Your Corpus Christi sermon, procession notes

What happened where you are for Corpus Christi, or Corpus Domini as it is called in some places, the Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord?

Was there a procession?

Was there a good point made in the sermon?

Let us know.

For my part, I will be in a procession in the streets of Rome today.

 

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49 Comments

  1. Philomena Mary says:

    Low Mass, EF. No procession as this was done at the Solemn Mass earlier today. Paraphrasing the main points: Father spoke about the Real Presence, encouraged us to come to adoration, spoke about the proper disposition to receive Communion, spoke about penance and the need for confession, then mentioned a little about the most recent encyclical and said we needed to rise above the confusion and live as faithful Catholics according to the Church’s sacred traditions.

  2. L. says:

    No procession. We had a visiting missionary Priest from Pennsylvania talking about his Order’s work in Taiwan and Brazil. Very little discussion of the feast day, although at the end the Priest blessed us with the Monstrance. I thought he’d leave it on the altar for some adoration after Mass, but no. As usual, I was distracted throughout by the babbling brook noise from the holy-water water feature built into the corner of the platform behind the altar. It runs during Mass to make us mindful of…, well, a leaking toilet is all that it reminds me of.

  3. SanSan says:

    Beautiful procession through the streets of San Francisco! Jesus and his Mother were held up in honor. Fr. Illo, at Star of the Sea, gave a wonderful sermon about the importance of showing Christ to others. p.s. we also had the cutest little “angels” heading up our procession at the Corpus Christi Vigil Mass.

    Today, Corpus Christi (Sunday), another great priest, Fr. Previtali will lead a procession through the streets of Half Moon Bay.

  4. Adaquano says:

    No procession at my 8am Mass. Father challenged us to have the humility to acknowledge when we receive Communion we are staring at the King of the Universe and that he desires to reside in us. He also spoke about Fr. Walter Cizek

  5. ChadS says:

    Ordinary form mass at 8:00 am. There will be a procession at our church after the 11:30 am Mass. Each year the Knights of Columbus carry the canopy during the procession.

    Father noted that it was Corpus Christi and didn’t attempt to call it anything else. During his homily he reminded us that we are to be in a state of grace to receive communion, or as he said “approach the altar to receive.” He said it was better to stay in the pew and not receive if we were aware of any mortal sins than to approach. If we did receive while aware of a mortal sin than we were committing a sacrilege. Father also told us to get to get to confession if we were not in a state of grace and pointed out the times available at our parish and an upcoming prayer service we are having where confession will be available.

  6. Sandy says:

    How I was longing to hear the kind of sermon some of you heard. The priest “in residence” while he is temporarily at my alma mater nearby, a “formerly” Catholic university, was our celebrant. There was one comment about the “Eucharistic overtones” of the miracle of the fishes and loaves, but the rest of the sermon was about hospitality! I just offer it all up, Mass after Mass, for the salvation of my family and others. What is so sad is that I know what we have lost; I was raised in that Church. We must carry on; God wastes none of our suffering.

  7. Suburbanbanshee says:

    No procession here, but I found out they have a nice one up in Russia, Ohio. (Pronounced “Rooshie,” in case you ever go up there.) Chalk drawings on the street, procession all around downtown. (Okay, it is a small downtown, but still.)

    Emmanuel Parish in Dayton is still doing theirs, too.

  8. Matt Robare says:

    No procession, but the priest really emphasized the Real Presence in his homily.

  9. visigrad says:

    Bad weather…no procession….but a wonderful homily on Holy Communion the reverence needed (no clapping), as well as our need to be in the state of Grace ……. go to confession !!!

  10. jmhem5 says:

    Well attended Procession after 9am mass at my conservative N.O. parish. Abundant sunshine after storms last night. Many grass-stained knees along our route.

  11. Manducat in the hat says:

    St. Joh Berchmans Cathedral in Shreveport, Louisiana. Bishop Michael Duca celebrated. The Eucharist is the only thing that will save us. Procession immediately followed, with at least 3/4 of the in the congregation participating. Beautiful southern weather.

  12. Nan says:

    At a friend’s parish, which I find to be a penitential experience. Father is very theatrical. While he spoke of the body and blood of Christ, he pointed out that our beliefs differ from many Protestants who remember Christ but don’t have apostolic succession and don’t believe in the Real Presence.

