I’m thrilled to be back in the studio after an incredible week at the National Eucharistic Congress. In this episode, I’m diving into all the amazing experiences and graces from the event in Indianapolis, where over 60,000 Catholics gathered. It was such a powerful moment for our community, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts and stories with you.

We’ll talk about the highlights, the inspiring speakers, and the impact this Congress had on all of us. Plus, I’ll discuss what comes next after this revival. Spoiler: we’re talking about keeping the momentum going and continuing to strengthen our faith.

During the Congress, I had the chance to meet so many of you at our booth. We shared stories, took pictures, and enjoyed some great conversations. A special thank you to those who joined our live podcast session with Father Malachy – your support means the world to us!

One touching moment was meeting a young man who shared how a previous podcast episode had helped him return to his faith. It’s encounters like these that remind us why we do what we do.

I also reflected on the biblical figures we can learn from: Moses, who doubted his ability but led the Israelites out of Egypt with God’s guidance; David, the shepherd boy who became a king and defeated Goliath; Gideon, who overcame his fear to lead Israel to victory; Jeremiah, the young prophet who spoke God’s word despite his youth; and Peter, the fisherman who became the rock of the Church after his encounter with Jesus.

Bible verses for reflection 📚:

Exodus 3:11-12
Exodus 4:10-17
1 Samuel 16
1 Samuel 17
Judges 6:15-16
Jeremiah 1:6-9
Luke 5:8-11

___________________________________________________________________________

✈️ Join us on one of our 2025 pilgrimages:

March 10-15: Visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico with Father Zachary, a fantastic priest and friend. This affordable trip is perfectly timed for most school spring breaks.

May 12-23: Join Father Larry and me on a spiritual journey to the Holy Land. Walk in the footsteps of Christ and experience an unforgettable pilgrimage.

Become a Partner in the Pew! Donate to the ministry today!

START A MEN’S GROUP IN YOUR PARISH!

www.justaguyinthepew.com

DOWNLOADS

Get a copy of my new eBook, “12 Ways Guys Can Get Closer to Jesus”!

JUSTAGUYINTHEPEW.COM/EBOOK

Welcome back to the pew. Everybody. I’m your host, John Edwards, and I’m excited to be back in studio after a week at the national Eucharistic Congress. We are going to talk all about that today. It was an amazing experience. I’m going to share the graces. I received the things that I saw my thoughts on it.

The culmination of this three year Eucharistic revival in the country that happened in Indianapolis last week was 60, 000 plus Catholics was simply amazing. And I know, you know what I’m talking about, because if you weren’t there, unless you’ve been under a rock, you saw it on Facebook, Instagram, relevant radio, EWTN, all over all these speakers and lay people’s posts all over their social media, it’s been everywhere.

And there’s questions now, right? We’ve culminated this revival with this Congress. Now what comes next? And it’s a great question. And that’s really what we’re going to talk about in the episode today. Like I didn’t even wait to invite Victor onto this just because like I wanted to get home. And before like things got cloudy or I started missing things, I wanted to jump on here as quickly as possible to start telling you about all the things I experienced that I saw that I witnessed.

The graces that were poured out in my own life. I want to talk to you about all that, but I also want to talk to you about what comes next. Like it’s great to have a conference, but what are we doing after this? That’s the main point that we all should be talking about. It’s something I want to cover today, but before we do, I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all of you that joined me there at the Eucharistic Congress.

So many of you found our booth. You came up you spent time talking to us. We took pictures together. You shared where you found us. You shared. Memories that we’ve had together at events. I’ve been with you. Many of you bought merchandise, mugs, shirts, rosaries, all that stuff, which you can also find online.

But many of you came and just spent so much time with us Every day was filled with people at our booth just sharing the graces that they’ve received from this ministry the appreciation for it and folks I got to tell you something that meant a lot to me To stand there to take pictures with you to shake hands to hear your stories Just it was awesome.

And so many of you also came to our live podcast that I did with father malachi We were one of the a few people selected to podcast live as a part of the Congress. And so many of you came in and listened and it meant so much to talk to you. And just that you were there and you took the time when there was so much other stuff going on to do there that you came to take the time to be with us.

