For seminarians, priests and alumni of The Saint Paul Seminary and 60,000 fellow Catholics, the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana was a transformative experience. But now what?
Briefly
- The silent moments of Eucharistic adoration might have been the most powerful ones during the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana July 17-21.
- Scientific studies suggest silence as one potential antidote to the information overload and mental health crises of today.
- An adoration chapel is one of the few places where total silence is available on demand without cost.
- A tangible action every Catholic wishing to effectively evangelize could take is inviting someone to spend time in adoration.
What does more than 60,000 Catholics getting together sound like?
Nothing.
In Lucas Oil Stadium, where decibel levels reach 100 several Sundays a year, the most powerful moments during the 10th National Eucharistic Congress might have been those of silence. Crookston, Minnesota Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ opening prayer in front of the Eucharist kicked off the first such event in 83 years. Fellow Saint Paul Seminary alumnus Fr. Mike Schmitz challenged to repentance those who had journeyed to Indianapolis and thousands more watching at home on Night 2. Bishop Robert Barron helped cap off three-plus days of liturgies, talks, prayer and reflection as the United States Church seeks to double down on devotion to what Catholics believe is Jesus Christ, present in the form of bread of wine.
If you were there, you might have thought the amassing of 60,000 Catholics sounded like half of them joyfully shoehorned into the Indiana Convention Center exhibition hall. If you tuned into EWTN’s live stream, you might have thought it sounded like a ¾-full NFL stadium singing along with Matt Maher’s praise-and-worship music. If you caught clips of Sunday’s Congress-capping liturgy celebrated by papal delegate Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, perhaps you’d include the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in your audible description.
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Event organizers and attendees predict what took place in Indiana’s capital city July 17-21 will go down as a seminal moment in U.S. Church history – on par with 1993 World Youth Day or the 1941 Eucharistic Congress, which took place in the Twin Cities.
“There’s a lot of seed that’s being planted … in people from California, from New York, from Minnesota to Florida to Texas to Maine,” Saint Paul Seminary instructor and Catechetical Institute founder Jeff Cavins said. “They’re gonna go back, and the graces that flow from the Eucharist are going to begin to spread. What’s happening here in Indianapolis, you’re going to see the fruit of it for decades to come all over the country and then, by way of extension, around the world.”
“You’re going to see the fruit of it for decades to come all over the country and then, by way of extension, around the world.” — Jeff Cavins, Saint Paul Seminary instructor and Catechetical Institute founder
The monstrance used in 1941 as more than 80,000 Catholics processed through light rain to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds is now housed at The Saint Paul Seminary.
The gold, circular vessel for housing the consecrated host at this year’s Congress was much larger and heavier; Cozzens had to make sure he had a good grip before benediction Wednesday night.
And each evening, at least once, that monstrance was placed on an altar near where the coin is tossed at Colts home games. The only active electronics were spotlights all pointed at the Blessed Sacrament.
And between 50,000 and 60,000 pilgrims stared at Christ in complete silence.
The absence of presence
The world is loud.
- Scientists estimate the average living person consumes as much as 74 GB of information (mainly from electronic media) each day. That’s the equivalent of watching 16 movies.
- The average human attention span is 8.25 seconds. Goldfish can stay focused on one thing longer than people can.
- The National Institute of Health published a study that showed a correlation between social media engagement and poor mental health.
- At least one in five U.S. adults and one in 10 American children is experiencing mental illness, according to Mental Health America.
There’s no panacea. But recent research suggests silence is a strong antidote. According to Healthline, the absence of noise can:
- Lower blood pressure
- Improve concentration and focus
- Calm racing thoughts
- Stimulate brain growth
- Reduce cortisol (the primary stress hormone)
- Enhance creativity
- Improve insomnia
- Encourage mindfulness
OK, cool. But where can it be found?
The Source and Summit
Few places are completely silent. But at many Catholic parishes throughout the U.S. – and the world – there’s a place where, usually, the only sound is a creaking kneeler.
An adoration chapel.
At the National Eucharistic Congress, Cozzens and several Saint Paul Seminary seminarians led tens of thousands of Catholics in a Eucharistic procession from St. John the Evangelist church to the Indiana War Memorial and Museum. In May, 7,000 Twin Cities Catholics followed Jesus inside the 1941 Eucharistic Congress monstrance down Summit Avenue from the seminary to the Cathedral of St. Paul – part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, a four-route, months-long sojourn culminating at the congress.
The key call-to-action for all Catholics – not just attendees – from National Eucharistic Revival leadership, though, is much narrower and simpler.
“Walk with one,” Cozzens and his team of organizers dubbed it. Find one person who’s away from the faith and invite him or her in.