    Thr archdiocesan Corpus Christi procession is beginning but I’m not up to walking after standing for three hours of Mass yesterday so I didn’t go.

    This is the liturgical anniversary of a friend’s call to the priesthood. The feast was on my birthday that year and he was in Poland with his mother, who wanted to visit her ancestral home. While there he learned of the order of the Most Holy Trinity, created to ransom Christian captives in Muslim territory, but thought the order had died out. When he arrived home, he found a solicitation for donations and contacted them about Vocations.

  13. Stephen D says:

    No procession. No mention of the Real Presence or Eucharistic miracles, just an exhortation to ‘share’ by taking part in soup runs and the like. The priest, at least, did not ‘explain’ that the true miracle was that people shared the food that they had brought anyway but he didn’t say that the event was a true miracle either. Disappointing.

  14. Chiara says:

    We went to the 12:00 PM bilingual Mass. My beautiful, 7 year-old Mexican Goddaughter and 8 other children of our Hispanic community received Jesus for the first time today. Her real Godparents are in Mexico, and her father is dead. After being exposed to lead poisoning in the water in Mexico, her mother’s sister is raising her in America.

    My husband and I sat with her (Godparents are a big deal in the Spanish community – we are honored). She told me she was nervous but that she loves Jesus and could not wait to be with him.

    Our pastor decreed that the girls had to have their arms and shoulders covered, and not to wear ostentatious veils. My little Flor was the only one who obeyed. She had a beautiful, simple white calf-length dress, a white cardigan, and a coronilla with streamers. She was modest and beautiful for Jesus.

    It was an unforgettable, joyful Corpus Christi Sunday. We processed with the children and the other Godparents and our pastor.

  15. Wiktor says:

    The procession was on Thursday. Today was 2nd Sunday after Pentecost.

  16. Uxixu says:

    Ordinary Form: excellently filled in the part culled from the OF reading of 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 on the suitability to reception and the unworthy being guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

  17. brandonkropp says:

    No procession. No adoration. No benediction. Homily was to challenge us to evaluate our personal relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. Bright spot (because I do look for them): In recognition of the Month of May, there was a prelude Latin Ave Maria.

  18. Packrraat says:

    Wonderful homily. As always. Much about the Real Presence. History behind the feast day. Other Eucharistic miracles. About Fulton Sheen telling him, as a deacon, I believe, that he should make a Holy Hour EVERY SINGLE DAY if possible; it would make all the difference in the world. Challenging us in the pews to commit ourselves to an hour a week (if we haven’t already) of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. More hours if we are able to. Encouraging us to make a visit whenever we are in town to run errands. We are blessed to have a perpetual adoration chapel.

    The procession is supposed to be in an hour (6PM), weather permitting. Processing down Main Street to the Gazebo, with Benediction at the Gazebo. Then back to the church for another Benediction (WOW a double dose of blessings) and an ice cream social downstairs. Right now it looks pretty iffy. Actually, after another look at the weather, it looks like almost all the rain will skirt around us. There will be great rejoicing here!!!

  19. smithUK says:

    Gosport, United Kingdom: A truly wonderful procession flowing out from St Mary’s, a Church recently entrusted to the FFI by Bishop Egan of Portsmouth Diocese. We are truly Blessed to have such Friars and Sisters in our parish.

    The sermon was superb – one highlight being a particularly passionate reminder to those who choose to receive on the hand, to take care not to unintentionally lose the slightest fragment of our Blessed Lord.

    By the way, the FFI’s arrival in St Mary’s can be traced back directly to Pope Benedict XVI and so I thank God for his wonderful pastoral legacy.

  20. Spade says:

    I am at the beach with my wife on a mini vacation before our first baby arrives.

    In the future I am asking my priest for a dispensation from attending Mass in resort towns.

    The homily was actually good, about how we need to prepare more and be more aware of the awesomeness and depth and mystery of the Eucharist (except like nobody bothered to bow or genuflect ever).

