Dear friends:
This note continues where we left it yesterday, minutes before starting the Holy Mass, on the afternoon of July 6, 2024. The rain continued to fall, a sign of the many blessings that have been poured out in these days on the more than 1600 participants of the European Marian Youth Day (JEMJ). Therefore, our hearts sang with the JEMJ Choir: “Your plans are perfect. You fill my heart with joy and peace.”
The way we see things, we would have preferred a weekend without rain, with a pleasant temperature and a little cloud covering the sun at midday. But not a drop of water falls from the sky without our Lord allowing it. It is very good that this has been the case because sometimes we fall into the temptation, especially when we work with young people, to try to give them a “piety of feelings.” And when they return to the world and the feelings pass, the world eats them. This weekend, the cold and rain have left little room for feelings. And that has been a blessing, because the true encounter with the living Christ is not based on feelings, but on faith. The apparent climatological “adversity” has been an insistent invitation from the Lord not to remain in feelings, but to seek a deep relationship with Him and with His Most Holy Mother, in prayer and in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist and Penance, without hiding from them, “the scandal of the cross” (Cfr. 1 Cor 1,18).
The priests have not stopped confessing all weekend. The Holy Mass on Saturday afternoon, presided over by Mons. D. Jesús Sanz Montes and preached by the abbot of Covadonga, D. Adolfo Mariño, had to be moved inside the basilica, literally packed with young people. Those who could not fit inside had to follow the Holy Mass from the tents. And yet, the beauty of the liturgy and the songs spoke to the hearts of the young people.
In this link you have the Holy Mass of July 6, 2024. Starting at minute 23, you find the intervention of Mons. Sanz Montes before the homily and the homily of D. Adolfo Mariño.
And finally the Great Vigil of Eucharistic Adoration arrived. The rain had stopped and it was possible to stay outside the Basilica, as scheduled. Although the esplanade was soaked with water and the cold of the Asturian mountain was setting in little by little, the silence and the atmosphere of worship prevailed over the cold and the water. The police notified the abbot that they were leaving: with those young people gathered there, they were not needed in Covadonga.
The Vigil was presided over by a replica of the “Victory Cross” that must be explained. The chronicles say that Don Pelayo carried a wooden cross to the battle of Covadonga that became the standard of his army and a symbol of the spirit with which he fought. The descendants of Pelayo preserved that cross and had it covered with gold and precious stones, keeping it in the Cathedral of Oviedo. The JEMJ wanted to once again take up the cross as the banner that guides us to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Each JEMJ will thus become a new battle where young people will gather around the “Victory Cross.”
The new cross is made of wood, carved and gilded. It measures 140 centimeters high by 106 centimeters wide. It was placed on the altar on a carved stone base on which the martyrdom of Saint Peter was represented along with the inscription “Tu Es Petrus”: a profession of faith in our Holy Mother, the Church and in the primacy of Peter.
After the Vigil, the Blessed Sacrament was led in a solemn procession to the Holy Cave of the Virgin of Covadonga. The young people accompanied Jesus in the Sacrament of worship throughout the night. The details of the Great Vigil of Eucharistic Adoration can be followed at this link.
The morning of July 7, 2024, began with a time of Eucharistic adoration. The rain had stopped and all the planned events could be held on the esplanade. The meditation points were in charge of Father Rafael Alonso Reymundo. You can listen to them again at this link.
At 12 in the morning, the closing Holy Mass of the JEMJ began, presided over by Mons. Jesús Sanz Montes, archbishop of Oviedo, concelebrated by about twenty priests. The rest of the priests present at the JEMJ were available for confession. Bishop Sanz’s homily ended by saying: “(The JEMJ) has been an immense grace from God, which the Archdiocese of Oviedo has had the blessing of welcoming and accompanying.”
You can listen to the complete homily starting at minute 26 of the recording of the Holy Mass, or read it in the attached file: see homily.
At the end of the Holy Mass, the archbishop of Oviedo invited Father Rafael Alonso, founder of the Home of the Mother, to make public the date and place of the next JEMJ: it will be again in the Sanctuary of Covadonga, from the 4th to July 6, 2025.
D. Jesús wanted to leave his impressions of what he experienced in this short video.
On the YouTube channel “On the Move JEMJ” you will find short videos that provide images of everything we explain. Some are already uploaded, others will be uploaded throughout the week.
And we will complete the update of photos, videos and texts in this link.
And soon, registration will open again for the next JEMJ, for the next battle of this new Reconquest of young people for Jesus Christ. We count on your dissemination and your prayers.
May Our Mother in Heaven bless you.
Sister Beatriz Liaño
