“Set the Eucharist at the centre of your personal life and community life: love the Eucharist, adore the Eucharist and celebrate the Eucharist.”[1]

“Youth 2000…has its own authentic spirituality, which is best seen in the way in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed 24 hours a day, day and night, throughout their gatherings and retreats.  Some might wonder if this was desirable all the time, but I have to say I saw no signs of familiarity breeding contempt.  What I did see was a whole lot of young people clearly feeling very much at home in their Father’s house, enjoying the perpetual presence of Jesus as though He was the most obvious companion in the world to spend time with.”[2]

“Eucharistic Evangelisation”

The structure of a Youth 2000 retreat is based upon the ancient tradition of Forty Hours devotion.  Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is a special guest in the midst of Youth 2000.  Having the Lord in such a central way, dwelling amongst us so obviously, visibly and centrally, has a profound effect on the experience of a young person at a Youth 2000 retreat.  We introduce the young person to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and it’s the Lord Himself who carries that onwards, doing the evangelisation from thereon in a special way.  Particularly notable is what can happen when the young people decide to pray for an hour in the silence of the night with the Blessed Sacrament.  The Lord breaks through in a very powerful way:  there are many occasions of tears of joy at that point, a beautiful experience of the nearness and the love of God.  Eucharistic Evangelisation, which is always preceded by the Kerygma (that basic gospel proclamation of the saving message of Jesus Christ), needs to be followed up and surrounded by catechesis through the retreats, prayer groups and other related initiatives of Youth 2000”.[3]

“To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the “programme” which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood. The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith and a “mystery of light.”[4] (View document).

1. Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day 2000, par 6

2. Rev Fr Ian Ker,  “Youth 2000:  New Movements and communities in the life of the Church”, CTS 2001, pg 57

3. Seán Ascough

4. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, par 6