Welcome Back!! It's another beautiful day in Indianapolis. On July 19th, 2024, the 10th National Eucharistic Congress had it's third day. My day began with mass. After which I attended my second Empower talks. These talks were given by Bishop Joseph Espaillat, Meg Hunter-Kilmer, and Martha Hennessy. Then in the afternoon, I attended the women's session given by Emily Wilson. The evening Revival Session speakers were Sr. Josephine Garrett and Fr. Boniface Hicks, O.S.B. Before I get into the talks, I truly had an ordinary miracle occur. What was this ordinary miracle? I ran into Sr. Faustina Ferko, my second, and last therapist at the Franciscan Counseling Center. She gave the name I didn't know I needed for my experience in Juventutem; this name was religious abuse. Someday I might reveal this experience, more completely than in my Coached By College 2 part series, but that would be a tangent that distracts from the point of this series. Another wannabe tangent to another area of my life which she shined light into is that of the relationship I was in at the time. She pointed out to me that this relationship had signs of abuse. Ultimately, this would never fully leave my mind, and on March 12, 2023 standing in a Kroger in Steubenville, I broke down as I let it, the truth that I was being emotionally abused, wash over me. Again the full story of this experience is for another time, but the temporary end was that on March 19, 2023 I ended the relationship. Both experiences need(ed) healing which was the main thread of all the talks for the day. Now let's get into the first Empower keynote.
The first Keynote of this day's Empower session who was Bishop Joe Espaillat. Bishop Espaillat shared some undeniable wisdom when he told the crowd "need to exercise the soul". I believe this is reference to prayer. For in a way, prayer is the exercise of the soul. this I guess this connects to the previous day where it was expressed in the Youth session that prayer is the foundation of our relationship with Jesus. Going on from this Bishop Espaillat said "Jesus is the essence of life". This is so true of Jesus, He is the essence because he is the giver of life. He is the essence of life both through its creation in teh material and its redeemer in the way of eternal life. Thie latter point, is why as Bishop Espaillat says "We need to run to the cross". We need to run to the cross". Whether in joy or sorrow we need to run to the cross. But how often do we actually 'run to the cross"? I know I often run to some distraction from the thing I should bring to the cross rather than bringing it to the cross and if I do bring it to the cross I often, I do it with my own agenda. Yet, even when I even come with my own agenda, the Lord continually invites to unite both the joys and the sufferings of my life, and asking me to give up my agenda and take on and trust in his agenda (or trust in it more in the case of uniting joys to his suffering). This is quite pertinent as this session is catered toward going out into the world as Eucharistic Missionaries; missionary work is not easy, which brings me to the next speaker, Meg Hunter-Kilmer.
Meg Hunter-Kilmer, lives life a missionary by her own choice. For a long while, she actually lived out of her car. She had written several books including Saints Around the World (which is for children). She truly emphasized many truths about the missionary life. One of these truths is "There is danger in being a missionary [which is getting] caught up in who you are [rather] then who he is". This reminds me to watch those pronouns in talking about success. If I am constantly using "I", I'm falling into one of many current cultural philosophies that says you do all the things yourself (yes, even heal yourself), and remind myself to convert "I" into "he"; For, all the success is because, with my cooperation of course (Jesus NEVER imposes himself on people), he works through me and pours out grace into my life and others' lives. Talking of cooperating with Jesus, the Apostles, even with their struggles are some of the best examples of doing this; there, is a little wrinkle of Jesus commanding them to spread the Gospel, but their cooperation. Hunter-Kilmer zeroed in one Apostle in particular, St. Matthew. In the wider context of her talk, she brought St. Matthew up after talking about the women with the hemorrhages being traditionally being connected to St. Veronica as well as it being a miracle in a series of ten found in Matthew's Gospel. She then pointed out that in the midst of these miracles Matthew recounts hsi own call to follow Jesus, despite the fact he was a tax collector, aiding and abetting the oppression of his people. She highlighted that Mark and Luke call Matthew, Levi, in their Gospels, perhaps, to hide his identity but Matthew uses his own name, and why does he do this? Hunter-Kilmer says it was to emphasize that "Jesus stepped right into [Matthew's] mess and he