This summer’s National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis will provide a “Steubenville conference” experience for teenagers, while parents with children can expect full-family formation in a track designed to engage adults and kids together, according to congress leaders.
In response to concerns about the cost and length of next summer’s National Eucharistic Congress, the event will now offer new single-day and weekend pass options and scholarship funds for participants.
Mother Nature has forced the postponement of the much-anticipated Diocesean Eucharistic Revival that had been set for Saturday, Oct. 7, at Maimonides Park in Coney Island.
About 10 months out from the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Congress, an application to participate as a “perpetual pilgrim” to the congress is live, with the event’s leadership describing such pilgrims as the “heartbeat” and “caretakers” of a two-month-long journey.
The clock is winding down to Oct. 7 and final preparations are underway for the Diocesan Eucharistic Revival, in which thousands of people will gather at Maimonides Park in Coney Island to forge a deeper understanding of their faith and of Jesus Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
A year ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress that is part of the U.S. bishops’ three-year eucharistic revival initiative, the efforts have received a blessing from Pope Francis.
Out of a relatively sparse agenda, the main actions taken by the U.S. bishops at their spring general assembly were the decisions to revise the directives and ethical guidelines for Catholic heath care providers and to approve a new 10-year national pastoral plan for Hispanic ministry in the United States.
About 2,700 people said prayers of worship in Spanish and sang songs of praise while processing with the Eucharist through Midtown Manhattan before celebrating a Pentecost vigil at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
A year from now, 48 Catholics spread out at four separate locations across the country will embark on a two-month pilgrimage to Indianapolis for the start of the National Eucharistic Congress. If everything goes according to plan, they’ll encounter more than 100,000 Catholics along the way.
Parish leaders seeking guidance for the National Eucharistic Revival’s upcoming parish year now have a 24-page resource to assist their discernment. The “Leader’s Playbook,” released May 1, helps parishes answer the question “what are we being asked to do?” through four “invitations” for the Year of Parish Revival, which begins on the solemnity of Corpus Christi June 11.
