JEMJ: suddenly, Covadonga was filled with hope

The Eucharistic Marian Youth Day (JEMJ) was born last year as an echo in Spain of the Eucharistic Revival National Eucharistic Celebration, a project launched by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The US bishops discovered, after a survey, that 70 % of Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In Spain, we said to ourselves, the percentage must be similar....

Faced with news like this, the great temptation is to despair, defeatism..., but we decided to continue fighting for the faith of our young people. Jesús Sanz Montes took us to Covadonga, the cradle of the Reconquest. Covadonga is much more than a sanctuary. John Paul II said in the Holy Cave, which he visited at the end of WYD 1989 in Santiago de Compostela: "Covadonga is a motherly womb and cradle of faith and Christian life". It was the ideal place to wage a new battle for the faith of Spanish youth.

New encounter with the living Christ in the Eucharist

We propose the JEMJ as a great annual meeting for young people between 14 and 30 years old to have an encounter with the living Christ in the Eucharist, hand in hand with Our Heavenly Mother, through adoration, formation, Eucharistic evangelization workshops, testimonies, music, shows...

By the way, first we put the name -Eucharistic Marian Youth Day- and then we realized that the acronym JEMJ could be confused with WYD. That's why we started calling this meeting 'jemjota'.

The first JEMJ took place from July 5 to 7, 2024, at the Shrine of Covadonga. It brought together more than 1600 young people from all over Spain, but also from outside Spain. At its service were 175 volunteers and a large group of priests.

The fruits of the JEMJ

In the Closing MassJesús Sanz exclaimed: "Suddenly, Covadonga was filled with hope. A new reconquest had the age of those who are capable of dreaming, and they were painting with bright colors the map of a history still unfinished. They came from many places in Asturias, Spain and beyond the seas and our borders (...). The WYDW has been an immense grace of God, which the Archdiocese of Oviedo has had the blessing of welcoming and accompanying".

"A before and after in my life."

The news that reaches us of the fruits that the JEMJ is giving are precious: many young people began, at the feet of the Blessed Mother, a new life, like Ilda Fagundez, from Valencia, seventeen years old, who has gone from not practicing her faith to going to daily Mass: "When I went to the JEMJ I did not have great expectations about it, because I had never gone to anything like it. She was a seventeen-year-old girl who was not known for having much faith, much less for living it".

"Still, it was a before and after in my life. It was the moment where I could really see that the Lord is alive in the Eucharist and that He was asking me for a change. I was able to experience his infinite Mercy. As a result, I started going to daily Mass, praying the Rosary, etc. This year I am going as a volunteer, because I am a witness of the great fruits that the JEMJ can have and I want to be at the full disposal of whatever the Lord asks of me, always by the hand of Our Mother. I want to be an instrument for the most important reconquest: that of hearts.

Young people: responding to their vocation

Several priests have told us that many young men have asked, after returning from Covadonga, for help in discerning a vocation to the priestly or consecrated life. Some have already taken steps. Deborah Sajous explained, days before her entrance into a Discalced Carmelite monastery on April 27, 2025, the Feast of Divine Mercy: "WYD 2024 was a key point in helping me to respond to my vocation as a Discalced Carmelite".

"I was at a point in my discernment where I knew what the Lord wanted from me and I wanted to respond, but it was hard for me. The Lord saw my desire to respond generously and, after participating in the WYD, I received the grace to be able to say: 'The Lord wants me to be a Discalced Carmelite and I also want to be a Discalced Carmelite'. From that moment on, the Lord has given me the grace to be more and more firm in my decision.

But Deborah is not the only one. In the official website we will be publishing the testimonies we have been receiving.

For priests, too

For the priests themselves it was a renewal of their priesthood. Many did not expect that Saturday night would be spent confessing until well into the early hours of the morning, at the request of the young people. At the end of WYD 2024, Fr. Félix López Lozano, responsible for the Liturgy Department and for welcoming the priests at WYD 2024, pointed out not only the number of confessions that had taken place that weekend, but also the quality of these encounters with Jesus Christ and declared: "Confessions show the quality of the encounter with the Lord".

D. David Cueto was, at last year's JEMJ, canon of the Shrine of Covadonga. This year he will welcome us as abbot and will preside the Saturday night adoration vigil. At the end of last year's meeting he confessed that not only to him, but to the whole chapter of Covadonga, the JEMJ has given them a lot of light to know where to walk in response to what the Lord was putting in their hearts regarding their pastoral responsibility in Covadonga.

The truth is that, at the end of the first WYD, the sensation was that of having "set in motion something transcendental for the recovery of the faith of young people in the Eucharist and in the love of Mary Most Holy".

Now, the second JEMJ from July 4 to 6

Seeing that the objective had been largely achieved and that the WYD had proven to be a tool with enormous potential at the service of the evangelization of young people, we began to organize the second WYD, which will take place from July 4 to 6, 2025, again at the Shrine of Covadonga (Asturias, Spain). In the first days of May, the number of registered participants exceeded one thousand, while the registration of many groups that are still in the process of closing the registration lists of their own young people is underway. Any young person in search of love and happiness is a candidate to participate in the WYD. In Covadonga, everything will be ready to offer them the opportunity to find in Jesus Christ the love and happiness they are looking for.

Clare Crockett wanted to become a famous actress

Among the many activities you will find one of them will be, during the festival that will take place on the first night of the JEMJ, the premiere of "A famous nun. Clare Crockett, a life put on stage". It is a musical performance made by young people for young people, which will be premiered on the first night of the WYD, July 4, 2025, at 9:00 pm, in Covadonga. Through music and performance, the young participants of the WYD will vibrate with the powerful story of Sr. Clare CrockettHer dreams of becoming a famous actress, her encounter with Jesus Christ, her struggles, her fears, her temptations... and her victory!

Relic of the heart of Carlo Acutis: in love with the Eucharist

In addition, we will have the relic of the heart of the Carlo Acutis. Carlo is going to WYD to tell young people that it is possible to be a young person of the 21st century and live in love with the Eucharist. The WYDW participants will be able to "measure" the heart of a young man madly in love with Jesus Christ and learn from him that "those who approach the Eucharist every day go straight to Paradise".

This year's WYD takes place in a very special circumstance. The Lord has given us this year the "Jubilee of Hope". Many pilgrims have made their way to Rome - or will do so in the near future - with the intention of gaining the plenary indulgence. But... what about those who, for various reasons, cannot make the pilgrimage to Rome? 

Winning the Jubilee

Our Mother Church has foreseen this possibility and has designated numerous sacred places as Jubilee temples where the faithful can more easily obtain the Jubilee and implore the grace of conversion. One such place is the Basilica of Our Lady of Covadonga (Asturias, Spain). It is one more reason to go to the JEMJ: to take advantage of the opportunity to gain the Jubilee of Hope by going on pilgrimage to Covadonga to participate in the second Eucharistic Marian Youth Day.