Below are the [not yet fully uploaded] daily chronicles of a Eucharistic pilgrim to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana taking place Wednesday, July 17 - Sunday, July 21, 2024. It was an amazing gathering of Catholics from across our country! Eucharistic pilgrimages began from four parts of the country in May 2024, each named in honor of a saint, and culminating together in Indianapolis at the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years. -- you can read more about these historic pilgrimages here.

Day 2 at the National Eucharistic Congress went by in a whirlwind of trying to find our way amid throngs of fellow believers. Morning "Impact Sessions" and afternoon "Breakout Sessions" were split up between Lucas Oil Stadium and the enormous Indiana Convention Center - 5,000 people here, 5,000 people there (per session, of which there were about 6-8 scattered about) and about 30,000-40,000 souls milling about in between!

Highlights: My morning session included MC Mari Pablo whom I hadn't heard of  before but she was great. Cardinal DiNardo began with "Lift up your hearts..." wording from the Mass and gave a mini-review on some of some of the Church Fathers and how, in the Mass, we are still using what they handed down to us, thousands of years later. He also mentioned a phrase as the Mass being "the medicine of immortality" - great for meditation! 
 
Then we heard from Danelle Brown from the USCCB (and many other organizations, plus, a lawyer) speak, warning those who work in Church ministries to be careful of sliding away, that it is not enough to "prop up one's brokenness“ and quoted from Pope Benedict XVI several times.