National Congress delves into the Eucharist as ‘the greatest love story ever told’
August 13, 2024
Prelates and clergymen process following morning Mass at Lucas Oil Stadium July 18, 2024, during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) — Hundreds of priests, around 100 bishops and several cardinals, including Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, concelebrated the morning Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium July 18 — a Liturgy that kicked off the first full day of National Eucharistic Congress that had officially opened the prior evening with a revival centered around a beautiful Holy Hour.
“To recover the centrality of Sunday Mass as God’s people are fed with the Bread of Life has to be the resolve of this grand Eucharistic congress,” Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York, the principal celebrant, said in the homily reflecting on Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse” in John 6.
“As Pope Francis has repeated: ‘No Eucharist, no Church,’” he said.
Following the Liturgy, the morning’s seven “impact sessions” — specific tracks offered for three mornings during the congress — took that message to heart as speakers encouraged the tens of thousands of congress-goers to enter more deeply into the day’s theme of understanding the Eucharist as “the greatest love story.”
Following a Mass in Spanish, hundreds of Latino Catholics participated in the Spanish-language impact session, Encuentro, where Jesus as the summit of encounter and the source of love was the focus.
“The Lord asks us to be accessible to the most vulnerable and not to hide so that no one will touch us. The Lord saved us through his being vulnerable and accessible,” said Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, inviting people to renew the spirit of mission and participation in today’s world by living in the Lord’s way.
That same morning, Cardinal DiNardo reflected on what the Eucharist meant to the early Church — particularly the martyrs — noting the dialogue prayed at the start of the Mass’s Eucharistic prayer goes back to the Church’s earliest days.
“The next time you go to Mass and say, ‘We lift up our hearts,’ think of these martyrs since we live in an age when there are still martyrs,” he said.
Among the crowds listening to him was a contingent of the 230-strong Galveston-Houston pilgrim delegation led by and Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, that cheered at Cardinal DiNardo’s introduction, representing 62 parishes. Also at the congress were an additional 200 to 300 pilgrims from other parishes around the Archdiocese who attended separately. With the groups were five seminarians, a dozen priests and five to 10 other pastors who also attended.
The day’s Awaken impact session for youth began with a wake-up call, courtesy of the pulsating music that resounded through a hall of the Indiana Convention Center, which led hundreds of teens to rise to their feet, jumping, stomping and clapping to the lyrics that focused on a deeper relationship with Christ.
“If you’re here for a hype Jesus concert, then you’ve wasted your time,” emcee Oscar Rivera said. “But if you’re here to find Jesus — Jesus the one who set the blind to see — then you’re in the right place.”
Most of the congress’ 1,200 registered bishops and priests attended the Abide impact session for priests, where biblical scholar Scott Hahn exhorted them to renew their understanding of the close bond between Scripture and the Eucharist as Christ’s presence in the church and “rekindle Eucharistic amazement.”
The day’s Empower track, focusing on practical tools for evangelization, explored how ancient Jewish customs around marriage help explain salvation history as “the greatest love story.”
Hundreds of high school youth participated in a session focused on the human ache and longing for something more — an ache that can only be filled by Jesus.
The Eucharistic Congress offered two breakout sessions — both in Spanish and English — about strategies to ensure that persons with disabilities can access the Sacraments and that all “are made one in the body of Christ at the Lord’s table.”
Throughout the week, thousands of congress-goers — Catholics of an array of races, ethnicities, languages and traditions across America — continued to traverse back and forth around Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center under the clear blue sky and hot sun.
Just before Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota — the driving episcopal force behind the congress — walked onto the floor carrying the monstrance, the 30 perpetual pilgrims who had walked the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes entered 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 — the pilgrims took the final steps that officially completed their eight-week journey from points north, south, east and west across the U.S. to the July 17 to 21 congress in Indiana's capital city.
After a time of silent prayer and praise and worship, Bishop Cozzens knelt for a second time in front of the monstrance.
"Lord, we wanted to give you the first words of our National Eucharistic Congress," he said. Kneeling before Jesus in the Eucharist, Bishop Cozzens recounted how the National Eucharistic Revival — launched in 2022 — has led Catholics to gather to study, teach and pray with the Eucharist, spending countless hours in adoration and small groups, and in parish and diocesan initiatives.
"Lord, we made a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage for you," he prayed. "For the last 65 days we brought your living presence across this land, across the East, West, North and South. We visited large churches and small churches. We had large processions in cities and small processions in prisons. We visited nursing homes and homeless shelters. Lord, we tried to share with everyone we met along the way your unspeakable love."
He said the pilgrimage prayed for the country and the Church and brought those prayers to the congress. He thanked Jesus for the miracles the pilgrims saw along the way: conversion, people return to the faith, physical and spiritual healings.
"We hope to see more," he said.