CNA Staff, Jan 15, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The upcoming National Eucharistic Congress, which hopes to draw hundreds of thousands of people to Indianapolis this summer, will feature Grammy Award-nominated Catholic musician Matt Maher as worship leader, the congress announced this week.
The congress, the first such event to be held in the U.S. in over 80 years, is the culmination of a multiyear “Eucharistic Revival” initiative of the U.S. Catholic bishops, which aims to inspire deeper belief in and devotion to the holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus.
Set to open Wednesday, July 17, and run though Sunday, July 21, the National Eucharistic Congress will feature a mile-long Eucharistic procession through Indianapolis and several opportunities for Eucharistic adoration with an expected assembled group of 80,000 attendees. The congress will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium, the massive indoor arena of the Indianapolis Colts. The full schedule for the congress is available online.
Maher, a Canadian musician best known for his contemporary worship hits such as “Lord I Need You” and “Your Grace Is Enough,” will lead a massive worship session in Lucas Oil Stadium on the Saturday of the congress.
As previously announced, the congress will feature numerous “Impact Sessions” led by well-known Catholic speakers including Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of CNA’s parent company, EWTN News, Inc.; Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, host of the “Abiding Together” podcast; and Father Josh Johnson, host of the podcast “Ask Father Josh.”
Registration is now open for the congress, with options available for full five-day conference passes as well as weekend and single-day passes.
A regular adult five-day registration costs $360 (a figure that does not include lodging and travel). Discounts are available for families who sign up as a group; for teenagers; for seminarians and clergy; and for groups of two or more people who sign up together. Single-day passes are available for between $49-$95 for adults and $20-$75 for teens, and weekend passes cost $125 for adults and $80 for teens. Children under 12 can attend the congress for free.
Organizers said Thursday that 30,000 people have signed up for the congress so far and that periodic updates on the number of registrations would be made available.
Joel Stepanek, programming and administration vice president for the National Eucharistic Congress, told media in a press conference this week that the event will offer special sessions geared toward different Catholics in attendance to best suit their needs.
For example, “Cultivate” sessions are geared toward families; “Empower” sessions are for people working as missionaries; “Renewal” sessions are for ministry leaders; and the “Awaken” sessions are specifically for youth. There will also be “Encuentro” sessions for Spanish-speaking Catholics in attendance.
Stepanek said the first day of the congress, Wednesday, will see the culmination of the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimages, which are set to kick off in May. Starting from four different spots — San Francisco, northern Minnesota, southern Texas, and Connecticut — the pilgrimages will process the Eucharist thousands of miles to Indianapolis, with Catholics invited to join in and walk small segments along the way.
The four processions will converge at the opening evening in Indianapolis as part of the launch of the congress, Stepanek said, followed by opening speeches from papal nuncio Cardinal Christoph Pierre; Sister Bethany Madonna; and Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, who is spearheading the bishops’ Eucharistic Revival initiative.
Thursday and Friday of the congress will be similar to each other, Stepanek said, with opening liturgies beginning at 8:30 followed by morning Impact Sessions. After the talks and during lunch, attendees will be encouraged to visit the congress’ expo hall, which will feature numerous Catholic apostolates, ministries, religious orders, and vendors.
The afternoons will include additional breakout sessions and talks followed by afternoon liturgies, a dinner break, and then the evening’s main event, the Revival Sessions. These will include keynote talks and praise and worship, starting at 6:30 p.m. and going into the 10 p.m. hour.
Saturday will also have a similar schedule, with the addition of a Eucharistic procession around downtown Indianapolis beginning at 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. On Sunday, the congress will wrap up with a final Revival Session from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by a closing Mass celebrated by a papal delegate with music by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Tim Glemkowski, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress, told the media that “about a million dollars” in scholarships and financial assistance will be available through a solidarity fund and will mainly be made available for youth who are unable to pay to attend the event.
Glemkowski said the pricing plan they have worked out makes the congress “not just the biggest, but also the cheapest mega-Catholic event in 2024. Full stop.”
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Prayerfully wishing the very best, truly…but “worship leader, vendors, liturgies” (plural?), audience-oriented sessions—”etcetera, etcetera, etcetera” as Yul Brenner vocalized in “The King and I.”
In advance, what if every parish priest simply explained with personal conviction that at every Mass, at the elevation of the consecrated host, those who deeply recite in silence “My Lord and my God” merit a plenary indulgence, after having simply participated in daily Mass for a week? Under the normal conditions (Penance within 20 days, Eucharist [!], and freedom from even venial sin). https://prayers4reparation.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/my-lord-and-my-god/
So, yes, the long-needed Indianapolis but, already in the Christian cosmos, the mystery of the Real Presence is every time and place that Mass is offered—the renewal (!) and extension (!) of the one (singular!) sacrificial communion on Calvary—not a replication or facsimile, nor even a group production.
It goes without saying, or maybe needs saying, that the Mass is not something we do; it’s the work of the Holy Spirit through Christ’s words spoken by the sacramentally ordained priest (say what?).
I agree with you, but…first of all, Mass attendance is hardly attracting an overflow crowd, except at Christmas and maybe?? Easter when the music is usually kind of good.
I think all of us need times of refreshment and the encouragement of being with massive numbers of people who are on the same path we are.
Back in the dark ages (the 1970s), EXPLO 72 (presented by Campus Crusade for Christ) attracted 100,000 (that’s one hundred thousand) young people, mainly teenagers, to Dallas Texas, and is considered the beginning of the “Jesus Movement” in the U.S. This came along at a time when many people feared that the end of the U.S. was near (Viet Nam war, unrest and riots on college campuses, race riots, Women’s Lib, rise of illegal drug use, Satanism and Anton Levay, pushing the limits in the entertainment world, no-fault divorce, etc.).
MANY pastors, teachers, writers, musicians, and lay leaders came out of EXPLO 72. Several of the teenagers in my youth group became pastors and at least 2 of them are internationally “famous” for their books (which are actually very pro-Catholic!). I consider myself and my late husband products of EXPLO 72–even though we were too young to go, we benefitted from all the good teaching materials, speakers, music (especially the music!), etc. that came out of the event, and I can honestly say that from that time until now (my husband died in 2020 of COVID), we never lost faith, never stopped being active in church, never stopped praying and asking God to rule in our lives, and never stopped allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us–including when He took us into the Catholic Church and challenged us to walk away from Evnagelical Protestantism! I would give some of the credit for our returning “home to Rome” to EXPLO 72 and the commitment to serve Jesus Christ that we made after experiencing the aftermath of this great event.
I pray that the Eucharistic Congress with be used by God to have the same impact–or even a GREATER impact! AND…I’m willing to bet you a McDonald’s shake that there will be priests and religious at that conference who first made a commitment to the Lord Jesus back during the time and aftermath of EXPLO 72!
This from Robert Cardinal Sarah:
“…the bishops of my continent [etc.!] should take measures so that the celebration of the Mass does not become a celebration of one’s own culture. The death of God for love of us is beyond any culture. It submerges culture [….]
“After the faithful have finished receiving the Body of Christ [CCC 1374: and soul and divinity!], the choir should stop singing so as to leave everyone the time for an intimate conversation with the Lord who has just entered the temple of our body” (“The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise,” Ignatius 2017, n. 266).
“[Some have lost] sight of what is DISTINCTIVE [italics] to the liturgy, which does not come from what WE DO but from the fact that something is TAKING PLACE here that all of us together cannot ‘make’” (n. 252; quoting “The Ratzinger Report,” 1985).