Hundreds of young adults gathered on the evening of June 28 to take part in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, participating in Mass, a eucharistic procession and a reception with fellowship and witness talks afterward.

Their mission, they were told, is to take the love and mercy they received from Jesus in the Eucharist and share it with their peers.

Yamilette Ayala, director of marketing for the Chicago chapter of Young Catholic Professionals, volunteered at the event, which came on the third day of the pilgrimage’s time in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The day included gatherings for various affinity groups.

Ayala said she learned about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage when it was announced and wanted to participate in some way. The national pilgrimage includes four groups, traveling on foot with the Eucharist, from the north, south, east and west parts of the United States to the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-26 in Indianapolis, with stops in dioceses along the route. Chicago is on the Marian Route, which started at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca in Minnesota.

“It’s a historic moment in our church, to bring back the zeal for the faith,” said Ayala, a member of Holy Name Cathedral parish who is studying for her MBA at the University of Notre Dame. “It’s a good way to remind everyone of what we truly believe and to live our faith in the world.”

Father Tim Anastos, director of the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago and one of 50 priests who have served as eucharistic preachers since the national revival began in 2022, was the homilist at the Mass, and he congratulated members of the congregation on their conviction that Jesus is present, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharist.

That conviction, he said, was evident in their decision to attend the Mass and procession, which had to be moved indoors on a damp and steamy evening.

“It’s a Friday night,” Anastos said. “There are so many other things you could be doing. But you have chosen to be here.”

But, Anastos said, to change the world, those in the congregation have to do more than show their belief in Jesus in the Eucharist. They must stay with Jesus.

That isn’t always easy, he said, noting that the Mass was on the vigil of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. Peter was “legendary” for abandoning Jesus. But Peter returned and led the apostles as they formed the early church.

“They encountered Jesus, they stayed with Jesus, and they changed the world,” Anastos said.

That’s what the pilgrims walking with the Eucharist to Indianapolis are doing as well, he said. According to Google Maps, it takes about 650 hours of walking to go from Lake Itasca to Indianapolis, he noted.

“No one would do that for a piece of bread,” Anastos said. “No one would do that for a glass of wine.”

Danielle Schmitz, one of the pilgrims on the Marian Route, said seeing people who come to pray and adore the Eucharist “fills me with so much joy. It means so much that so many people love Jesus in the Eucharist.”

Schmitz, who will be a senior studying philosophy and theology at the Catholic University of America, is originally from Santa Clara, California. In a witness talk at the reception following Mass and the procession, she said she first felt the love of Jesus in the Eucharist at a retreat when she was 15. But she went looking for that feeling in the wrong places, trying to fulfill herself with unhealthy friendships and good grades and social media. She was a freshman in college when she went to Mass and prayed for Jesus to help her find that love again, and she did.

“Our eucharistic Lord is everything,” she said. “He is the thing that brings us joy. He is the only place we find true love.”

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Lombardo, who was present for the Mass, said he sees the revival and pilgrimage as an opportunity to help young people understand the Eucharist and understand the Mass. Many young people find Mass boring, he said, because they don’t understand what’s happening.

Thomas Tran, director of outreach for the Chicago chapter of Young Catholic Professionals, has been promoting the National Eucharistic Revival, including the pilgrimage and congress, at Our Lady of Unity Parish. He directs RCIA for the parish, and encouraged members who were received into full communion with the church at Easter to come to pilgrimage events as part of their “mystagogia” period, in which they enter into the mysteries of the church.

The National Eucharistic Revival has been an important way to remind everyone that Christ is truly and completely present in the Eucharist.

“It’s a shame that a lot of people don’t recognize the beauty of it,” Tran said.

Mary Lato, president of the student leadership team at the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said she hopes the National Eucharistic Revival, including the pilgrimage’s five days in the archdiocese “set Chicago on fire.”

“My relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist has transformed my whole life,” said Lato, who is an accounting major about to start her senior year.

Lato, originally from Glenview, said trying to spend an hour a day in adoration or in prayer in front of the tabernacle has made her see everything differently.

“That’s when my eyesight is transformed,” she said. “ I see all the goodness in the world and the goodness in myself, through the eyes of Jesus.”

She wants to share that love and mercy with everyone, especially people her age.

“We need to be reaching out to people,” she said. “Young adults have the easiest access to other young adult people, and we need our young adults. … There is so much division in the church, and the Eucharist is the only thing that can bring us together.”