How the heck do you do that?
Every gathering starts with an invitation
During his keynote speech, Schmitz – the widely popular host of the Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year podcasts with Cavins, and a frequent Ascension contributor – called Mass an “insider thing.”
“We have a complex relationship with inviting people ‘on the outside’ into Mass; I think that’s OK,” said Schmitz, who was ordained in 2003 after attending The Saint Paul Seminary. “Where can there be a moment of evangelization regarding the Eucharist? I think in proclaiming the Word, in unpacking the Bible in a way that says ‘here are all the parts of the Bible that point to Jesus in the Eucharist.’ That’s one thing that’s so important.
“Another thing: Adoration, I really believe, can become a place where Jesus gets to win hearts to Himself.”
To be clear, non-Catholics aren’t banned from Mass. They’re prohibited from receiving Communion.
But the Eucharist isn’t prohibited from receiving them.
“Adoration, I really believe, can become a place where Jesus gets to win hearts to Himself.” — Fr. Mike Schmitz, Saint Paul Seminary alumnus
When Schmitz was at The Saint Paul Seminary, a fellow seminarian told him how he’d first encountered the Eucharist when a friend invited him to adoration. At this point, the future seminarian hadn’t even been baptized.
The pair went into the tiny, six-row chapel. The friend went to the front row to pray. The future seminarian sat in the back and, at first, had no idea what to do.
Then he looked up.
“He said, ‘I immediately started crying,’” Schmitz recounted. “’And then I had to hide beneath the pew in front of me, because I didn’t know what that was; I just knew that’s holy, that’s good … ’ That started this process” of him becoming Catholic and eventually discerning the priesthood.
Schmitz recommends explaining briefly what Catholics believe about the Eucharist and why they pray in front of it. But the most important piece is the invitation.
“People who really have this Eucharistic mindset, are willing to join themselves with the Lord in not just going to Mass but actually making that sacrifice of themselves … they need to invite others to do the same,” said Saint Paul Seminary Rector Fr. Joseph Taphorn, a priest of 27 years who added he’s “never seen anything” like the Eucharistic Congress. “Talk about the peace they’re experiencing, the joy they’re experiencing. Life isn’t easy, but we know that in adoration chapels … we [aren’t] alone in our struggles and in our fears and our worries.”
That’s the mindset shared by the 20 Saint Paul Seminary seminarians who attended the Congress, as they return to their summer parish assignments and prepare for another year of formation.
“We all desire, ultimately, relationship, communion, union with other people, living people,” said Deacon Randy Skeate, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis preparing for priestly ordination next spring. “Technology can be a great motivator for that; it can even provide that relationship, that communion, to an extent, but … I think now being saturated with screens and connectivity, we’re starting to realize there’s a limit to that. Many young people might feel stuck in their experience or what’s lacking with that connection … they’re wanting to receive, but they’re not receiving it fully or having it satisfied through technology and screens.
“The Eucharist is a sacrament of communion – Holy Communion; we receive the fullness of God, body, blood, soul and divinity. We’re communing with another person, the living person of Jesus who is present there. It’s still veiled under the appearance of bread and wine, but we desire more fully to just be satisfied by that presence of Jesus, who gives Himself to us. The Blessed Sacrament … is a foretaste of heaven, where we’re going to be face-to-face in complete, perfect relationship with God for all eternity. Nothing’s going to be lacking there. [In] our life on earth here, broken as it is but redeemed as it is, Jesus meets us there in our hunger and he gives us Himself, his own flesh and blood, his entire Godhead for us to receive and commune with.”
Said seminarian Carter Anderson from the Diocese of Helena: “A true Eucharistic revival will show forth in unity and seeing that unity in each other.”
Where do we go from here?
Skeate, Anderson and nearly 100 other potential future priests spend an hour each weekday morning adoring the Blessed Sacrament in St. Mary’s Chapel.
Most lay Catholics can’t do a holy hour every day like men preparing for the presbyterate. But more and more parishes offer the chance to sign up for an hour of Eucharistic adoration per week.
What would happen if every Catholic who doesn’t have a weekly holy hour signed up for one before the next Eucharistic Congress, which Cozzens said could come in 2033 or perhaps even earlier? And then every Catholic with a holy hour brought someone with them – someone they know could use some silence?
“The Eucharist,” Cavins said, “is the only thing on this planet that can change a hardened heart.”
It’s possible whether you attended the National Eucharistic Congress, tuned in remotely or never even heard of the thing till today.
Because Catholics getting together, then sharing the faith with others, can sound like nothing.
And, at the same time, Everything.
Photos: The Saint Paul Seminary at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress
