immensity of them, seeing them, the bishops gathered, the priests, the deacons, the lay faithful, the religious sisters, I could not think about my feet that were hurting this entire time.”

“All I could think of was just my heart overflowing with love of the church,” he said.

Jeremy Schaefer, a seminarian from the Diocese of Cleveland, said the atmosphere was “truly electric.”

“It’s been an amazing week so far, and this is quite the capstone for the entire week,” he said, calling it “a highlight of my seminary formation and I’m sure a highlight of my entire life in general.”

Dave Baudry from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said he was at the beginning of the procession and was touched to see the amount of people there, especially the kids praying on the sidewalk and the sheer number of priests and sisters walking with the Eucharist.

He described people locking arms together, singing, praying the rosary and reflecting, even people “in tears, crying, as we went by.”

“It was the biggest thing I ever experienced in my 45 years of ministry,” he said.

Beth Schuele of Warren, Michigan, and a volunteer and trainer with St. Paul Street Evangelization, spoke to OSV News as she stood with her “mobile evangelization unit” — a wagon with prayer cards and a prayer sign — at the edge of the war memorial as thousands processed by.

“I think it’s beautiful,” she said about the procession. “The big witness of what it is, that Jesus is really truly present, is powerful.”

Susan Holtsclaw from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said she and her husband, Greg, were impressed to see “many thousands of people in the street just to wait for Jesus to go by.”

“To see him walk through the streets with thousands of people there worshiping and … know he’s there and that he’s always with us” was a gift, said Greg Holtsclaw.

The Holtsclaws had never before seen a procession of this magnitude.

“It’s unbelievable to see so many people here, all of us worshiping, you know, God and our Savior,” Greg Holtsclaw said.

After the “amazing” procession and all they have experienced at the congress, they are looking forward to sharing their experience with people at home, he said, and “spread the love that we felt here.”

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) – At Lucas Oil Stadium, Day 4 of the National Eucharistic Congress, began with a liturgy — and a story — from the church that St. Thomas the Apostle planted in India.

Tens of thousands of Catholics filled the stadium July 20 to celebrate together a Holy Qurbana, the Eucharistic liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic Church’s 23 Eastern-rite churches, celebrated by Bishop Joy Alappatt of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Chicago. The bishop explained that the Qurbana, which he celebrated in English with some hymns in the original Syriac language “originated from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle … who came to India in A.D. 52, and because of his mission work we got a Catholic community in India.”

Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia, who concelebrated the Holy Qurbana, told the thousands gathered that just as St. Thomas went forth to bring the Gospel to India, they too are called to share the Good News far and wide. He said, “Just think — 20,000 years from now, somebody might say … if we receive the (Holy Spirit), ‘Around the year 2,000, things really started going (for the church). People strengthened by the body and blood of the Lord, receiving the Holy Spirit, went out with the Good News.'”

Congress-goers joined in what organizers said may be the largest Eastern-rite liturgical celebration in the history of North America on a day dedicated to the theme “This Is My Body.”

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, told reporters later that morning that they wanted participants to experience the congress’s theme of unity amid the church’s “beautiful diversity.”

“The Catholic Church is a universal church. It speaks every language on earth. We’re the most diverse organization in the whole world, because every culture and every language celebrates the Eucharist differently,” he said.

For most attendees who were familiar with the Mass — the Latin Church’s form of Eucharistic liturgy — this was their first experience of the Holy Qurbana and gave them a deeper appreciation for Jesus’ gift of himself in the Eucharist.

“I felt like it just had everything that we believe, the Bible and Scripture all sort of wrapped from one end to the other,” Theodore Kuczek, an attorney from a northern suburb of Chicago, who said praying the different form of Eucharistic liturgy both felt familiar and emotionally stirring. “It was just very, very moving. The closing prayer … had us meditate on how joyful this was and to enjoy it now, because who knows if we’ll have it again.”

During the morning’s youth Mass, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson spoke candidly to the young people about the impact that each one can make, even to the suffering.

“We don’t know the wounds people carry. We see some on the outside. The deepest wounds often are on the inside. We don’t know the lives we’re touching,” he said.

“But every time you … offer a smile, open a door, sit with a sick friend, say hello to a stranger — we never know the difference we’re making,” he said. “You never know how God is using us.”