So many of you asked. How could you support us? How could you help us grow this mission? How could you be more a part of what we’re doing? And the answer to that is by joining us as a monthly partner in the pew and folks, I want to take a minute here to tell you a story from the Congress as to why you should consider supporting us, right?

It’s easy just to say, Hey, we need money and we need it for this and that, but I want you to hear some of the things that happened. And for one, the story that comes to mind first was I was walking on one of the last days, I think it was the last day, Saturday. And I was walking to a session that I wanted to hear.

It was Damon Owens, a friend of mine has been on the show before, and he’s a friend of, just of me and my, in my life and in this ministry. And I was coming back from that and there was these huge crowds that were let out. And it was like cattle being herded everywhere. It was just, the hallways would fill when people were let out of things.

And all of a sudden I stopped to to look at my phone for a second. And this young man came up, he looked to be in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, ripped up, big guy. Yeah. He walks up and he says, Hey man, I just want to talk to you. I just want to say thank you. And I said, okay Hey, my name is Johnny.

He said, no, I want to thank you. You went on Matt frats pints with Aquinas and your story was a big part of my reversion to the faith. He said, I had things go on. I, I been a believer and all these things, but things happen and I walked away from the faith. And he said, and I just want to take a few minutes to tell you, thank you because your story was so impactful for me.

I saw it there live and it made me want to go back to the faith and go back to the Lord and believe that no matter what had happened in my life, that there was a chance for me. And so I continued to ask the guy a little bit about him. I was like thank you for saying that. Gosh, that’s such a blessing.

Praise God for that, that we were allowed that we found a way to do that with Fred and also that you found it in your life. And then I said, but what about you? And he goes to start telling me that he struggled with a lot of things that his faith is a struggle And he seemed like such just an upstanding just great catholic, but he started lamenting over His disbelief that he was worth something.

He was telling me that he couldn’t see that god really loved him He couldn’t see himself as a beloved son as I was talking to him about these things He just, he was like, yeah, I know what you’re saying. I can hear what you’re saying, but it just, it doesn’t help me. I don’t believe that God really loves me and that he could see past the mistakes I’ve made.

And because of relationships growing up, like I just can’t get past that blockade. And here I was with people coming up every couple of seconds. Hey man, nice to see you all dude. I’m a fan of yours and all that kind of stuff, which was great. This young man needed me in that moment and so even a priest walked out of the bathroom right there and he’s Hey, you’re the guy that starts all the men’s groups I want to talk to you about coming to my parish and I asked him to wait a few minutes so I could talk with this young man And he did he was very polite and he waited on me But I looked at this young man and we started to pray.

I started to pray healing prayer over him. I started to help him renounce the lies that he wasn’t good enough, that he wasn’t loved, that God couldn’t love him, that he wasn’t a beloved son. I started praying healing prayer over him. He started to weep. He started to cry and so did I. And I spent this time with thousands of people passing us by and people patting me on the back and, hey man, I love your show and all that stuff.

Pouring myself into this man because that’s what was needed at this time. And that’s what this conference Really this congress really was bringing out of everyone was just the need right to be present and folks This is the kind of things that we do when we were done praying he looked up with a tear in his eye and he said thank you man Like I feel so bad for taking so much of your time and you didn’t have to do that It’s no man This is exactly what we’re called to do like you don’t believe that you’re loved by god and that’s a problem You And that’s a problem with so many men that pull them away from the church, and pull them away from their families, and pull them away from the faith.

And so right now yes, there’s a lot of people that are recognizing me, or whatever else. But right now what’s important is the fact that you need help in your life and you need ministering to and folks That’s what we do in this ministry whether it’s in a hallway to Congress like that whether it’s talking to somebody after a talk at a retreat of a parish mission or A conference we see people suffering and we take the time to help them Reorient their identity and to understand that This young man looked at me and he said, man, I really needed that.

And I told him, I was like, you need to get a picture of yourself as a young boy and I want you, it sounds weird, but I want you to look at it and I want you to pray. And every time you pray or every time you’re in doubt that you don’t think you’re a beloved son of God and you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and you see yourself as a failure or whatever else you have going on.

