‘Vocational seeds’ are sown at National Eucharistic Congress, priest notes

Father Michael Keucher, archdiocesan vocations director, gives a presentation on July 10 at the annual convention of Serra Internation held in Indianapolis. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Father Michael Keucher has long known the importance of eucharistic adoration for people discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood and religious life.

But he saw it on dramatic display in July 2024 at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis when some 40,000 Catholics worshiped in silence before the Blessed Sacrament in Lucas Oil Stadium and some 50,000 Catholics took part in a eucharistic procession through the streets of the city.

Father Keucher, archdiocesan vocations director since 2019, spoke on July 10 to the more than 200 attendees who came to Indianapolis from across the country and around the world to attend the

Serra International Convention. He reflected on the ways that the congress helped promote vocations, something that he said the Church won’t know the full effects of for many years.

“Jesus was sowing vocational seeds like crazy at the Eucharistic Congress just two years ago,” he told the members of the organization who seek to promote vocations to ordained ministry and religious life. “It takes a while for these seeds to germinate.”

But some are already starting to blossom, Father Keucher noted, as the archdiocese expects to welcome in August the largest number of new seminarians it has had in many years.

One of those new seminarians told Father Keucher of the effect on him of the opening night of the congress in which Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., led a time of eucharistic adoration in Lucas Oil Stadium.

“He heard his vocation right there at the congress,” said Father Keucher. “And it was at the very beginning when Bishop Cozzens brought in our Lord [in the Blessed Sacrament].”

Father Keucher also emphasized the beauty of the witness of “lives surrendered to [Christ]” on display in the approximately 200 bishops, 1,300 priests, 650 deacons, 700 seminarians and 1,200 men and women religious who attended the congress.

“Everywhere our young people turned, they saw priests hearing confessions for hours,” Father Keucher said. “They saw bishops kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. They saw Masses being celebrated with profound reverence. They saw seminarians laughing together over meals. They saw priests and nuns walking alongside families.”

Although the congress had a who’s who lineup of speakers, Father Keucher said that all who took part in the congress, no matter their vocation, ultimately came to Indianapolis because of Christ and his gift of himself in the Eucharist.

That, he said, is the most effective means of building up a culture of vocations in the Church.

“When you put young people in front of our Lord, miracles happen,” Father Keucher said. “He calls them. He speaks to them.

“Our job is really not that hard as ministers in the Church of the Lord, as priests, as religious, as Serra members. Our job is to put people in front of Jesus, and then he does the work. He does the heavy lifting. … All we have to do is put our Lord in front of people in silence and he does the rest.”
 

(Click here to read part one of the coverage by The Criterion of the annual convention of Serra International.) †

 

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