Young Catholics were the driving force for Eucharistic adoration at Harvard

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | May 15, 2014

A young priest who participated in the Eucharistic procession across Cambridge on Monday night has an interesting perspective on the event. As excited as he was about the “big event,” Father David Barnes suggests that it should remind us all to be more careful about the “little” events that define our relationship with the Eucharist.

In making this point, Father Barnes reports that he hears the confessions of serious young Catholics every day. While he was inspired by the procession down Massachusetts Avenue, he says, “the far more powerful and convincing witness of Eucharistic Faith is seeing the daily procession of college students making their way to the confessional.”

He’s right, of course. And his comment reminds me that it was the young people at Harvard and MIT who drove events on Monday. I had the unusual experience of being surrounded by young people in a crowded church, and their obvious reverence was inspiring. The priests leading the procession, too, were all younger than me—most of them much younger. This is the JPII generation, flexing its spiritual muscles. It says something, doesn’t it, that it's a young priest making himself available every day for confessions, and young Catholics taking advantage?