You need to look at this picture of yourself as a young boy and remember that this is how God sees you as his beloved son. Right and nothing more nothing less nothing more but his beloved son and he sees you as worthy because he says so Folks, that’s what we did. We prayed over this man. I prayed over this man because he needed it And that’s what we’re doing This ministry is helping men believe that they are more than the sum of their sins and the sum of their failures We help men get out of the places that they’ve gotten to in darkness and isolation and loneliness We help men stop silent suffering And we put men in a position to believe the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth of their worth, and the truth that they’re loved.

That’s what we’re doing in this ministry. That’s what I had so many opportunities to do. That’s just one of many I had to do with the Congress. But folks, we’re only able to do that because of the support of people that are supporting us. And quite frankly, we need more support. We need more support to do things.

This Congress cost us at least 12, 000 to go to. We’re sacrificing other things. Because that’s what you have to do when you need to be at something like this that you feel called to be. But folks, we need support so we can continue to go to events like this. So we can continue to grow this ministry.

So we continue, more importantly than anything else, to reach men the way that we were able to reach that man in the hallway that day that we wouldn’t have been able to if we weren’t present there. I don’t know that moment would have happened for him if we weren’t there and a part of it. And the only way that happens is because of generous people that support us each month as Partners in the Pew.

Now, I know I talk about this all the time and I know I ask you folks, but I’m asking you to please consider joining us on a monthly level as a Partner in the Pew at any dollar amount, whether it’s 5, 10, 100, 50, 500, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, It doesn’t matter. We, I promise you every bit of that support is going to go to continue to helping men break free from these lies, break free from this entrapment in this cage, the devil has a men to help them believe and not only help them believe, but help disciple them and help them find places in parishes where they can go and disciple others and find the life that they’re looking for and they’re longing for.

So folks, I’m sorry for taking five, six, seven minutes here at the beginning of the podcast to say that. But folks, we need your help. And so if you’ve ever been helped, if you met us at the Congress and you’re interested in our mission and you want to help, you want to help men become the men that they’re called to be, then go to donor box.

org slash pew donor box deck dash org slash pew, or simply go to just a guy on the pew. com and look for the donate button on the side of the screen or up in the headings with all the menu items. Go there. It’s easy. It takes you a couple minutes to click, put in a custom amount, pick one of the ones that are already there, but become a supporter of our ministry on a monthly basis because we need it.

And so many others do too. So folks, thank you for hearing that again, go to just a guy on the pew. com. And consider prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner in the pew. That’s how you can best help us as we continue to help men in this ministry. So folks, I also want to tell you, we got some upcoming pilgrimages.

You can find those on our website at justscoutinthepew. com. Go to the events and book me page. We have one coming up going to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s a five day trip. It’s right in spring break for most schools. It’s affordable. It’s one hotel. We’ve got an amazing spiritual director. So go to Just Scout in the Pew and consider joining us there for our next pilgrimage in March of 2025, March 10th through the 15th.

You can go to our website, Just Scout in the Pew and find out more. So folks, let’s jump into the Congress. I want to take a few minutes here to just tell you everything that you’re hearing out there is what I experienced, as long as you’re hearing the positive things. I set up my booth, I got up there on Monday, I ran into Katie McGrady and some other speakers on Monday night, was able to speak to them, and it’s so good to just go anywhere where you can just meet with other people that are working in the vineyard and be affirmed and affirm each other and just, it must be like what the apostles felt when they went back to Jerusalem, right?

Where they just were hearing stories of what other people were doing and it was so uplifting and so filling. But we put our booth together on Tuesday and the Congress started on Wednesday. And like I said, it was such an amazing time to spend in our booth with y’all. I also would spend a lot of time in the JP2 healing booth because we’re working alongside of them in their ministry now to be there with Father John Burns and with Sister Miriam and with Dr.

Bob and all the women that work there, Katie and Melissa and Karen and Maggie, who used to work for me, who now works for Father John Burns. It was so amazing. And to be around the other people on our lane in the vendor room to meet so many other powerful ministries and to see what God’s doing in their work and in their lives.

Folks this vendor room was like two football fields long. It was massive. And there was as many things as you’ve ever seen in the church, multiply that times like a hundred and that’s how many different booths and people were there. You had vocations with all the different orders of priests, all the different orders of sisters, like consecrated life, all of those things.

