The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown will host the fourth annual SonRise Festival for young adults on the cusp of Holy Week this Saturday, March 28. The event begins at 4:45 a.m. and includes eucharistic adoration, stations of the cross, Holy Mass, and a reflection until 10 a.m.
“Since this is a very early morning event, what’s so unique about it is that it’s about doing something different, perhaps even something a little crazy and radical for Jesus. To get up so early, to lose sleep and to spend time with Jesus as we enter Holy Week,” said Pauline Father Timothy Tarnacki, director of the archdiocesan Office for Ministry with Young Adults (OMYA).
This festival will allow young adults to enter into Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday March 29, with the darkness and silence of the morning as they begin with the stations of the cross. After sunrise there will be a period of outdoor adoration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament with a reflection led by Heather Makowicz, a spiritual director.
Archbishop Nelson Pérez will then celebrate Mass at 8 a.m. The morning will conclude with a breakfast social for the young adults.
The theme for the event this year is drawn from Psalm 139:12, “Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.”
Father Tarnacki hopes the imagery of darkness and light “will help all the young adults who will participate to realize that as the darkness of the night and our very own darkness, our sins and weaknesses are not dark for the Lord,” he said, and that “the light of his love and grace can come into our lives with this event and with the celebration of Easter.”
The festival invites young adults to enter into the darkness and light of Holy Week. By physically waking up early and experiencing the sunrise, they will have the opportunity to enter spiritually into the passion with Jesus in the days that follow.
Father Tarnacki hopes that through this year’s festival, “spending time with Jesus, making this sacrifice of spending early morning with Him especially during the stations of the cross and eucharistic adoration will increase our love for Him!” he said.
Young adults who would like to join in this spiritually powerful and sacrificial event can use this link to sign up: https://forms.gle/pVt6NZR5Q9SjuLkB9
Check-in begins at 4:45 a.m. with the festival beginning at 5 p.m. For more information visit: SonRise Festival – The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
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