This weekend, our Young Adult minister and core team members will be at all masses inviting young people to the ministry, both as leaders and participants. It is no secret anymore that in recent years, there has been an increasing number of young Catholics who have left the Church and become religiously unaffiliated. We want to search for them and bring them back home. We want to break the trend by accompanying our young people who still come to Church by providing them with opportunities to deepen their understanding of the faith and strengthen their love for God. We want to empower and send forth our young people to become fishers of men, inviting others to know and love Christ, proclaiming the truths of our faith to others, and becoming catalysts of change in the world.

The Eucharist is key. St. Theresa of Calcutta says, “Once you understand the Eucharist, you can never leave the Church. Not because the Church won’t let you, but because your heart won’t let you.” In our history, there have been young individuals (who later became saints) who have testified to the power of the Eucharist in their lives. Intimate union with Jesus in Holy Communion and frequent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament have nourished and strengthened them in their journey to heaven.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, a young Italian teenager, who died at the age of fifteen and was beatified in 2020, attained sanctity at such a young age because the Eucharist was at the center of his life. He attended mass daily and prayed each day before the Blessed Sacrament in adoration. He used to say, “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” He discovered the joy of friendship with Jesus and brought that joy, the joy of the Gospel to others. He was an apostle of the Eucharist through the internet. He said: “To always be united with Christ: This is my life’s program.”

Likewise, St. José Sánchez del Río, a Mexican teenager who was martyred at the age of fourteen and canonized in 2016, was so filled with love of Christ and his Church that he was willing to give up his life rather than renounce Christ and his Kingship. While imprisoned, St. José Sánchez del Río was able to receive the Blessed Sacrament when it was smuggled into his cell along with a basket of food. Strengthened by this viaticum, he was able to endure torture and to remain faithful to Christ when his captors told him he must renounce his faith or be executed. He replied to his persecutors: “My faith is not for sale.”

We encourage all, especially our young people, to learn more about the Eucharist and about the lives of these holy teenagers. In the midst of many distractions in our life, they show us the importance of the Eucharist in our journey as disciples of Jesus. They teach us that “growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage.” (See USCCB, The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church)