The National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) is going to be the seed planted, which I believe will grow and ultimately bear untold fruit. This fruit will ultimately transform the Catholic Church from a Church of decline, maintenance, and lukewarmness into a unified Eucharistic Church on mission.

When I left the National Eucharistic Congress, I flew to South Dakota to come to a retreat center in the middle of farmland, for work. Yet, I have a day before anything, so I spent the day in prayer. I am so happy I did, because I have needed time to pray and process what happened this past week.

Let me start by saying that I will be resting in the graces I have received for the foreseeable future. I have so much more that God wants to do with them personally. God came to earth in a powerful way and I have struggled to put into words what I witnessed and experienced. Yet I was not the only one. It wasn’t just an intellectual high or emotional one. It was something different. It was the glory of God unveiled for a time. I was in awe of HIM, present on earth.

First of all, the Church showed up. ALL of the Church. Not just what you see in your part of the country. Not just the folks in your ethnic group or social level. It was beautiful. Yet, even more beautiful was the joy. It was palpable joy from the moment I arrived. 

The biggest hiccup of the whole event was the registration (it couldn’t all be perfect), yet most people didn’t grumble or complain (though a few did). Rather, they were patient. Then they started to talk to each other. Then they started to smile and laugh. Then pray and sing. It really set the tone that this wasn’t a conference, but a pilgrimage to unite in prayer and worship as one. That is what ultimately happened. 

Setting the tone next was the quality of the entire event. AMAZING! Because I am on the Executive Team for the National Eucharistic Revival, I got to hear some of the details. For instance, the team managing the lights recently finished a Justin Timberlake tour. The folks behind the scenes are the best of the best. It showed. The music was stunning (way to go Dave and Lauren)! The videos were on point. The branding and signage were amazing. Even the big booths in the exhibitor hall were as good as most high-end trade shows. The talks were different than you normally hear. The liturgies hit home to those that went. Adoration was so perfect. I know that people loved it, because when I wasn’t praying, I was talking to people. Random folks I would meet. I asked all the attendees I met their thoughts. EVERY person I talked to had encounters with God. EVERY SINGLE ONE. I talked to many hundreds of people. Bishops. Priests. Religious. Laity. All of them met God at the NEC.

I saw priests weeping.
I saw nuns dancing.
I saw children on their knees worshiping. 
I saw families going to Confession together.

While Conferences put on by LifeTeen, Steubenville, and FOCUS have raised the bar for what the Catholic Church can do at a large event - the NEC just raised the bar beyond what it has ever been!

Part of my job is to help Catholic leaders improve their own pastoral skills and ultimately to transform their institutions for mission. Therefore, I have a critical eye of what needs to change. It sometimes causes me to not see the good before me. Don’t get me started on the problems in the Church, because you may not stop me, you will just leave. But not this week. God hit my heart hard. It started with some deep repentance. 

As many speakers mentioned, you can’t have revival without repentance. Well folks. It happened. Confession lines (with hundreds of priests) were long. Hearts were converted. LIves were changed. Souls were saved.

Then the healing started. God had room to move deeper once the sins were starting to be cleared out. So many people healed, I can’t begin to tell you.

For me - I had to repent of my love of comfort. I like comfort…too much. Damn the excuses, I need to change. So, God moved me to repent. Then some healing started. Now the real openness happened and it was RAW. I got a glimpse of just how much God wants from His Church and it is a LOT. It starts with me.

HE WANTS IT ALL!!! 
Not just the Catholics who went.
God wants every Catholic in the USA. But, not just Catholics.
God wants every heart in the USA. But, not just in the USA.
God wants every heart everywhere. But, not just every heart.

God wants your heart too. This is where it starts.

You or I can’t change the world.
God can. Through his Church. Through a repentant Church. A broken and vulnerable Church. A Missionary Church.

This brings me to my final thought. Mission.

We have to GO! Of course, if you know me, I talk about this all the time. But, here is something else I talk about all the time - unity. 

Only a truly unified Church can evangelize the nations. Why?

Jesus will answer for me. In the high priestly prayer of Jesus, in John 17, Jesus prays for his people. He is pleading with the Father to work powerfully through the tiny group of his followers (the pre-born Church), for the salvation of the world. How will this salvation happen?
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” -John 17:20-21

Why did Jesus pray for unity? So the world may believe.
Do we really want this? For the world to believe in Jesus? Then UNITY IS THE ANSWER.

Not a touchy-feely Kumbaya kind of unity. Nor the kind that is surface-level, grind your teeth while badmouthing fellow Catholics because dadgummit I can’t stand you people kind of unity.

Real unity is what we had at the NEC.

Not bickering.

Not a divided Church.

Not a Church that is shy about Jesus. 

But a happily evangelizing Church. 

Praying together. 
Repenting together.
Being healed together.

Encountering the Lord together.

All of this was done in the Eucharist. The Sacrament of unity. The Sacrament of love. The Sacrament of sacrifice. THE Sacrament. Jesus.

Another thing about the Eucharist is that we partake of it in Communion, which is what God wants with us - oneness.

What we experienced is what the Catholic Church should be all the time!

Folks, we just got a new seed of life for our Catholic faith in the USA. The last one was in Denver during World Youth Day in 1993. I still remember sitting in the student center at Texas A&M and watching on TV. I turned around and saw Fr. Mike Sis (now Bishop) with his arm out blessing me with the sign of the cross. I asked what he was doing. He said, “learning from the Master”. I turned back to the TV and saw JPII in the Popemobile blessing the crowds. That time in Denver changed the Church in the USA. It even impacted me watching on TV (and Bishop Mike) and a whole generation (the JPII generation). We just experienced another time of seed planting. Bishop Mike and I got to do it 30+ yrs later.

The question is Catholics…what are YOU going to do to water, tend, and nurture that seed so that it bears fruit into the future?

• How will you grow in virtue?

• How will you grow in devotion and love to the Eucharist?

• How will you share what you have received and go on mission?

Your answer means everything.