The Asturian sanctuary of Covadonga in Spain hosted the III Marian Eucharistic Youth Day from July 10 to 12, bringing together nearly 2,000 young people for its third edition.
Participants also received a message from Pope Leo XIV, sent through the Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Piero Pioppo. The message was addressed to the Archbishop of Oviedo, Monsignor Jesús Sanz Montes, who read it on Sunday at the end of the closing Mass. In the message, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and published on the JEMJ website, the Holy Father greeted “all the priests, religious men and women and, in a particular way, the young people who gathered in the heart of Asturias under the protection of Our Lady of Covadonga to celebrate the III Marian and Youth Eucharistic Day, under the motto ‘Do whatever I tell you’.
”He also expressed his hope that “this day of encounter and communion in Christ” would lead them to “experiencing, hand in hand with the Virgin of Covadonga, the love that radiates from the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” especially “in those moments when you feel that you are ‘lacking the wine’ of joy.”The Pope further encouraged the young people to allow themselves to be transformed by their encounter with Christ and the Virgin Mary: “May the encounter with the Heart of Christ and his Mother strengthen in you the will to make your ideals of a full life a reality, committed also to the Church and the society of your blessed country.”