You had every ministry in the world from hallow to array of hope to, to bookstores, to everything, to pilgrimage companies, all that stuff, all there in support of the Eucharist in this movement. It was massive. But folks, I gotta tell you something, what I saw was what I think all of us have longed to see in the church for a very long time.

It’s been hard with all the scandals and all the division and the liturgy wars and the fighting and the stuff with people hating the Pope and all this stuff has been tough. And I think we’ve all interiorly prayed for a moment in time where we could just forget about all that other stuff.

And focus on what’s important and the greatest gift the Lord has ever given us in the Eucharist. And that’s exactly what happened this week. I saw a priest crying. I saw bishops on their knees repenting over, over different things that they were struggling with in their own lives and maybe the way that they’ve led people.

I’ve seen lay speakers on the stage calling out clergy, not in a bad way, but saying We need to repent, but so do you. We need repentance. I heard father Mike Smith say there is no revival without repentance, right? And all of us felt that as we were there on the first night and what started with this Congress.

It wasn’t some famous speaker that gave a talk. It wasn’t some band up there playing. It was Bishop cousins who was the lead pusher behind this. And Tim Glimkowski, the lead. Men in this and all the people behind them, but this thing started with Bishop Cousins processing in after my buddy, Father Malachy, you’ve heard so many times on here, processed with the last part of the national Eucharistic pilgrimage.

He shows up and brings that in. And then they’re in this stadium with all these people who had finally made it together. And this football stadium filled with joyful Catholics, the whole crowd went silent. Bishop Cousins processed in. And he put the Lord right in the center of all of it, not up on the stage where people would be speaking, but right in the center of the floor.

And lights flooded down on it, and incense was everywhere. And we started to adore the Lord, right? And all of a sudden all those voices fell silent. And occasionally you heard a little bit of humming, you heard a little bit of singing. But 60, 000 people fell silent right there in the presence of the Lord because they knew, And it was, the Lord was calling us to remember what was important, above all things.

And it was him. I remember there was a moment one day where they sat the Lord there and right as if, this was nothing could have happened like this except God. There was a bright light that came in from the windows, from outside the stadium, through a portal into the main part of the arena and hit the Eucharist perfectly where it was and sit radiant light everywhere.

You could see the stadium lights shining down on it But it was nothing from the light and the rays of God from the Sun that he created Shining there on the Eucharist as I said, I saw a priest crying also families entire families in line for confession I went to some of the family tracks and saw mothers and fathers in there Buku of kids like listening and being taught in the faith by Dr.

Bob and Damon Owens and any Hickman and Steve Agno and all these other people I went to tracks with encounter tracks and powder tracks in, not in powder, in Empower tracks with people like Father John Burns and Chica, and people like Dr. Cherie and Dr. Hanh. We, they even had a priest track where one of my friends on the inside said there were priests and bishops weeping as they were openly tearing open their chest and exposing the places of their own pain, their own wounds of their own loss of all of those things.

I even heard a story of an 86 year old priest going up to a bishop and crying and saying, this was the most impactful thing in his precession where a bishop was opening up his heart and repenting for the ways that he had let down the clergy, he said it was the most healing thing he’d ever experienced as a priest.

In 86 years of being a priest as I walked down the hallways, I saw lines for the shroud of Turin. I saw hundreds of priests hearing confessions Like hundreds of priests hearing confessions and coming out not tired But joyful that they were in that position that so many people felt called to repentance because of this moment in time and yes there were speakers like bishop barron and jonathan rumi and christopher fannick and Oh my gosh, all the other ones that i’m forgetting to mention all the ones that were on stage sister bethany and You and Father Mike Schmitz and Sister Miriam and Father Josh Johnson and all the other ones that were out there.

They were all wonderful. But folks, for the first time I’ve ever been to a conference, it wasn’t about the speakers. It wasn’t about the talks. The most, like the most impactful thing I ever saw was the adoration. Wherever our Lord was in the Eucharist was where people were. There’s a church right outside of the Indianapolis Convention Center where they held perpetual adoration and there was not a morning, an afternoon or an evening that I didn’t walk by there or go in there.

where people were not constantly praising the Lord. There was even an outdoor adoration session with all the Franciscan friars playing guitars and people in the streets, man, just adoring the Lord. I sat in a bar one night on the last night with my friend, Marcella June, having a drink and celebrating this wonderful freaking thing that we had been invited into with the Lord.