said follow me". What a beautiful image? But if we really think about, Jesus does that for us every day. He steps in to my mess of healing from those two experiences mentioned above and says follow me. He steps into my mess of anxiety and depression, my mess of a myriad of neurodiversities and says he follow me. He stepped into my mess of severe depression and suicial ideation in 2018/19 and said follow me. It can be really hard to accept it but Jesus want us with our mess, so he can transform that mess into a masterpiece, so when our time comes, people can remember us more for who we are then what we did, though they will certainly remember that. Talking about our agendas, sometimes it seems for society our agendas can spring from ideology rather than from Jesus. Hunter-Kilmer emphasized that "He [Jesus] wants us to surrender the idolatry of our ideology". Even I can turn ideology in an idol. How often do I turn the Gospel and the Church's teachings into mere ideology and then place this manufactured ideology as an idol ahead of Jesus. Or how often do I place the ideology of understanding the neurodiverse and those with mental health issues and accepting them, as I am part of those communities {I literally have a series on this blog on one of my "neurodiversities", above Christ. Not saying we should not meet people where they are at, but when we do should we not recall, that even in meeting us where we are at Jesus calls us higher, now of course he is also patient with us since pesky concupiscence trips us up. How would the country change if each and every Catholic, or simply every Christian, Protestant or Catholic, laid aside ideology, surrendering the idol at the foot of the Cross, so Christ can once again reign in his or her soul? Wouldn't that end up changing the world, not just our country? Now, part of the mess we encounter as humans is suffering, Which was largely, the main topic of Emily Wilson's women's session.
Emily Wilson, is someone I have followed for years at this point, whether by watching her YouTube videos or reading her books. Her ministry is primarily targeted toward women, but she does a have a male audience as well. From the outset, she said that she wanted her talk to be a mini-retreat, after calling all out to having an allergy to vulnerability. She said her talk was going to have three movement (I'm still uncertain what the third movement was, but I think it probably began when she began talking about rowing) But on with what resonated with me. In reference to feeling we are unqualified, for what God calls us to, but Emily reminded the attendees of the women's session that "He [Jesus] will equip us". This was in part a spring board into the first time of sharing that she built into the session, both with a partner and, for a few, with the whole group (there was only time for one of these full group sharings). Yet, it also a reminder that we are not alone, and don't have to tough it out alone, and actually, often, we simply can't do that. Yet, it can be extremely difficult to allow Christ to equip us, for this, often entails suffering, which is almost never pleasant. Emily however, made the analogy of suffering or rather offering to Christ of suffering, to the way an oyster creates a pearl. She emphasized how just as the grain of sand causes the oyster pain, but rather than rejecting it, the oyster enters into that pain something beautiful, a pearl (she technically took this from someone else, whose name I cannot remember as I did not write it down), by offering our suffering to Jesus, and thus letting him into the suffering, where he can make something beautiful out of it. Thus she says, we should offer struggles and sufferings to Christ, asking him to "Make a pearl out of this [experience of suffering or struggle]". I think for me the best way I can see this, is the experience of going through my breakup. Though I may not have directly prayed to make the suffering a pearl. He most certainly did. Even initially, I had my family with me to carry me through. Yet, they were also not in direct physical contact with me, since is was at school. Yet, my Franciscan family, 100% stepped up to fill the absence of my biological family. The day I broke up with my ex, my Household big, Sydney, and my friend, Dulce, sat with me in that initial sorrow which welled up in me, all the suppressed emotions that all came out in full force. At the time, I couldn't name the primary suppressed emotion, but through therapy, though not with Sr. Faustina, I now understand it was a type of loneliness, I had thus far not experienced, that of control and lack of being truly known in a romantic relationship. Of course, I held felt loneliness, but it was a never so acute for, I was told I was not a burden, only to be shown that in fact, I was, something I've been terrified of all my life. But these women, and then many other women and men, showed me I was not alone in this nor really at all.