    However, we also had some random boomer lady reading a poem between the Epistle and the Gospel that was longer than all the readings and pslam combined. And some boomer lady who really wanted to be Ani DiFranco on guitar and singing. And selling her CDs in the back of the church after mass (last time here a few years ago the priest actually announced they were for sale back there). And while the offerings were being collected we got a lecture about how we needed to respect “unity of posture” and how we all needed to stand during the consecration and communion until the priest sat down.

    Yeah, if you’re going to add a badly written random poem to the literal Word of God and ignore the GIRM then you can shove your unity of posture. I’m kneeling.

    There was no procession.

  21. benedetta says:

    Please pardon my inclusion of a Byzantine Rite experience today — I know that today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, and I do appreciate the communion between Rites and this holy feast. I just want to note that I experienced, after today’s Divine Liturgy on the Gospel of the calling of the apostles, a unique and very moving prayer service for those deceased from the parish who gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and to protect the lives and liberty of others. After a beautiful prayer service, taps was played and portraits of the deceased from the different armed forces displayed with the flag. I thought it very reverent and fitting and I hope those who are now part of the communion of saints will intercede for us in a troubled time in our nation’s history.

  22. Rob83 says:

    EF Mass of the day was for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost with green vestments. The sermon was mostly Corpus Christi themed.

  23. majuscule says:

    I attended two processions!

    One was after the OF Mass I regularly attend on Sunday. It’s a small mission church in a rural area. Nothing fancy but very heartfelt. We went three times around the gravel parking lot with plenty of incense. Father is not big on Latin but he wants O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo sung in Latin, not English.

    The other procession was at the main parish church after a Spanish language Mass. I got there just as Mass was over. Hymns were in Spanish and Latin. We processed around the side of the church to where Legion of Mary had set up an altar near the outdoor Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine and on around and back into the church. A group of little girls in white dropped white rose petals at the front of the procession. The church is on a side street but it’s a weekend with lots of traffic so it was visible.

  24. Tricia says:

    Wonderful homily on what a gift the Lord gave us. Father used Eucharistic Prayer I as well.

  25. Mike says:

    CC from 62 missal; gorgeous liturgy with whole sequence. Homily emphasized St. Paul’s admonition about being in state of grace for Communion. A wonderful parish!

  26. jameeka says:

    As far as I know, there were at least two processions in the Portlandia vicinity this weekend, and no participant was injured by an offended spectator!

  27. iPadre says:

    We were blest to have Bishop Tobin come to Holy Ghost. He celebrated our 10:30 am Mass, preached a great homily, led the procession and gave Benediction with the Holy Sacrament.

  28. andia says:

    No Procession. Fr Bryan spoke of hunger both spiritual and physical and said Jesus told the Disciples to feed the multitudes themselves — and since we are the successors to the disciples we have to feed the hungry in our midst.

  29. PhilipNeri says:

    Wherein I connect Southern cooking, Eucharistic adoration, and the need for vocations to the priesthood!

    http://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2016/05/i-like-to-eat.html

    Fr. Philip Neri, OP

  30. benedetta says:

    N.B., though not on Corpus Christi, I believe still infinitely related, on the calling of the twelve apostles: when our children need help there is nothing that we would not do to help them.

  31. baymedlevel says:

    I was not at my home parish. My godson took first communion today.
    First communion Mass at St X church; a SOLT priest.
    Today I heard from the pulpit:
    “he who takes the body and blood of our lord Jesus Christ unworthily condemns himself!
    You can not take holy communion in a state of mortal sin, because if you do, you commit a mortal sin, the sin of sacrilege!”
    I did not expect to hear this in OF parish. He couldn’t find an amice to wear to hide his collar but he was very orthodox. Including singing the o salutaris Ostia and Tantum ergo by heart when they had a Eucharistic procession. Benediction done entirely in Latin. I was impressed with the sermon alone.

  32. frjim4321 says:

    Mainly on I Cor 11; the context in which Paul presents the institution narrative.

    The temptation of the early Christian Community of Corinth against (1) the dignity of the human person, (2) justice, (3) compassion.

    How succumbing to these temptations can lead to our joining in the procession as a judgement against ourselves.

  33. Supertradmum says:

    Solemn High Mass on Thursday, extra outside altar and “flower” walk to it for the procession…short Benediction outside.