He told the young people the church needed them as committed disciples of Jesus, and that their witness was a source of inspiration.

“It’s so important for us to keep in mind that the young people in our church are not the future of the church. You’re the young church now, and we need your energy,” he said. “We need your gifts now.”

In the Encounter impact session, theologian Edward Sri unpacked the scriptural context of a few parts of the Mass. He acknowledged that many Catholics might feel like “robots,” going through the motions of Mass without understanding what they say or why. Drawing on the wedding at Cana and scenes in Revelation, he explained that Mass is a wedding feast, and “every time you go to Mass, you’re getting a wedding invitation.”

Sri encouraged attendees to keep the “fire” they’ve experienced at the congress through community with other committed Catholics and being attentive to their relationship with people in their lives, especially their families.

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, an international speaker and author who spoke immediately after Sri, urged attendees to not shy away from their call to evangelize those around them by focusing on Jesus’ love.

“We have to remember, people may meet Jesus for the very first time when they meet you,” he said. “Filled with word and sacrament, you become his witness in the world, and that’s their first encounter with Jesus.”

Following the Mass in Spanish with Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, close to 2,000 Latino Catholics participated in the last Encuentro session of the congress.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat of New York discussed how to become missionary disciples through accompanying, listening, teaching and sending. He exhorted the audience to cheer for the risen Christ and not let this moment pass them by. “We are here to light a fire, Amen?” he said. “So, we don’t return to our homes being the same.”

Theologian Dora Tobar Mensbrugghe gave a presentation about the life of the disciple of Jesus and how a Eucharistic disciple is also a missionary.

“To be a disciple is not to be ‘knowers’ or ‘repeaters’ of his teachings, as beautiful as they are,” she said. “It is not about being mere admirers of the person of Christ.”

Rather, she said, Jesus wants his disciples to be transformed and “be creatures of love and for love. To be in his image.”

At the Cultivate impact session for families, Damon and Melanie Owens spoke about the importance of developing families’ communal relationships with each other. The couple of 31 years and parents of eight are the co-founders of the Joy Ever After marriage and family ministry.

“It’s essential to build a tribe, those families you can trust to share in forming your children, your family with,” said Damon. “Kids provide opportunities to meet families with other kids. But it’s about finding those who really share your faith, your values and mission, and making the decision to share with them.”

Melanie Owens encouraged moms to find a “collective of women to open up your heart with, where you can trust and support each other.”

She said, “I wanted Damon to fulfill me and make me happy, especially after I’d been with the kids all day. But I needed to form a collective with women to do that. That helps create better families.”

Lisa Brenninkmeyer, founder and CEO of Walking with Purpose, a Catholic ministry providing Bible studies and community for women, at the Empower session said that Catholics need to respond to the hidden epidemic that plagues the faithful and society as a whole: loneliness and isolation. She called attention to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s recent findings that “even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness.”

Drawing from the example of the early church in Acts, Brenninkmeyer said that “when the church comes together and offers an experience of true community, transformation happens.”

She acknowledged that St. Paul’s exhortation for Christians to “bear one another’s burdens” is not easy. “Isolation is frankly easier oftentimes,” she said.

“We come up against the pain of being in relationship with broken people and we get hurt,” she said, “so we pull back and we isolate,” but “the very circumstances that so often are indicating to us that we need to pull back from this community are the very things that God is bringing into our lives through the community so that we can be transformed into the image of Christ.”

She encouraged those gathered “to keep showing up,” building relationships within their community and growing them in their families in order to “build a church where no one stands alone.”

In the Renewal impact session for ministry leaders, Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, the missionary outreach to college students, told them they can only be effective evangelists if they trust the transformative power of the Gospel truly works. He exhorted them to have a sense of urgency and not become complacent. Martin said that while God will take care of things, “he really wants you to pray and to weep and to fast and to love the poor, because he did those things for us.”

“The crisis in our culture today is not because Jesus is less relevant. He has never been more relevant,” Martin said. “We have the best story in the world. Not only is it fascinating and compelling — it’s true.”

At an emotional final Abide impact session for clergy, Dan Cellucci, CEO of the Catholic Leadership Institute, shared the story of his son Peter’s diagnosis with a malignant brain tumor at age 7 and how the illness was not “what he signed up for” as a husband and a father. He related the struggles of his fatherhood to the struggles that so many priests face in their own priestly ministries, where it is all too easy to become disillusioned and think that this is not “the cruise ship that I signed up for.”