And there were people who weren’t even Catholic. They were sitting there on the corner of the bar. The talk started about the whiskey the man chose to drink with his wife. And then it turned into, we’re not even Catholic. But oh my gosh, we had to stop in all of the Eucharistic procession of 55, 000 plus people processing through the streets of Indianapolis, all the orders of priests and sisters, children, and families, people standing on statues, standing on street signs, standing on benches, trying to get a glimpse of this people up on balconies and looking down from rooftops.

And there were even stories of people who weren’t Catholic who hit their knees because they were in awe of what happened and started praising God. So many people right now say yeah, was this just some thing? And folks, that’s really what I want to talk about today. Because it could have been that for me and it almost was because I was there working a booth and I didn’t have time To go to everything I wanted to but when I did the Lord met me in my heart And the Lord told me that I need to give him more of my life in the Eucharist I go to Mass daily But I’m not always the best Catholic when I go and my mind isn’t always on him and I’ll go to adoration sometimes And it’s not to see him.

It’s just to say that I did it as I went through this week, the times when I really felt the most impactful was not when someone was giving a talk, or when a priest was speaking, or a sister. It was in the masses when I watched hundreds of clergy process in, when all our voices lifted up as one. There was no division.

I heard one time a man talk about the Pope, and the priest I was with met him in charity and spoke to him about who he was obedient to, the liturgy, or the church. The liturgy or to Jesus Christ. And I saw him meet this man in compassion and love. And I saw this man cry and admit that he needed to repent and that he needed to be focused more on Jesus than he was on anything else in the church, which so many of us need to be.

Folks, I witnessed all of that. And even in my own life. Yeah. So it’s the intercession. I’ve been praying since I’ve been home the last few days. Like my children and I have gone to Mass every day. We’ve gone to our adoration together. I’ve been talking to them over and over again about it. And through that talk, through the impact the Eucharist had on me in this call back, the Lord gave me in my own life to truly just address this message.

Throw myself into him in the Eucharist. I had a conversation with one of my daughters who told me that she had an encounter with Christ on our pilgrimage in Italy that she had not yet told me about. And she told me how she was brought to tears and she didn’t understand why and she was feeling fuzzy and now she wants to go to mass every single day and she wants to read more about the Lord and she wants to pray more and she wants to go to adoration.

She’d had an encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist and in a mass with pilgrims on our trip And I didn’t even know about it until I came back and started preaching again about how the Eucharist needed to be the center of My life and my family’s life more so than it’s ever been Folks this Congress was not just about three years of doing neat grassroots things.

It’s about changing our lives Individually and changing the culture of our church And so folks if you were at this or if you were present online Watching it and you’ve been moved by this anyway We cannot let this die. This is what I preach about so many times is that I get called to go to men’s conferences and retreats and those are great things and the Lord can do things through that.

But so many times those are mountaintop experiences where we come flying down the other side and it dies off as quickly as it started. And that’s not the call of our faith. That’s not the call of Christianity, folks. We have to be filled with the joy of Christ in the Eucharist, with the Holy Spirit. And what we see in each other in the body of Christ, it begins with relationship, first and foremost with Christ in the Eucharist, where He is most present in our lives, and then with each other.

That’s what the call of this revival was not to go to a place or to spend a few nights during the week watching talks, but what are we going to do? How are we going to allow the Lord to empower us in our life? To go out and change our 10 foot radius to work and to till our own garden Where are we going to be in all of that?

And I get it because so many people I know it feels you come off of these things and you yeah But what could I possibly do? I can’t speak like Father Mike Schmitz. I can’t reach hearts like Bishop Barron. I can’t call us to unity like Gloria Purvis or Sister Josephine or whoever else was speaking on these magnificent things.

I don’t know how to help people with healing the way that Dr. Bob or Sister Miriam does. Maybe that’s true, but you have gifts that God’s given you and you have a call on your life. And too many of us, we surrender and we forget because we say, Lord, what can you do with me? Or surely you can’t use me.

