March 13th and 14th marked the fourth annual Eucharistic Congress in the Diocese of St. Augustine held at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville, Florida. This event generated nearly 7000 participants who were all there to learn, grow, praise, and celebrate the Catholic faith and our love of Christ. With the central theme of “Come To The House of the Lord”, the full house was influenced by the presence of Dr. Scott Hahn and also Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Cardinal Dolan, who was the keynote speaker and homilist on Saturday, left the crowd with many fruits of wisdom and faith to think about, as well as reminded us of the importance to always want to be near God.
Br. Jhoni Chamorro and I ran a vocation booth that offered plenty of information about who we are as Salesians as well as a chance to play a few games which drew in the crowds, especially families and young people. Novice Josh Sciullo’s parents, Mark and Jodi, and siblings Steven and Celine provided all the comforts of home to us while we were in Jacksonville, and for that we were extremely grateful. Still the greatest reward of our time with the Sciullos was to watch how engaged they were in helping us to promote vocational culture as they shared in the day and their experiences with others who stopped by the booth. They were able to share their witness of having a loved one who is discerning his vocation in our community to the many young men who came in contact with our Salesian contingent at the Congress.
In the keynote address on Saturday morning, Cardinal Dolan spoke about the Mass as a meal, a family meal that we should really crave. He shared a poignant story of a priest visited an ailing Alfred Hitchcock, the English film maker who was Catholic, as he approached his final days. Cardinal Dolan shared how toward the end of the visit as they had finished sharing in their conversation, Mr. Hitchcock asked the priest, “Well did you bring me Holy Communion”? The crowd chuckled as Cardinal Dolan shared this story. He would go on to illustrate that the craving that Mr. Hitchcock had is one that we should all have for the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. We should always remain hungry for Christ in our lives. Cardinal Dolan also made the reference to Luke’s passage of the Emmaus disciples, who having recognized Jesus when breaking of bread, craved his presence so much that they ventured back to Jerusalem in order to inform the community of Jesus’ presence as their “bread and life”. 
As we meet Jesus by emptying ourselves of false cravings in the Lenten dance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, may we crave to meet Jesus in the Eucharist, who in this life-giving sacrament will bring us to partake in the meal-made-mystery that brings us life in the here and hereafter.
All in all, it was another successful and God-filled experience on the road. Being at the Eucharistic Congress was a great affirmation to the truth of the passage from Matthew’s gospel that says “wherever two or more are gathered in My name, I am there among them.”