‘Jesus is all around’: St. Louis Catholics experience National Eucharistic Congress

Jack Dunard has been to major sporting events. He’s seen bands perform at concerts. But nothing will compare to his experience at the Tenth National Eucharistic Congress.

It’s been an absolute witness to the “sheer power of the Eucharist,” said the recent graduate of St. Francis Borgia High School in Washington.

Jack was among 42 students from St. Francis Borgia who made a pilgrimage to the July 17-21 congress in Indianapolis. The historic gathering featured daily Masses, various morning and afternoon sessions — including some geared toward families and youth — and evening keynote talks for everyone.

“There is nothing on this earth that can captivate this many people this strongly as our Lord and Savior can in physical form,” Jack said. “There’s no sports team, no band — nothing that can bring this many people together from this far apart.”

About 700 Catholics from the Archdiocese of St. Louis attended. Most of the programming was held at the Indiana Convention Center and adjacent Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis. More than 50,000 were registered as attendees, representing all 50 states, 17 countries and 43 languages.

Eucharistic adoration was regularly offered throughout the week at the evening sessions; perpetual adoration was at St. John the Evangelist Church across the street from the convention center. The pinnacle event was a one-mile eucharistic procession through the heart of downtown Indianapolis on July 20.

Father Donald Morris, St. Francis Borgia High School chaplain, said that the congress demonstrated a part of the universal Church, with participants ranging from infancy to 96 years old, according to event organizers, and from all walks of life and vocations. The last National Eucharistic Congress was held in 1941 in Minneapolis-St. Paul; Philadelphia hosted an international Eucharistic Congress in 1976. St. Louis held a National Eucharistic Congress in 1901.

While one aim of the National Eucharistic Revival is to bring people from ignorance to knowledge, keynote speaker Father Mike Schmitz told attendees, he suggested that the deeper problem is indifference — and the remedy requires repentance.

“Too often we say, ‘We have the Real Presence,’ but our hearts are far from Him. Too often, we just don’t care,” Father Schmitz said. The remedy to indifference is love, he said, and the road to love is repentance.

Father Morris agreed with his sentiment and said his hope for the Church is that “the indifference to the mystery of Jesus dying and rising from the dead for our salvation — the fact that we can be indifferent to that — will be cut off by the Lord and will be replaced with love. And the love that we go back with for the Lord, any excitement or renewed dedication to the practice of the faith will spread to other people — at the high school and in our parishes.”

Some Catholics from St. Louis attended as part of a bus pilgrimage sponsored by the archdiocese, while others traveled individually or with their families. Pam White of St. Josephine Bakhita Parish in St. Louis serves as a parish representative for the Eucharistic Revival and has been discussing with fellow parishioners ways to increase eucharistic presence at the parish, including adoration.

While the congress was a one-time event, our relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist should be a lifetime endeavor, White said. When she participates in adoration, “I’m with Jesus. But then what is the next step? I think we should get to the point where we’re with Jesus, but then we begin to develop and see Jesus in the other person. So Jesus is all around — not just present in the host.”

The Eucharist has sustained Kim Reid through a parish merger and a cancer diagnosis. Being at the congress was a chance to celebrate the Eucharist with thousands of other Catholics and served as a reminder to invite others to know the eucharistic Lord, just as she was invited when she became a Catholic in 2005.

Reid said the Eucharist has been food for the journey as she and Catholics at St. Augustine, Our Lady of the Holy Cross, St. Matthew the Apostle and St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist churches in St. Louis are merging to become a new parish.

“I tell people that I know that this is difficult,” she said. “This is the time when you need food for this journey. We are on this road to Emmaus … and in this journey that we’re on to becoming a new parish, the one thing that we all share is a love for the Eucharist. We have to trust that God is going to be with us.”

Tom and Kathy Sommers, members of the Catholic Student Center at Washington University, brought two of their six children, Mary Grace, 13, and Auggie, 11, to Indianapolis. They attended some youth and family impact sessions and planned to bring back a renewed energy for the faith to their own family and as witnesses to the faith with others.

“We all want to take care of our own body, and we are primarily responsible for that, but we are all we are all intertwined as children of God part of the Body of Christ,” Tom Sommers said. “We can always do more, to be more attentive to the other parts of the body of Christ,” especially through service to others.

Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski and Auxiliary Bishop Mark S. Rivituso attended the events, concelebrated Masses and participated in the eucharistic procession through the streets of downtown Indianapolis. Bishop Rivituso, who heard confessions for nine hours over two days, noticed the number of people who told him they were challenged in some way and how they needed to live eucharistic lives more fully.

“We need to listen from our hearts to His eucharistic heart: What are you calling me to do as a disciple for you?” Bishop Rivituso said. “Eucharistic graces help us to live Jesus in relationships with others and make a difference in the lives of others. He is the one who calls us to mission, and I think we have to begin with prayer. From there, we see how we’re called to live like the Lord in life of the world.”

On the last full day of the congress, Heidi Kladiva of Incarnate Word Parish in Chesterfield joined tens of thousands of attendees in a eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis.

With a rosary in hand, the 20-year-old processed from the convention center to the Indiana War Memorial and American Legion Mall. Crowds spilled from the streets and onto surrounding sidewalks. Groups were heard singing songs in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages, while others prayed or walked silently.

Kladiva attended the SEEK conferences in St. Louis and didn’t want to miss out on the congress. She anticipates receiving the sacrament of confirmation next month after having been away from the Church when she was younger.

“I haven’t really done anything this summer, so I wanted to come to this,” she said. “I didn’t want to miss it. The Eucharist means everything to me. Going on mission trips and different conferences and seeing how the Eucharist is in different places — it’s expanded my world.”

This was Ann Bergman’s second National Eucharistic Congress. She was seven years old when she attended the 1941 congress in Minneapolis-St. Paul with her family. She primarily remembers having to quietly sit in her seat in the stadium, and her mother would allow her to stand up when she grew tired.

Now 90 years old, the member of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in St. Louis was filled with joy to attend with her son Matthew, daughter-in-law Julia, and their four children.

She said when she receives communion, she pauses for several seconds and gazes upon the host to contemplate what she’s about to consume. “I look and I say, ‘This is really Jesus. I am really looking at Him.’ It really gets me — and I say thank you, Jesus. It’s His Body and Blood, soul and divinity.”

Katie and Geoff Wester made the drive from St. Louis with their five children, ages 2 through 9. The members of St. Paul Parish in St. Paul attended many of the family sessions throughout the week.

The Eucharist has been front and center in conversations at home, especially as their daughter Emma, 8, received her first Communion this year, and their eldest child, Thomas, 9, made his first Communion two years ago. As a homeschooling family, the Westers wanted their children to attend as a teaching opportunity, but also to see other Catholics from all over the United States. Some of the kids made a game of looking at other attendees’ credentials to see what states they were from.

“I wanted to be sure like that we are bringing our kids along in this faith journey,” Katie Wester. “While they might not remember every talk, it’s just the experience — seeing all of the priests and the religious and just the beauty of that and the number of people here.”

One of Thomas’ favorite parts of the congress was hearing a talk from Father Leo Patalinghug, an award-winning chef and TV host, as he made pasta in front of the audience. “He’s very, very funny,” Thomas said. “He talked about how food connects with Jesus. He feeds us,” just like food feeds us.

When Thomas receives Jesus in the Eucharist, “I feel more like Him,” he said with certainty:

Emma also liked Father Patalinghug’s analogy of an apron that a cook wears. “You’re the one making the food and serving, you’re not the one sitting down and eating,” she said. “Just like Jesus. Jesus served — with Himself. And He feeds us with Himself.”