And folks, I looked up today, how many times that’s happened in the gospels and in the old Testament, right? Because you’re not the first people to think that. And God has done an amazing thing through those people who said that long before he ever was. Made you and before you doubted that you could do things powerful through him So I want to talk about a few of those for a minute one Moses right Moses it bit tried to make excuses at least five times to God about why he wasn’t the right guy and God was Like doesn’t matter about you.

It matters about me and the fact I want to use you and that you believe that I can So 12, he says it says but Moses said to God Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? He said This is what God said. He said, But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you.

When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. So that’s the first time, Moses is saying, but who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? I will be with you. It’s the first thing God said to Moses. And that’s what Jesus was saying to each and every one of us at this Congress, whether you were there or whether you’re not.

It’s what he’s been saying to you from day one that you were born and you came into the Catholic faith. I have a mission for your life and it’s to go out and to bring other people to me. The way that you’ve encountered me, the way that you have met me, we need to renew this and revive this so that you come out of this Congress or this mass or this moment in your life and this encounter with the desire to go and to bring someone else to that same encounter.

Amen. When Moses gave an excuse at that time, he said, I’ll be with you. Stop making excuses and quit making it about you and your deficiencies. Stop focusing on the lack and the deficiency and focus on the blessing and what I’m offering you. Moses again says, later on in Exodus 4, 10 through 17, Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I’m not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.

Amen. Then the Lord said to him, Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak. But he said, O my Lord, send, I pray. Someone else some other person than the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses And he said is there not Aaron your brother the levite, excuse me I know that he can speak well and behold He’s coming out to meet you and when he sees you’ll be glad in your heart And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do.

He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall speak, shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him is God and you shall take your hand, this rod with which you shall. Do the signs again. God says over and over again. Don’t worry about what you’re gonna say or how you’re gonna do it. I’m gonna do that, but I can’t do it without your, yes, I’ll be with you.

He says to Moses, let’s go on and look at David. Samuel is sent to anoint the new king. And he goes to Jesse’s house, the father of David. And he says, bring forth all of your sons. So what does Jesse do? He brings all the ones that he thinks would be presentable. The ones that would be old enough, the ones that looked apart, the ones that were the men in his own idea that needed to be the ones that went out there.

Maybe that’s how you feel. Okay, God, you need something. Here’s father Mike Schmitz. Here’s sister Miriam. Here’s father Josh. Here’s John Edwards. Here’s so and so here’s my pastor. Here’s our DRE. Here’s the, here’s Paul. Here’s whoever. Okay. And that’s what you’re putting forth the way that Jesse did.

But what does Samuel say? What does the Lord say to Samuel? No, none of these are them. And so he says, is this all your sons? And what does Jesse say? He says, they’re still the youngest. He’s outside tending sheep. I don’t know what you’re going to do with him. Surely you’re not going to want him. And that’s the way we can feel in our life.

Cause we forget. It’s not about us. We’re the instrument. God is waiting on our yes. And this revival in this Congress was a call back to that, that it’s not about us. What we can or can’t do with him. It’s not about us. It’s about him and what he desires to do in our lives. My brothers and sisters, we have to get out of his way.

We have to fall on our knees and say, Lord, I surrendered. I will do whatever you want because I believe, and I see you present in the Eucharist never more so more so than now in my life. What happened? Samuel picks David and what does David do he goes and he slays Goliath and he becomes the greatest king of Israel and Jesus is born out of that lineage even broken as it is and the mistakes that David made later in his life God still brought redemption out of it in repentance because it wasn’t about David It was about Jesus.

It was about God. It was about what he wanted to do through him and David’s willingness to surrender You can look at Gideon, right? God is asking Gideon to go out and fight the wars with men And so what does he say? It says it judges 6 15 through 16 And he said to him pray lord. How can I deliver israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in manasseh and i’m the least in my family. He’s literally saying Don’t you have any better families? Don’t you have any better people than me? And God says, and the Lord said to him, I will be with you. I will be with you. And you will smite the Midianites as one man. That’s what God said.

