Eucharistic Congress

So Friday and Saturday we were at the Eucharistic Congress put on by the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis. You can visit the official website of the Eucharistic Congress by clicking here. Your first question is probably, what the heck is a Eucharistic Congress??? Well, the best I can say is that it's a big event that is centered entirely on the Eucharist. I have never been to one before, so I will just tell you the absolutely awesome things that happened over these two days. First, Friday night we had a Eucharistic procession from the state capital in St. Paul to the cathedral. It's only about a half mile, so it's not like it was incredibly far. Anyway, St. Paul Seminary (the major seminary that is also on the campus of St. Thomas University) and the one, the only St. John Vianney Seminary. I can't say enough about how cool Eucharistic processions are!

"Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:16). It is the time to preach it from the rooftops (cf. Mt 10:27). Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living, in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern ``metropolis''. It is you who must ``go out into the byroads'' (Mt 22:9) and invite everyone you meet to the banquet which God has prepared for his people. The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference. It was never meant to be hidden away in private. It has to be put on a stand so that people may see its light and give praise to our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:15-16)." - JPII

That is one of my favorite quotes ever! Oh, oh cool, you guys HAVE to check out this video by the Archdiocese of New York. It uses part of this quote in it and it's about a Eucharistic procession that went all over the city of New York. Ok, I am going crazy! I have so much to tell you guys. Ahhhh, watch the video!

Ok, so this morning we had mass with several thousand people who registered for the event. It was held where the Minessota Wild (hockey) play. Us guys from Vianney were ushers for communion. Then after that we went to a different part of the arena where they had a bunch of Catholic stores, religious orders, evangelization groups, etc. with tables set up giving away or selling stuff. I bought a few book, and by a few I mean four. Swear to God by Scott Hahn, which I had him sign because he was there as well and gave a talk on the book of Revelation and the Sacrifice of the Mass and if any of you have not read The Lamb's Supper, you've got to, it's awesome. I also bought Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul, I've already read it but I wanted to have it because when you've read a really good book you really want to give it to other people to read, so hopefully somebody comes along that I can give it to. I also bought In the Presence of Our Lord by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, and Peace of Soul by Fulton Sheen. And no, I probably will not have time to read them all during the school year, but maybe I can get through one of them.

Ok, so here is the big part. Our rector, Fr. William Baer, got Jim Caviezel to speak personally to us seminarians before he addressed everyone at the congress. So yeah, I wish you guys could have heard what he had to say. The man is crazy, and so was Christ, and so IS Christ! Christ is the absolute epitamy of a social outcast. I mean, the man did everything contrary to society! So anyway, Caviezal talked to us about, to put it plainly, not being wusses! You might laugh, but it's true! There are entirely too many fluffity-puffity Priests out there who don't want to take Christ to the streets, who are not afraid of letting everyone know that the Catholic Church is the 1 true Church, and, most importantly, are blind to the spiritual battle that is only beginning in our increasingly de-Christianized world. Just today I found out that our stupid school council here at St. Thomas is allowing a "coming-out" day and it is going to take place, on this Catholic campus, this coming Tuesday. Please pray for the people on campus, especially those people who will be protesting and praying for the organizers of the event, and for those people who organized the event. It's satan, and he is stealing souls from God. Fulton Sheen says, in the very first line of Peace of Soul, "Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved..." He could not be more right. It's time we break out of our comfortable lifestyles and bring Christ to the world. Try to save a soul today! You may fail, you may never think that you've succeeded, but just think, if you succeed only once, after trying every day, you have contributed to the Kingdom of God, you have served God in pulling His creation out of Hell! Picture it this way, it could be as simple as giving money to a poor guy who's asking for some change. Just today there was a woman who we talked to on the street in St. Paul who found out we were seminarians and asked us to pray for her four sons who have drifted away from the Church. You would not believe how much joy she had when we promised to pray for them! Do you know why? Because she believes in prayer, and she believes in Hell! Yes, she believes that, through prayer, her sons can be lifted out of Hell and into Heaven. One of the most important things to remember, Caviezel said with regards to being a Priest, and it also goes for anyone who wants to be an evangelizing Catholic (which should be all of us), is to not care about what people think! If one of your friends is doing something stupid, you know, doesn't want to pray with certain people around, is afraid to give witness to Christ when asked why they are Christian, or any other of the numerous situations we face everyday, call them out! Hell is to real to waste time caring what people will think of you if you give witness to Christ.

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.