Evangelization Outreach / Brie Anne Varick
Youth Rally, Mass for Life offer a chance to unite for life
Jan. 22, 2025, will mark the eighth annual Indiana gathering to pray and march for life. This event has grown during the past seven years, and we can no longer fit in the original venue, St. John the Evangelist Church in downtown Indianapolis.
This past January, we took a leap of faith to move the Mass for Life into the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis to allow more people to gather and pray. With the move to a new space and the collaboration of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the four dioceses in Indiana, a new event, the Youth Rally for Life, was created.
The Indiana Youth Rally and Mass for Life is the largest pro-life gathering in the state, with participants coming from all four corners of Indiana.
The Youth Rally for Life was created to inspire, equip and empower the youths of Indiana to be missionary disciples of the Gospel of life. This event includes dynamic speakers, inspiring musicians, an opportunity to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation, and exposure to pro-life ministries and Catholic vendors from across the state. At the inaugural Youth Rally for Life on Jan. 22 earlier this year, more than 1,000 youths participated.
The Mass for Life follows the youth rally. It allows people of all ages to gather to pray as the greater Church of Indiana as we celebrate Mass with the bishops of Indiana and priests from across the state. This past January, more than 1,800 people of all ages attend!
There is great power in prayer when the faithful gather together united in the Eucharist to offer prayers of thanksgiving and petition. “Where two or three are gathered, there am I in their midst” (Mt 18:20).
We are still experiencing the graces of the National Eucharistic Congress that took place at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center in July. We gathered as a Catholic nation to give thanks for the gift of the Eucharist. We prayed in reparation on behalf of the Church and asked forgiveness for all the times the Church has failed to recognize the sanctity of the Eucharist. We asked forgiveness for the times we did not allow the Eucharist to transform us, and we offered prayers of petition asking God to renew us, to heal us and to bring the Church and his people into unity.
The Indiana Youth Rally and Mass for Life on Jan. 22 will offer a unique opportunity to gather again as the Church in Indiana united in the Eucharist. We will offer thanks for the gift of life, for the gift of our own lives and the unique calling and purpose God has for each of us that only we can fulfill.
As a community of faith, we will also pray in reparation, asking forgiveness for all our sins against life where we have failed to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. We will ask for forgiveness for the times we have not loved God in ourselves and have not loved God in our neighbor. For to love God is to love what he loves: he loves you, he loves that challenging person in your life—he loves us all. We gather as the Church in Indiana to ask God for mercy, grace, conversion, unity and healing—not only in our nation and in our world, but in a particular way in our state.
I encourage everyone to join in this statewide gathering, to experience the larger Church of Indiana, to celebrate the gift of life, and to pray that we have an increase of wonder and awe in front of humanity, for every human person is made in the image and likeness of God.
Author C.S. Lewis said, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
What a world we would live in if we approached the human person with this reverence. I pray that our state, our nation, and our world is pierced by this truth.
(Brie Anne Varick is the director of archdiocesan Office of Human Life and Dignity. She can be reached at bvarick@archindy.org. For more information on the upcoming Indiana Youth Rally, Mass for Life and March for Life on Jan. 22, go to cutt.ly/INMFL2025.) †