Consumed by God

Fr. Matthew and the St. Isidore Youth Delegate team represented our parish at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. In this newsletter series, our youth share reflections on their encounter with Christ in the Eucharist.

At the National Eucharistic Congress, we had the amazing opportunity to join a stadium full of people to experience Adoration. Those 20-30 minutes every day led me closer to Jesus than I ever could have imagined. I felt like the only thing in the world that mattered at that moment was the fact that I was in Jesus’ presence and every night I could focus on my faith like I’d never done before.

That was interesting to me because before, my experience with Adoration was nothing special. I just sat there, prayed for a few minutes, and let my mind wander. I always thought of Adoration to be a little bit boring, but I found out the real importance of it when I was at the Eucharistic Congress.

One night in particular stood out to me. It started when Matt Maher, a famous Catholic singer, kicked off the session. We listened to a few speakers. Once they finished, the lights dimmed, and Matt Maher came back to the stage and started playing again. As the music was going, a priest started walking in from one of the tunnels, flanked by altar servers, carrying the monstrance. Everyone in the whole stadium — 60,000 people — instantly kneeled. This might seem like a minor detail, but it was so powerful to see everyone kneeling together, especially those who had a hard time moving.

The priest walks in, the music is going, and people are singing along. Then the priest puts the monstrance on an altar in the middle of the floor area and it goes silent. It is silent for maybe 10-15 minutes before Matt Maher plays another song. And it went like this for another 20 minutes, silence and then a song.

We finished Adoration and as the priest was processing out with Jesus and all of his servers, Matt Maher played one last song. It was called “Because He Lives.” It was the perfect song for that moment. For whatever reason, the song spoke to me. I just started singing like I didn’t even care who heard me. It felt like the lyrics were a part of me and I just needed God to hear me at that moment. As I have looked back on the whole trip, that two-minute moment is what stuck with me. The moment when I felt consumed by the music and in turn, consumed by God. The week in whole changed my relationship with Christ in so many ways.

I feel like I now want to live my life to seek Him. I realized that the only way I would truly be happy in life is to find love for Him and love for others. I believe that I truly experienced God and more importantly, I was able to see God through others in a new way, and I want to be a witness to share this love with all of you.

The moment when I felt consumed by the music and in turn, consumed by God.

—Preston, St. Isidore parishioner and high school sophomore