Exorcist Msgr. Steve Rosetti shares what he often experiences during an exorcism, “When demons speak, they criticize and taunt; they spew hatred and violence. The rage in their eyes and the feeling of evil in the room is a taste of hell.”
Don’t these words describe what we are experiencing in today’s culture? If surveyed, I believe most people would say, “This is normal in today’s world.”
How terrifying that we have grown accustomed to the “taste of hell.”
The Day Before Heaven Descended
I share this bleak reality to bring hope for I witnessed during the recent National Eucharistic Congress a much different reality, and it is Heaven on Earth!
I arrived in Indianapolis two days before the start of the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) to help set-up the Who is the Man of the Shroud? Exhibition. I wanted to get an understanding of where everything would be held so I spent my first afternoon walking to the Lucas Oil Stadium, on to the Indiana Convention Center and making a 15- minute detour (though it felt much longer) to a nearby grocery. The day was very hot. Being from San Antonio, I know very hot, but what was unusual was the blistering wind that blew so hot and hard I had to either hold my hat on my head, meaning I had only one hand to carry all the grocery bags, or leave my head exposed to the glaring sun.
Making my way back to the hotel, dragging and spent, I found myself in front of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which was to serve as the official Adoration chapel for the NEC. I called earlier, hoping to spend time in Adoration, but was told due to the NEC the Church was not open to the public that day. I wondered if anyone would stop me if I entered. No one did. The young woman, who was probably the one who told me it was closed, smiled as I walked past her into the Church. I spent a quiet, cool Divine Mercy hour with our Lord and was blessed to receive a first glimpse of Heavens’ approach.
Heaven Comes!
Early Tuesday morning, I woke to the soft patter of raindrops on my window. The forecast said rain will end within the hour, and it did. It was replaced by cool temperatures and a delightful breeze that accompanied us for the entire National Eucharistic Congress.
The transforming weather was an external sign of a deeper spiritual reality which 50,000 of God’s people were about to experience for an entire week: Heaven on Earth.
In looking back at that graced week in which a palpable Holy Spirit filled every room, every event, and every heart, I believe our good God forbid any demonic entry, covering those few blocks in downtown Indianapolis with a protective legion of angels. I told myself repeatedly, “This must be what heaven is like,”
In her Our Sunday Visitor article, Meg Hunter-Kilmer perfectly expresses what I felt when she described her experience watching the 1000s during the NEC’s Eucharistic Procession,
Realizing she had allowed today’s culture and the current corruption in the Church to “harden her heart” she described how the Holy Spirit was transforming her focus, “I watched Jesus’ bride walk by. And she was radiant, clothed in glory.
The bride of Christ was filled with joy and hope and wonder and also more than a little exhaustion. She was six months old and closing in on a century, riding in a stroller and on a scooter, using crutches and a wheelchair. She was every race and age and political persuasion.
I stood by the side of the road and wept. For 45 minutes I wept, watching the bride of Christ walk by. She sang in Latin and English and Spanish and Vietnamese, in chant or with guitars or beating on drums. I saw chapel veils and tank tops, large groups of teens from the Bronx and large groups of children with their overwhelmed parents. And every single one, from every imaginable demographic, was following after Jesus.”
I experienced the same working the Who is the Man of the Shroud? Exhibition. After waiting up to 2.5 hours, I saw thousands of people, including families with young children, teens, elderly in wheelchairs, filled with wonder, sorrow and gratitude at seeing in graphic detail what Jesus experienced during His Passion and Death as witnessed through the mysterious image of the man on the Shroud of Turin.
Every evening from 8:30pm to 9:30pm, after very long days, 50,000 adults, children and babies filled the football stadium to spend time in silent Adoration of our Lord. I was constantly amazed at the silence, not even one crying baby. Silence.
I watched the actor who plays Jesus somberly examine a replica of the cap (not crown) of thorns as he was told of the 50 puncture wounds covering the entire head of the Man of the Shroud. He was visibly moved by the over 300 wounds covering the man’s naked image from head to toe, front and back. That night in the stadium full of Jesus’ disciples, I saw that same man acting as Jesus, give the Bread of Life discourse from the Gospel of John (6:22-51). This time, because we who were there know he speaks Jesus’ words of Eternal life, no one left our Lord to return to who we were before.
Heaven Speaks
We heard Bishop Barron challenge us that if every American Catholic, 70 million of us, live the sacramental life of the Church with intention, hell would lose its hold on our country and Jesus would reign. We may think we know what this intention means, but the Holy Spirit did not leave us to our own thoughts. He provided:
There was the religious sister, I believe clearly sent by the Blessed Mother, to lovingly wake her children. Sr. Josephine Garrett reminded us we are God’s family, and we need to start acting like it. In charity and hope, bishops, diocesan clergy, religious priests, brothers, sisters, laity, both families and single, were exhorted to support, encourage and be in unity with one another because as baptized in the Holy Catholic Church, we are each and all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. I was told bishops and priests were seen weeping in profound gratitude to God.
We also discovered that as amazing as it is live Heaven on Earth, that is not God’s goal for us. Father Mike Schmitz told us that goal is too little for God.
The goal is Eternal Life, only possible for a human soul, through the sacrifice freely willed by Jesus Christ on the Cross, re-presented at every Holy Mass, in which we become in communion with God through the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. It is not enough, Father Mike Schmitz warned to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus, receive the Eucharist every Sunday at Mass will not save us if our hearts are far remain far from God. He stated the real problem is not belief in the Real Presence but rather indifference to it by not repenting of our ways and willing God’s will.
Many spoke on what we as Catholics know how we are to live but often do not with any intention: Prayer, fasting, repentance, conversion, sacraments, willing God’s will, etc. yet none of these presentations discouraged. Filled in the Holy Spirit they were given and received in mercy, compassion and great hope!
This is but a sampling of what Heaven on Earth felt like. It was amazing but not our goal.
Transitioning to Year three of the Eucharistic Revival, the Mission Year, Cardinal Luis Tagle celebrated the Congress’ closing Mass. He told us, “When I say go in peace . . . Go!
And so we have, Together as one Church , in charity and hope . . . in prayer and fasting . . . in repentance and conversion . . . in Jesus Christ . . we are on the move!
Want to dive deeper into Nan’s journey at the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress? Click here to hear more about her inspiring experience!
Nan Balfour is a grateful Catholic whose greatest desire is to make our Lord Jesus more loved. She seeks to accomplish this through her vocation to womanhood, marriage, and motherhood, as a writer, Missionary of Hope, Prayer Intercessor, Speaker Team member, and Volunteer for Pilgrim Center of Hope.
Answering Christ’s call, Pilgrim Center of Hope guides people to encounter Him so as to live in hope, as pilgrims in daily life. See what’s happening & let us journey with you! Visit PilgrimCenterOfHope.org.
