Registration and First Impressions
St. Francis of Assisi has “boots on the ground” at the 2024 Eucharistic Congress. Parishioner Dennis Graham will be sharing his insights from this "once in a generation" event!
Crucifix Sculpture created for the Eucharistic Congress in downtown Indianapolis
Bishop Cozzens carrying the monstrance into Lucas Stadium
1st day - July 17. Angela, Sandie and I walked downtown that first morning to register at the immense Indy Convention Center and found the process to be painless. The crowd was warm, kind and full of interesting and devout Catholics. We met Joaqim, a charming Indian man from the culturally diverse city of Toronto. He was wearing a T-shirt with the famous quote from Blessed Mother Teresa: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” He embraced each of us when we commented on the truth of the message he wore proudly. He was born and raised in Calcutta and told us that his wife knew St. Teresa personally. We met Miguel and Irene, brother and sister from Texas and Florida. Gracious and joyful, they were effusive in their praise of the EC event, they blessed us and prayed for its success, and then mentioned with a smile that the Uber driver that had just dropped them off was named Emanuel. So far it has been a joy to be among these pilgrims. After registering we started the journey by going to confession in a dimmed conference room that was full of priests. Sandie asked her confessor if he was excited to participate in the many EC events, and he replied, “Nope. I’m here for confession. It’s all I want to do.” We visited St. John the Evangelist Catholic church across the street, which hosts Perpetual Adoration during the event. Confession, Adoration and receiving the Eucharist are the pillars of this Congress; all 3 are readily available and are well attended. A great start to the EC.
The evening events began with the procession into the Lucas Stadium of the four groups of pilgrims who brought Jesus to Indianapolis from four different US routes, including the Serra Route that started in California and traveled recently through Boulder and Denver. That was followed by a beautiful Holy Hour led in prayer by Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the primary organizer of the event. There may have been 30 or 40 thousand adorers in that NFL stadium, and you could hear a pin drop. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., was the evening session’s keynote speaker. He invited us to reflect on the basic question of “what is Eucharistic revival?” and “how will we know that we are experiencing Eucharistic revival?” What a start!
