National Catholic Youth Conference 2023
Teens at NCYC show love for Christ in the Eucharist during adoration
Teens kneel in prayer during eucharistic adoration on Nov. 17 in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis during the National Catholic Youth Conference. Among the teens is Zowie Pierce, in a gray T-shirt at left, of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
Some 12,000 youths from across the country showed their love for Christ in the Eucharist in a profound time of adoration on Nov. 17 in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis during the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).
From the start of the conference the day before, the Blessed Sacrament had been exposed in a monstrance for adoration in a chapel in the adjacent Indiana Convention Center.
During the evening general session of NCYC on
Nov. 17, Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, carried the monstrance in a procession from the convention center to the stadium where he placed it on an altar for all 12,000 youths to see and adore.
Dominican Sister Jude Andrew Link gave a reflection before the Eucharist was brought to the stadium that helped prepare the youths for that time of adoration. She told them that the Eucharist is “the secret of transformation” in their own lives.
“When you and I go to Mass, bread and wine are brought up and offered to God. And he changes them into himself,” Sister Jude Andrew said. “Then, in the very same spot where we brought up the bread and wine, we now receive Jesus Christ.
“When that happens at Mass and the bread and wine are offered up to God, offer yourself. I promise you, if you offer yourself, your whole self to God, he will transform you. It’s what he does. He makes all things new.”
A young man from the archdiocese who has experienced that transformation then offered a witness talk to the youths in the stadium.
Garet Colburn is a member of St. John Paul II Parish in Sellersburg. A senior at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, he grew in his appreciation of the Eucharist and the Church’s liturgy through taking part twice in
One Bread One Cup, a summer youth liturgical leadership program of Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad.
Garet shared with his Catholic peers from across the country how he was afraid in the past to share his faith with his non-Catholic friends because of how they ridiculed him for it.
One Bread One Cup and his parish helped change him, he said.
“I’m here to tell you tonight, don’t worry about … what anyone else has to say about your relationship with your Lord, because that’s what’s most important,” Garet said. “Be steadfast in faith and your love for the Lord. I implore you. When you go home from this place, go to your home parish, your family and even your schools and show the love that a Catholic community like this one has to offer. It’s beautiful and everyone deserves it.”
In a later interview with The Criterion, Garet said the time of adoration at Lucas Oil Stadium “was the most moving adoration experience I’ve ever had.” He added that he hoped that the adoration that night would help all the teens at the stadium “turn closer to God and grow closer in their relationship with Jesus Christ.”
The adoration that took place after Garet’s witness talk featured a homily by Bishop Espaillat and contemporary Christian meditative music played by the house band. While they played Matt Maher’s song, “Lay It Down,” Bishop Espaillat invited the youths to place themselves entirely before Jesus present with them in the Blessed Sacrament.
Youths came from their seats higher up in the stadium to get as close to the stage as possible. As they prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, many knelt, others stood with their hands raised in prayer and a handful laid prostrate on the stadium floor.
After the music and homily, Bishop Espaillat invited the youths to move to silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
“At this moment, just let this beautiful silence reign in this arena right now,” he said. “We’ve laid it down. But what does God say to us? Let’s spend a couple of moments in deep silence, in penetrating silence, and let God speak to us. … There’s beauty in the silence.”
The band stopped playing. And Lucas Oil Stadium, which so often was pulsating with loud music and the rejoicing of jubilant teens in other NCYC sessions, was entirely silent.
Afterwards, Bishop Espaillat presided over Benediction before taking the Blessed Sacrament from the floor of the stadium.
Liam Slotten, a member of Holy Family Parish in
New Albany and a sophomore at Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville, was present during the time of adoration in the stadium.
“It shows that, even with our society starting to stray further from God, there are still people wanting to stay close and get others to stay close,” Liam said. “It encourages me to dedicate more time in my life to God and try to encourage some of my peers, whom I know aren’t religious at all, to have a deeper thought about experiences like that.” †