“So many of you have been broken by trauma, by feeling betrayed … or just beat down,” he said.

He said to those “hanging on by a thread, ready to explode or implode because the life they said ‘yes’ to is now more than the life they imagined and wanted … you have made the right choice to be here, to be a part of this experience with your brothers, and I pray for you to hang on. Jesus wants to heal you.”

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, followed Cellucci’s testimony by contemplating with his brother priests the “poverty of Christ,” challenging them to become ever more configured to Christ and pouring themselves out for the good of their people.

“This is the point,” he said. “That the Christ makes himself fully present and fully known in his true sense of who God is — as the God who gives himself out.”

As the morning’s sessions concluded, the Indiana Convention thrummed with joy and anticipation of the coming Eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis that afternoon. A massive line snaked through the convention center to see exhibits on Eucharistic miracles and the Shroud of Turin, while young people marched through singing joyfully their love for Jesus.

In another jubilant spontaneous moment, a group of women from all over the U.S. with the Catholic Women’s Association – Cameroon sang and danced to songs speaking their love for Jesus and Mary, expressed through their Cameroonian heritage.

“We’re thirsty for you Jesus, we’re thirsty for you, Jesus, we are thirsty for you — and that is why we are here.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With world peace under serious threat, Pope Francis called on all nations to observe the Olympic truce and cease all conflicts for the traditional period before, during and after the Olympic Games in Paris.

“As is the custom of this ancient tradition, may the Olympic Games be an occasion to call for a cease-fire in wars, demonstrating a sincere desire for peace,” he said after praying the Angelus with visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square July 21.

“I hope that this event may be a beacon of the inclusive world we want to build and that athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and authentic models for young people,” he said.

The pope’s appeal came after he sent a written message to Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, who celebrated Mass at the Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Paris July 19 to mark the official start of the Olympic truce.

May God help “enlighten the consciences of those in power to the grave responsibilities incumbent upon them, may he grant peacemakers success in their endeavors,” the pope said in the letter that the Vatican published July 19, seven days before the opening of the Summer Games and the customary start of the observance of the Olympic truce.

The Olympic truce tradition, originating in Greece in the 8th-century B.C., asked that all wars and conflict be suspended during the games and seven days before and after the games as a way to make sure participants could travel to and from the venue safely.

The International Olympic Committee revived the tradition in 1992 and it works with the United Nations to pass a symbolic U.N. resolution before each Games inviting U.N. member states to observe a truce to encourage the Olympic spirit of peace.

In his letter, the pope said the Olympic Games can be “an exceptional meeting place between peoples, even the most hostile. The five interlinked rings represent the spirit of fraternity that should characterize the Olympic event and sporting competition in general.”

“I therefore hope that the Paris Olympics will be an unmissable opportunity for all those who come from around the world to discover and appreciate each other, to break down prejudices, to foster esteem where there is contempt and mistrust, and friendship where there is hatred. The Olympic Games are, by their very nature, about peace, not war,” he wrote.

“It was in this spirit that antiquity wisely instituted a truce during the Games, and that modern times regularly attempt to revive this happy tradition,” the pope wrote.

“In these troubled times, when world peace is under serious threat, it is my fervent wish that everyone will take this truce to heart, in the hope of resolving conflicts and restoring harmony,” he wrote.

Pope Francis also sent his support and blessings to all athletes, spectators and the people of Paris, including the many Catholics who “are preparing to open wide the doors of their churches, schools and homes.”

“I hope that the organization of these Games will provide the people of France with a wonderful opportunity for fraternal harmony, enabling us to transcend differences and opposition and strengthen the unity of the nation,” he wrote.

The Olympic Games begin July 26 and run until Aug. 11, followed by the Paralympic Games, which will take place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.

Some 10,500 athletes from around the world are set to compete in the Olympics and as many as 4,400 in the Paralympics. Thirty-seven athletes from 11 countries of origin are expected to represent the Refugee Olympic Team at the Summer Games and eight athletes from six countries will compete in the Refugee Paralympic Team.

The Paris Summer Games will mark the first time there is the same number of women and men competing in events since the modern Summer Olympics began in Athens in 1896 and where all the athletes were men.