    Homily was great on how we have this great sacrament of the Real Presence and we are not to take it for granted but be grateful for such a gift.

  34. Supertradmum says:

    Solemn High Mass on Thursday, extra outside altar and “flower” walk to it for the procession…short Benediction outside.

    Homily was great on how we have this great sacrament of the Real Presence and we are not to take Christ in the Host for granted but be grateful for such a gift.

  35. Elizium23 says:

    A lovely procession in my parish. Our pastor had planned to be out of town but cancelled his trip for other reasons. Two other priests of the parish also participated. There were four altars: the first in the parking lot, the second and third at homes in the neighborhood, and the fourth inside the church.

    The attendance was smaller than in years past, but the weather was more agreeable. By this I mean that it was below 90 degrees. It has been a good spring here in the desert. There were no deacons as one was out of town, and the other is recovering from a broken foot.

    We had First Communicants in white and many altar boys who assisted with the canopy, the thurible, the candles, the book, and the humeral veil.

    I attended in a dual role as Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and choir member. I wore my tuxedo and social baldric, and I jammed on my fisherman’s cap to shield from the sun. We sang “O Salutaris Hostia” “Tantum Ergo” “I Am the Bread of Life” “Altisimo Señor” “Pan de Vida” (2 versions) and others. We prayed the rosary when not singing.

    At each altar a Gospel passage was read, a short homily was given, intentions were prayed, and the priest conferred Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament.

    This is a great commingling of the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking communities. We had safety guards in day-glo vests directing traffic where necessary. We had the sound system carried ahead of us by a pickup truck and wireless microphones. Ushers were toting coolers full of water bottles and offering them to the faithful.

    It is all a delicate choreography to pull this off, and it makes our leaders rather nervous, but it always comes together beautifully and the faithful, as well as our friends and neighbors, are spiritually enriched by this public profession of faith.

  36. TheDude05 says:

    There was a procession Saturday after that Mass. It was the Deacon’s turn to deliver the homily and he made a salient point. He said too many here want to receive and leave, but there is nothing more important out there than what we are doing in here, which is worshipping God through the Holy Mass. He also made the point of how soon we forget that we just spent time with the Lord, and even have taken Him within us, to change us. We head out the door and start yelling at other cars and begin our worldly concerns again.

  37. Sword40 says:

    Our FSSP parish, Tacoma Washington, held our Corpus Christi Mass ,EF, and procession on the traditional day, Thursday. Then today we did the external Mass of Corpus Christi, EF then walked down the hill to Holy Rosary, Tacoma. When the OF Mass was finished our altar boys and priest assisted the OF priest in Benediction. After the Divine Praises, we processed back up the hill with the OF parish to our St. Joseph parish, where our priest repeated the Benediction and again we processed back to Holy Rosary where the OF priest finished the celebration. Then both parishes OF and EF sang together, Holy God We Praise Thy Name. WOW what a way to finish. The EF folks then trudged back up the hill to our church.

    It was impressive to see both OF and EF parishioners together worshipping our Lord. Yes, there are differences in opinions but we all got along. Praise God.

  38. JimP says:

    Our associate pastor pointed out that Holy Communion is the most important channel by which we receive graces, but also spoke at length about the importance of Eucharistic Adoration, and of spending time with our Lord. He also spoke of the forces behind the culture’s attacks on morality, and the government’s support of the pansexual movement. There was no procession at the 10:30AM Mass, but I expect that the procession following the 2:00PM Mass was well attended.

  39. stjoe says:

    Brick by brick…I am 52 years old and lifelong parishioner of my parish. We are currently between permanent pastors. A retired priest is our temporary pastoral administrator.

    Today, we had a procession outside for Corpus Christi following our OF Mass. First procession for Corpus Christi in those 52 years, maybe longer!

    What a difference one good priest can make….

  40. jflare says:

    Um, I must plead guilty to having failed to pay close heed to the homily. I think our pastor mentioned that many miracles of the Eucharistic species have been documented, but I don’t remember if he gave specific examples or not.
    I paid rather more attention to the procession this afternoon. I could wish the archdiocese would encourage more participation from other parishes too; we rarely seem to have many people from the west side of town. As usual, we seemed to have a disproportionately large number of Hispanics today, which indicates more involvement from parishes in that part of town than others. I would like to see more non-Hispanic Caucasians, but that doesn’t seem to happen much. As I’m still noticing that my face feels slightly warm–it’s now about 12:30 AM–I suspect that I have a very slight burn, so I should have worn a hat. Well, regardless, we had a beautiful day and wonderful procession. …Now if I could persuade my cousins in town–or the next city over–to come….

