WHY MEYD?
In a world that forgets and rejects God, we want to turn to the Lord and beg him like the disciples of Emmaus: “Stay with us, Lord” (Lk. 24:29).
A group of young people and laity in Spain, together with their pastors, felt strongly urged to respond to the situation of forgetfulness and lack of faith that is quickly spreading due to the bombardment of a growing secularization and confusion among the faithful. They learned of the project that had begun in the United States when certain Catholic bishops, noting the lack of attendance at Mass and the apparent lack of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, expressed the need to revive the faith in the Eucharist at the national level. The response to this need was the National Eucharistic Revival launched by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on June 19, 2022, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This began a three-year initiative to intensify the faith in the Eucharist through faith formation and Eucharistic activities, such as adoration and processions.
And the hearts of these lay people were set aflame with the desire to lead young people to discover the immense love of Jesus in the Eucharist, to walk firmly in the Christian life, not seeking to quench their thirst in cracked cisterns but in the Fountain of Living Water. And who better than Mary, Mother of the Lord and our Mother, to accompany us to encounter Jesus, the Living God? Hence the launching of the Marian Eucharistic Youth Day (MEYD), an encounter where they could participate with other young people in acts of prayer, catechesis, Eucharistic evangelization workshops, testimonies, etc. In doing so, participants can deepen their love and knowledge of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Lord, stay with us in the Eucharist and never let us abandon you! Set our hearts on fire!
EXPLICATION
OF THE LOGO
The main element of the MEYD logo is the Eucharist, surrounded by wheat to indicate that this is the true food—the Body of Christ—which gives life to mankind. It is God among us. The initials surrounding the host remind us that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ and His divinity, true Man and true God, before Whom we must prostrate ourselves in love and adoration.
Meaning of the acronym:
The letters IC XC correspond to the name of Jesus in Greek which is, translated into the Latin alphabet, IesouS XristoS. Following the tradition of the Greek icons, the first and last letters are taken to represent the names of Jesus and Mary. Thus, taking the first and last letters of each word would form IS XS. However, in the Alexandrian Koine and Byzantine Greek the grapheme used to designate the sigma (S) was C. In fact, in today’s Cyrillic alphabet, the grapheme C has the phonetic value of S.
Therefore, the original monogram of Jesus’ name is IC XC. The use of placing a line above each pair of letters serves to designate that it is an abbreviation.
Also in the tradition of Greek icons, the acronym OWN means: the One Who Is.
IHS, comes from IHCOUC: Jesus Christ in Greek. The C was a sigma, which came to be transcribed as S because of its similarity. It was St. Bernardine of Siena who added the meaning to each letter: Iesus Hominum Salvator, that is: Jesus Savior of men.