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Day 56 — Shelbyville and Greenfield

GREENFIELD, INDIANA, July 12 — The Seton Route PIlgrims of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage had a fruitful end to the eighth week of their pilgrimage on the outskirts of the Indianapolis with a Mass, Eucharistic Procession, lengthy period of adoration, and preached Eucharistic Holy Hour.


The day began with Mass at St. Joseph Church in Shelbyville. Pastor Father Michael Keucher celebrated the Mass and Seton chaplain Father Roger Landry preached. In his homily, Father Landry said that as they were preparing for a four-mile Eucharistic procession after Mass, God reminds us through the Prophet Hosea in the first reading, "Straight are the ways of the Lord." Those roads are made straight through conversion, just like St. John the Baptist announces every Advent, in which we make straight the ways of the Lord by leveling the mountains of our pride, fill in the valleys of a shallow prayer life, and make rough paths smooth and crooked ways straight. God speaks about the conversion necessary with the Israelites in the first reading, calling them from various forms of corruption and idolatry to a life that receives and responds to his spousal and paternal love. The Lord is very direct with his love for us and wants us to have no obstacles to it, said Father Landry


Yet in the Gospel, Jesus somehow says that those straight ways involve betrayal by civil and religious authorities and even by family members, even death. That's because every circumstance is an opportunity for us to go straight to the Lord for the help and accompaniment we need. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, St. Paul said. And so when we are dragged before authorities, Jesus tells us not to worry because God Himself, the Holy Spirit, will be with us to help us testify. He'll have a straight line to us even when we're in jail.


Those who show us how to live in the straight paths of the Lord are the saints and Father Landry mentioned the saints the Church celebrates on July 12, Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. They also show how, in contrast to betrayals within the home about which Jesus speaks that are a result of jealousy from those who resent others putting the Lord first, when everyone is united in a home, they can help each other along the straight and narrow way. The Martins did that. And their daughter, St. Therese, was able to describe it in her "little way" of trust and love by which she related to God.


Jesus' straight path to us, in which he shows us the fulfillment of the spousal and paternal love prophesied by Hosea, is given to us in the "sacrament of love" that is the Holy Eucharist.

It is the way by which we are helped interiorly to follow Jesus along the Way of his paths and the way he most wants to come to us, Father Landry concluded.


After Mass, there was a procession from the Church to Blue River Memorial Park, attended by about 100. Father Keucher and Father Landry carried the Blessed Sacrament with Father Landry giving the benediction at the end of the procession.


After the benediction, the Seton PIlgrims brought the Lord Jesus to St. Michael's Church in Greenfield, where they started Eucharistic adoration with children in the parish's Totus Tuus program. At night, there was a Holy Hour in which Father Landry presided and gave a homily and Seton Pilgrim and team leader Natalie Garza gave a witness statement.


In his homily, Father Landry discussed how the National Eucharistic Revival involves both elements of the Eucharistic Pilgrimage as well as Eucharistic Congress, not just in terms of the spectacular expressions of them in Indiana during these days but their ordinary expression. Mass is the daily "congress" or "coming together" of Jesus' disciples and pilgrimage is the nature of the Church's and every individual's life. Parishes are meant to be "hostels" or "stations" to refresh us along the journey. The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress put into relief this double nature of ecclesial and Christian life.


Landry said that the U.S. Bishops have asked us to grow in four ways during the Revival: in centering our lives on Jesus in the Mass, on Eucharistic adoration, on passing on the faith with fire and petition, and living the mission by inviting people to the sacraments. He mentioned anew the example of SS. Louis and Zelie Martin as people who did all four, as excellent transmitters of the priority of Jesus in the Eucharist to their four surviving children, including St. Therese.


In her reflection, Natalie Garza focused on the "with-ness" of the Eucharist, how the Eucharistic Jesus seeks to unite us with him and with others.


At the end of the Holy Hour, during which Seton Chaplain Father Giuseppe Siniscalchi, CFR, St. Michael's pastor Father Aaron Jenkins, and Father Landry heard questions of a full Church. At the end of the Holy Hour, Father Landry did benediction and left Jesus exposed for adoration throughout the night.




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