This year there is, as you hopefully know, a strong Eucharistic focus in the Church in America.
A peak event in this year—a summit and source event, if you will—was the National Eucharstic Congress, last month, in Indianapolis. Thanks to St. Mark’s field reporter, Patti Shrake, for bringing back this report, and hopefully many graces! (Light editing from the editor!)
---
“You might have seen some amazing videos of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis a few weeks ago:
Like the closing liturgy, where over 50,000 Catholics from every state gathered in the Lucas Oil Stadium for the Holy Mass, celebrated by the Pope’s special envoy, Cardinal Tagel, and con-celebrated by more than 200 Bishops and Cardinals and over 1200 priests.
Or the Eucharistic Procession through downtown Indianapolis, led by over 1300 consecrated women religious, more than 700 seminarians and 600 deacons, with the enormous monstrance placed on an altar three stories above the throngs of adorers.
Or maybe you’ve had the opportunity to watch some amazing key note speakers or inspirational testimonies on Youtube.
But I have a confession to make, when my husband said he was registering us for the congress 12 months earlier, I did not want to go. After all, I already believe in the real presence, I’ve attended all the bible studies at St. Mark’s, taught RCIA classes for seven years, done The Bible in a Year, (twice) and Catechism in a year, so I thought: Don’t I already know all this?
Well, trusting that the Lord had a reason for putting that desire in my husband’s heart, off we went. The talk by Fr. Mike Schmitz seemed to confirm my hesitation when he kept saying, ‘You all know this! I am not teaching you anything new.’ But, guess what? He did! In Revelations, chapter 2 Jesus says, “I know your works, your difficulties and your patient suffering...Moreover you have endurance and suffered for my name without losing heart. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost your first love. Remember from where you have fallen and repent...’”
Sometimes our problem is ignorance and we need knowledge, and the road to knowledge is truth. But sometimes our problem is indifference. We might know that we have the real presence, but if we are not willing to repent, to give God our heart and our life, it’s just head knowledge. The remedy for indifference is love, and the road to love is repentance. Fr. Mike encouraged us to identify the fire extinguishers (sins, habits) in our lives that put out the fire of our love for God, and leave us indifferent. It is not that we don’t know enough, it is that we don’t care enough. Knowledge can make someone great, but only love can make a saint.
Pictures above include...
Four Shrakes meet from different corners of the country at the NEC; Eucharistic procession through the streets of Indianapolis; Representing St. Mark’s at the Legion of Mary and National Council of Catholic Women in the Exhibit hall.
Comments