I don’t need excuses. I don’t need to know about your deficiencies. I know full well how I made you. I will be with you. That’s what he said to Moses. That’s what he said to David. That’s what he said to Gideon. So let’s go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah says, ah, Lord God. I do not know how to speak and I am too young.

So now we’re throwing the age thing in for all you out there that are young or old. Now we’re talking age. But the Lord answered me, do not say I am too young to whomever I send you, you shall go. Whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you Oracle of the Lord.

Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth. Today I appoint you over all nations and over kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, and to build and to plant. That’s what he says to another of the great prophets. It’s not about you.

It’s not about your lack or your ability. It’s about what I am going to do through you and all I need is your belief and your yes that I can do something through you. That’s Jeremiah. Then you go on and there’s even more. There’s Peter. What happens? Jesus goes to Peter. We all know this in Luke 5, 8, 11.

Throw your net on the other side of the boat. I’ve been fishing all night. Lord, we’re not catching anything. Excuses. And finally, Jesus looks at him and is do it. And what does Peter do he throws it on the other side of the boat He gives in and has finally has faith at least faith enough to try what this guy He doesn’t know wants from him and what happens his boat almost sinks because he catches so many fish And what is peter’s recall response?

He falls on his knees and he says get away from me lord I am a sinful man, but jesus said to him Do not be afraid, henceforth you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Jesus looked at him and was like, it’s not about you being a sinful man.

It’s about me calling you and you saying yes. I’m sorry I’m missing my words up, but I’m pumped up, folks. I want you to understand that this revival wasn’t for this three year period. That this Congress wasn’t the culmination, the end of it, it’s the beginning. For each and every one of us in our lives. To go out and to do what God has called us to do, because here’s the thing, folks.

He tells us that we have everything we need. We have everything we need because we have him in the Eucharist where all these people had God with them. Moses had God with him. David had God with him. Gideon had God with him. Jeremiah had God with him. Peter had Jesus physically with him, but even then he didn’t have what we have.

The Lord who has given himself in body and blood for us to receive, to eat, To take in so that his strength and his power can become ours Because he so he can fill us with everything we need to do the things that he’s asked us to do He gives us his very self, but our faith becomes so bland sometimes, and we get so used to it, that we forget what sits in front of us.

And our bishops in this country, and the people that were a part of it, called us back to the most important thing that we need to remember. That we can do anything through Christ who strengthens us. And where do we find that strength? In the Eucharist first and foremost and the power of the Holy Spirit that he gave us afterwards Jesus says himself truly I say to you He who believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do Because I go to the father Because I go to the Father and here I am with you.

The thing is, folks, as great as what those men in the Old Testament had and what Peter had and Jesus standing there with them, we have something greater in the Eucharist that’s there for us each and every day to adore, to rev, to revere, to take in, right? Body, blood, soul, and divinity. That the God of the universe makes himself small and humbles himself to become one with us so that we can remember what’s important and that we can understand that we have the power we need to combat darkness.

All the spiritual warfare in our life means nothing when we have the Eucharist as part of our lives and we revere it and we’re called back to the source and the summit of our faith. Jesus says this in Matthew 28 20 low I am with you always to the close of the age to the close of the age I am with you always what did he mean?

I’m with you always how in the Eucharist there thousands of times a day throughout this world It’s 615 at 815 at 1215 at 530 on Sundays and Saturdays We have multiple times to go and be strengthened each and every day by our lord folks That’s what we’re called to do to go and receive him and then to go and tell others what did andrew and philip ask the lord when john told him to chase after him teacher? Where do you stay? And he says come and see and he gives us that same invitation in every parish in every church each and every day We say, Lord, I’m struggling. Where do you stay? Come and see, Lord. I don’t know what to do in my life.

Come and see, Lord. Things are falling apart. Come and see, Lord. I want to be more of a disciple for you. Come and see. And then what happens when we come and see and when we receive? He says that. He says to go out and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And then he tells us, I am with you always to the close of the age. Folks, this is our faith. Our Lord broke his body so he could be there with us, he could redeem us from our sins, and he could be present to us in the Eucharist each and every day in our life. This is what we’re called to after this summit.

