“It was something that I felt I could take with me going forward, whether I’m in adoration or I’m in the middle of a golf game. To know [Jesus] sees me, he’s with me, whether I’m having fun with grandkids or I’m struggling because my mom is dealing with severe dementia and doesn’t remember anyone, knowing that he sees me in my struggle.

He sees me in my joy.

He sees.”

Kneeling in a crowd of tens of thousands before the Blessed Sacrament, Loretta Kuhn of St. Hubert Parish in Bad Axe, knew that most people couldn’t have found her in the vast crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. And yet, on the opening day of the National Eucharistic Congress on July 17, she felt that God had his loving loving gaze fixed on her.

"It was very ... emotional,” she said. “The speakers at the National Eucharistic Congress were great, but to feel a personal connection even amongst all of those people was probably the thing that really hit me the most.”

“We love you, Lord”

Loretta, along with 42 lay men and women and nearly a dozen religious sisters, clergy and seminarians from across the Diocese of Saginaw, traveled to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress from July 17 to 21. There, they experienced magnificent liturgies, heard from nationally known speakers and participated in a Eucharistic Procession through downtown.

Father Ron Wagner, pastor of Resurrection of the Lord Parish in Standish, was moved by the nights of Eucharistic adoration at the Congress.

“The adoration every night in a darkened stadium, with 50,000 people in attendance in silence as spotlights focused on the largest monstrance I’ve seen, was breathtaking,” Father Ron said. “It was as if the people were saying ‘We love you, Lord’ and the Lord was saying ‘I love you too.’”

Six Sisters of Our Mother of Divine Grace, including superior Sister Mary Philomena Fuire, also joined the Diocese of Saginaw pilgrimage.

“We looked forward to this for three years,” Sister Mary Philomena said. “It was beyond my expectation, like a re-awakening.”

Sister Mary Philomena and her sisters serve at Ave Maria Parish in Lexington and Port Sanilac.

“Several of our parishioners knew [we] were going. So, they turned on EWTN because they wanted to look for the blue veils [that we wear]. The parishioners would tell us how they joined in the songs, and they wept with us,” she said. “I think that idea of unity and universality, they didn’t really have to be there to experience that wonderful grace. It was almost like it was a new Pentecost for our Church in America.”

"It’s going to be Jesus”

Like so many others, seminarian Charles Warner experienced great consolation on the opening night of the Congress during Eucharistic adoration. During adoration, Charles knelt next to Father Bob Schikora, a senior priest of the Diocese of Saginaw.

“We’re in adoration, we’re praying and then after 20 minutes or so, Father Bob leans over to me and says with conviction, ‘In two years, you’re going to be holding Jesus in your hand at the altar,’” Charles recalled. “‘You’re going to say, ‘This is my body.’ It’s going to be Jesus.’”

Seeing Father Bob's excitement for his future as a priest, and that it was coming from his own experience of holding Jesus in his hands as a priest, was profound.

“When he said that, I knew how much Jesus meant to him and him being able to share Jesus with people through his priesthood, through the celebration of the Mass,” Charles said. “He showed and expressed his excitement and awe for me to be a priest one day. That started off the Congress very, very nicely.”

Throughout his time at the Congress, Charles received affirmations that made him feel like he was doing what God wanted him to do, particularly in entering the seminary and journeying towards the priesthood.

“I’m wearing clerics, and people came up to me saying ‘Father, can you bless this? Father, can you hear my confession?’ I’m just like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not a priest. I’m close. I’m two years away. Please pray for me. I’ll pray for you,’” he recalled.

“I wanted to say ‘yes.’ I wanted to have that priestly capability to bless objects, hear confessions and absolve people of their sins, to be an instrument of God’s mercy to others. I desired that. Those were moments of anticipation and encouragement,” he said.

Father Ron also felt affirmed and encouraged at the Congress.

“People come up to you— total strangers— [and] they ask me, ‘Can you bless this rosary I just bought? Can you hear my confession?’” Father Ron said, noting Pope Francis’ encouragement for priests to ‘get out there.’

“So I'm ‘out here’ amongst people I've never met. I also found a great respect that they have for priests,” he continued.

“To see the enthusiasm of the people and the genuine love that people have, especially for the Church and for the people that serve them in the Church. That was very heartening to see and gave me a lot of encouragement. I guess the word that I’ve taken from this Congress is more the sense of encouragement.”

There is hope!

Loretta, the St. Hubert parishioner, was consoled and filled with hope at the sight of the 30-minute-long procession during the final Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium.

“Just imagine a football field. There's 100 yards of men that are four wide marching in,” she said, marveling at the numbers of seminarians and priests. "We tried to count the bishops. I got somewhere between 120 and 130 bishops, and I'm like, ‘This is just so amazing!' That's not even counting the religious sisters that were there! Young women in their 20s, just so radiant and so full of joy. ... There’s hope! There's hope for the future. There's hope for our world!”

The Eucharistic Procession on July 20 extended even further, as far as the eye could see.

According to reports from the Indianapolis Star and local television news station WISHTV, more than 50,000 people participated in the Eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis. Bishop Andrew Cozzens, board chairman of the Congress, said it “might be the largest U.S. Eucharistic procession in decades.”

The Sisters of our Mother of Divine Grace joined the procession alongside an enormous number of religious women.

“The sisters have expressed that it was like a culminating point, the Eucharistic procession, and to have the privilege to be able to walk in it,” Sister Mary Philomena said, adding that it was particularly meaningful since they are a small, relatively new religious community. "That was a special grace for us to be able to be one with them.”

There is healing

Many of the faithful experienced a sense of unity and encouragement at the Congress. Loretta and many others also experienced healing. The third day of the Congress was themed “Into Gethsemane” and emphasized the importance of seeking healing through the Eucharist and sharing that healing with others.

During Eucharistic adoration that night, Father Boniface Hicks, OSB led the faithful in the Litany of Healing and Repentance, which called to mind one’s wounds and hurts.

“I don’t know where it comes from, but every now and then, I feel like there's something that is deep down inside of me from when I was young,” Loretta said. I don't know what it is, but it's that feeling of ‘I'm not worthy.’ I can get into a downward spiral to where [I feel] ‘I'm just unworthy’, and I think I don't feel worthy of being seen at times.

“Through the experience at the Congress, I feel like, ‘No, he sees me. No matter what I'm feeling, he sees me, and he loves me and I am worthy.’

Through the litany, Loretta realized that the wound of feeling unworthy had rippling effects. But feeling certain of God’s gaze fixed on her, she realized that the unworthiness she had felt was a lie.

"I just need to remember that he sees me always, and he loves me always,” she said. “Jesus says I’m worthy. He died for me.”

Go and share

After returning home to Bad Axe, Loretta asked God what he wanted her to do.

“I went to adoration, and I'm like, what do you want me to do, Lord? And I kept repeating, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant’s listening,’” she said. “And all of a sudden, all that I heard was ‘Speak, speak.’ And I went, ‘Okay, speak. I can do that.’

When I meet someone, I can just talk about the Congress. I can talk about adoration. I can talk about how good it's been for me, how my granddaughter … loves it. I can speak!”

St. Hubert Parish has just added Eucharistic adoration on Fridays, which she describes as an answered prayer.

During the Congress’ closing Mass, papal envoy Cardinal Luis Tagle challenged the faithful:  “Go! Go! Go! And what you have heard, touched and tasted, you must share with others. We have received the gift of Jesus. Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.”