While my husband, Aaron, and I were discerning whether to attend the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July as a family, I replayed scenes of our daughter Margaret’s reluctance to attend Sunday Mass after she “already went at school this week” and her questioning me, nay, nagging, about why we were going to family adoration.
How was I going to model the excitement, importance and beauty of this monumental experience to my seven-year-old?
Also crossing my mind were the images of the occasional times when I lost sight of Margaret as she ran ahead of us in stores. Or how I felt when she decided to hide in our yard and I was not able to find her even after I had, to the neighbors’ dismay, fearfully screamed her name multiple times.
How were we going to make it through the crowds of tens-of-thousands of people without being separated?
I prayed. “God grant me the gifts of the Holy Spirit — love, joy, peace, faithfulness, generosity, self-control. But above all, when the days become long and the journey is not easy, especially on those days, God give me the gifts of patience, gentleness and kindness.”
Before going to the Congress, I knew each day started at 8 a.m. and ended after 10 p.m. None of us would physically, emotionally or spiritually make it to everything during these three full days and two half days. So, we had to strategize and prioritize.
As a family, after remembering to leave time for recovery activities such as swimming in the hotel pool or going to the Indianapolis Zoo, we decided to attend the following together: all morning impact sessions, one afternoon breakout, two evening sessions and the final session on Sunday. Whew!
Once we all arrived in Indianapolis, my anxieties settled. And, as often happens, my daughter soon became a conduit for living and learning about the Catholic faith in this most profound and incredible context.
Here are three of many things I learned from the NEC because I experienced it with my family:
Simple physical movements have monumental meaning.
Although I can’t give testimony to the other morning experiences, the one we attended called “Cultivate: Become a Family on a Mission” were filled with singing songs, most of which had actions assigned to the lyrics to keep kids and, let’s be honest, their parents, engaged.
Physically pushing my sorrows and shame aside while singing “Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord)” felt great and so did asking the people around me “How can it be?” while holding my hands in an “I don’t know” position and contemplating the vastness of God’s love during “Every Move I Make.”
Sometimes having a “dance party,” as some kids called our morning impact sessions, is the best way to understand God and to praise him.
A life without unconditional love is too painful to imagine.
At the revival session on the second night, Father Mike Schmitz, the keynote speaker, spoke about how Jesus Christ is the only one who can bridge the previously unbridgeable gap between God and man.
When talking about how the bridge was broken, Father Schmitz said, “It was our disobedience. We said ‘God, I know what you want. I want what I want.’ It was our disobedience that broke the thing,” and my daughter stopped drawing in her journal and looked up at me, with tears streaming down her face, and said, “We broke the world. He said we broke the world.”
Jesus restored us. He redeemed us. Father Schmitz continued, “What did this Jesus on the cross do? Made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. For us to have access to the Father.”
Father Schmitz’s words spoke of repentance, which called me to action, but the tears in my daughter’s eyes spoke to my heart and reminded me what I would be missing out on if I did not take action — the unconditional love of the Father.
Our Domestic Church could use a little housekeeping.
Our afternoon breakout session was the Catholic Household on Mission Immersive Experience led by Greg and Lisa Popcak, the articulators of the Liturgy of Domestic Church Life and founders of CatholicHOM.com.
“Can everybody say Domestic Church?” Greg asked.
“Domestic Church is when normal, everyday, even struggling families like all of us, experience the grace of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and then do our best to try to put a little bit of God’s love into everything we do all day long, every day,” he continued.
“The Liturgy of Domestic Church Life gives families simple ways that we can fill everything we do with God’s love,” Lisa said. “It helps every family become a holy family.”
We learned that to be a holy family we do not have to be a perfect family. Of course, our daughter quickly reminded my husband and me that no one is perfect. Instead, we should ask God every day to fill our hearts and homes with his perfect love.
Through this experience, we prayed together in adoration, completed interactive tasks to help us see tangible things we do each day to bring God’s love into our home and to others, and prayed for our own Domestic Church.
I will admit, I am not a huge fan of cleaning, but through this brief experience, I witnessed the graces that would enter our lives if we intentionally found ways to practice the Liturgy of Domestic Church Life on a regular basis.
I know there are many resources to explore, but I am starting with CatholicHOM.com to see if we can make our Domestic Church, although never perfect, a little bit shinier.
We have only been home from Indianapolis, where we experienced God’s perfect love in our family’s imperfect way, for about a week. Our bags may be unpacked (OK — some items are still piled on the kitchen counter and table), but all of us have yet to unpack everything we brought home in our hearts.
Pictured above: The Wallings work through a series of activities during the Catholic HOM Immersive Family Experience July 19.