Emily closed her talk by exhorting all those in the room to "Spend your life soaring on the wings of the Holy Spirit". This makes me recall a memory which also occurred at Franciscan. For a semester, I did an door knocking ministry, called Encounter Steubenville. During a formation, piece of the ministry, the group did an exercise where you paired up with another member of the group and you prayed over the other person and share what you perceived in prayer; my prayer partner saw me riding a bike radiating joy. This image intrigued me. At the time, I thought it was about my transfer, being free of the loneliness of Ball State, but with the passing of the years, I realize now it is a goal, a point of change, but I even three years later, I have yet to reach it. When will I reach it, I am not sure, but know matter what if I keep close to Christ, I will reach it. Goal making is important, but the first Revival session speaker challenged the Congress in an unexpected way.
The first Revival Session keynot was Sr. Josephine Garrett, who in addition to being a religious sister, she is a licensed therapist. Leading up to the Congress, there was a feeling that The Congress was the culmination of the Eucharistic revival, yet perhaps that is a mistaken perception. Sr. Josephine correctly chastised any (including myself) who thought that. She reminded the crowd that "this is the start line". But the start line of what? The start line of the missionary year, where all who attended the Congress are supposed to share the great truth, and gift of Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist. So yes, in a way this is the end point of the Eucharistic revival, but in another more important way it is the start. If all attendees hungered so much for Christ, that they came to the Congress, how much more do those who didn't come or don't believe? Yet, as Sr. Josephine said "we are under the illusion that we are not supposed to struggle with hunger". Now, she was referencing spiritual hunger, but she had already made the analogy to physical hunger. Now, if I am honest, I am a person who gets hangry. So I definitely do not deal with hunger well. But in a way we have been made to hunger for the Lord. Yes, even I, sometimes run to the material rather than the transcendent in times of strife, the those material things rarely, really never, seem to satisfy that hunger. The hunger for Christ, remains and until I run into him, it is never satisfied. Yet, sometimes I get so mired in the worldy cares, I have been supremely negligent of this hunger. And have also forgotten the privilege that this hunger is. A profound time I acted like I was filling this hunger with the Lord , but was really trying to ignore the ache by going through the motions, was 2018/2019 when I dealt with suicidal ideation, while previous experiences somehow kept me alive, I was staying alive more out of the fear of causing others suffering, then because I hungered to understand my identity as a daughter of God. I was forgetting the truth that "every member of the body of Christ is necessary" . This was Sr. Josephine's message to all the singles in Lucas Oil Stadium. This emphasized how singles, who are likely figuring out their vocation, still have a role in the Church. Not a single one is lesser than because he or she is yet to be married, a religious or a consecrated, or a priest. Certainly, they should be discerning which path Jesus desires for them but in the mean time, they are still vital to the life of the church, bringing to it, oftentimes, youth and vigor, with/or examples of trust, patience, and perseverance. Now the next Keynote speaker was a little unique, so let's talk about it.
The final keynote of the evening was Fr. Boniface Hicks, O.S.B. His was a unique keynote, for it was not a talk, but leadership of Eucharistic Adoration. During this adoration, he led the stadium in a litany, or a series of litanies, I'm not quite sure how to define it. I can reproduce it here for in adoration, I took no notes. So if you’d like to hear it, click here.
Well that’s all for day 3. As Saturday, was a late one, it looks like this daily (sort of series) will end on Tuesday (July 23, 2024) not tomorrow (July 22, 2024), so if you follow the Instagram, those posts will be wrong by a day Come back tomorrow (July 22, 2024) for more.
P.S. Since I had to work today and took a late afternoon nap, my posts for the last two days of the Congress will come out on July 23, 2024.
Comments