This is what we’re called to after this revival. What happens next? You take on this call and you go and you strengthen yourself in the Eucharist each and every day, and you surround yourself with a community of people that want to do the same thing. And you go out and you change your 10 foot radius.

You stop making excuses. You stop saying, I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m too young. I’m too old. I can’t speak well. I can’t do this. I’m not these speakers. Stop the excuses. The Lord is with you. And he will fill up every deficiency that you have in your life. The ones that you that are there and the ones that you think are there that are not.

I can tell you that because I have no business being on this podcast, speaking the way I am to you. Now it is him that is speaking through me. I have no business speaking on stages and parishes and all those things on my own. If I did it on my own, I would be nothing. But I go with the strength of the Eucharist, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the belief that God, that I am who God says I am, as his beloved son, and that I have a right as an heir to go out and to bring the kingdom to fruition in my own area, in the light, in my life, and in the people around me, through Jesus Christ.

He’s given us that authority to do these things and greater, but it starts with believing it yourself, with casting off the excuses. Folks, it’s time for the church to stop making excuses. We live in a world that has fallen apart because we’ve been making excuses. It’s not somebody else’s job. We’ve got to stop looking at the other people around us and say, when are they going to do something?

They get to something. When are you, because if we’re all looking at each other and waiting on the other one, no one is ever going to do anything, but the church has called us the Lord. Has called us through this Eucharistic revival along with 60,000 people there and countless millions around the world that witnessed this.

This is our time. This is the time for the church to rise up and be the church that God created it to be. It’s not worried about liturgy, wars and all that garbage, but about bringing. people to Jesus, to introducing them to the Eucharist, to the sacraments, to bringing them into their identities of a beloved son or daughter of God, the father who has in them, the Lord Jesus Christ and their brother.

And through the knowledge of the fact that they have the Holy Spirit within them and they can go out and they can continue to pay it. It’s time to pay it forward, right? You pay it forward in a Chick fil A line when somebody does it for you. It’s time to pay it forward in our daily lives and to start living as Eucharistic people that are full of courage and boldness and brave who cast off worries about anything else and to go out there and live as the people that God calls us to be.

Folks, that’s what I got out of this revival. And I saw people on their knees begging for it. I saw sisters dancing. I saw people repenting. I saw children crying. I saw joy on the face of families again. And never once did I hear any dissension or any of that there But it was nothing but unity and people seeking and desiring to make the lord the center of their life again So now the challenge of this podcast and of this episode is Are you going to do the same?

Am I going to do the same? My answer is yes I thank the lord our god for calling me to that place in indianapolis and surrounding me With so many wonderful other people who are looking to go further in their life Folks conversion is not a one time thing It doesn’t stop at baptism or confirmation We have to be converting in our life each and every day and we have to be running to our lord You’re not going to adoration to stare at something and check a box.

You’re going to be with your friend You And you’re going to get your marching orders. You’re going to mass to receive what you need to continue to do this work. So folks, will you do it? Will this revival with this Congress be something that’s just a page in history? Something we all talk about is, Oh, it’s nice.

And I’ll look at my badge and maybe I go back and look at a talk every once in a while, or am I going to take the bull by the horns? Am I going to grab the reins and say, no longer am I going to make excuses? I’m going to start to be a factor for change in this church, in the world, and it starts in my family and in my 10 foot radius.

Folks, that’s what I’m going to ask you today. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening. Let’s take it to prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this opportunity, for this podcast. Lord, thank you for the Eucharistic Congress, for this three year revival, and all that you’ve done through it, and for the people that were involved in it that gave their time and their efforts.

To bring it to fruition, Lord, help all of us to realize that it’s not the job of any one person to bring the faith about. It’s the job of all of us and through the Eucharist, we can do that. Lord, draw us ever closer back to your heart in the Eucharist through adoration, through consumption of your body and blood.

And help us to go out and be the light of the world you call us to be. If we want this world to change, it starts with us. And it starts with us building a relationship with you through the Eucharist, through relationships with other people, coming into the community, and no longer being afraid to go out and do what we’re called to do.

You were with Moses and all those others in a powerful way, but you’re with us more in a powerful way through the Eucharist. So Lord, I thank you for that. Help us to be bold, to be courageous, and help us to go change the world for you. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.