  41. trespinos says:

    Indeed we had a procession followed by Benediction in our second Sunday in our new home, a century-old church owned by an OF parish of which we have become part. Father’s sermon emphasized the Blessed Sacrament as the still point in the ever turning world. He mentioned the recovery of the altar rail and the meaning of the sanctuary as key elements in the recovery of the Catholic understanding of Christ in the Mass as sacrifice as well as sacrament. It’s very gratifying to see the church nearly filled.

  42. monnica says:

    No procession but the homily was as good as a procession!
    It was the first homily of a transitional deacon. He opened with a dream of Don Bosco in which the Pope needed to steer the ship of the Church between the two pillars of the Eucharist and Our Lady to safety. He spoke of the origin of the feast of Corpus Christi. Of Eucharistic miracles. He quoted Thomas Aquinas: Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true. He touched on the importance of being in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion; to receive the Sacrament aware of mortal sin is a sacrilege. He finished with an exhortation to Marian devotion, to pray the rosary daily.
    There is rarely clapping at our parish but there was applause after this homily. And this man, God willing, will soon be a priest in our diocese!
    His homily was significantly longer than usual at our church and right after the elevation of the Chalice, just before the organ began the music for the memorial acclamation, the bells that usually ring after Mass started ringing. It was amazing to hear the Eucharistic prayer of the Roman canon to the chiming of triumphal hymns. And then as soon as the bells stopped, a car alarm went off outside, like an infernal protest. It was all very moving. A signal grace. Followed by a reminder that we are at war.

  43. a catechist says:

    Ordinary Form: A young priest just a couple of weeks away from his 1st anniversary of ordination gave a good homily on the True Presence AND the importance of answering God’s call if he’s calling you to be a priest, cloistered nun, or active sister. Anyone can feed physical hunger, but for our spiritual hunger, we need priests! He prayed the Roman Canon and everything was by the book.

  44. Tony Phillips says:

    Margate, evening EF sung Mass. Fr F’s sermon touched on the belief in the Real Presence among the early church fathers like Irenaeus. We processed inside the church a couple times. After Benediction I processed down to the London Tavern.

  45. At the E.F. Fr. T gave a good homily for Corpus Christi.

    Later that day the O.F. parish had an epic Corpus Christi procession through the town, with one of the stations on the court house steps!
    A devout lay parishioner worked to organize this procession, somehow getting the cooperation of the town. We walked streets rather than sidewalks.
    This is the same court house where fights over the nativity scene and terrible arguments resulted in a ghoulish crucified skeleton ‘santa’ being displayed as an atheist protest for religious tyranny and freedom of expression.
    Being my baptismal parish, I don’t remember anything like this. I think this was only the second public procession? The crowd was much bigger than I expected. I fought the urge of tears – I needed to read my music!
    Accompanying our Eucharistic Jesus and Father M. in his cope were lots of acolytes, candles, 2 priests, a seminarian, incense, canopy carried by the Knights of Columbus, First Communicants and children. The devout music director led us in Latin and English hymns [O Salutaris, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, O Sacrament Most Holy, Holy God], and also the large Hispanic community participated with a guitar as we sang Senor, Tu Eres El Pan. A Gospel was read in English and Spanish, followed with prayer and benediction at each station. A bit of the rosary was prayed along the way. At the last station at the steps of the church, rose petals had been tossed before the the altar.
    Police and their flashing cars blocked intersections and streets as we moved along.
    Nobody that we passed by gave any indication of reverence or understanding.
    At Payne’s Biker Bar, I saw a rough looking guy leaning up against the doorway silently watching the benediction on the court house steps. Wish I’d gotten a shot of THAT.

  46. MaryofSharon says:

    I wasn’t able to attend this procession, but I wish I could have. Here’s an excerpt from the bulletin: There “will be a procession from our church to [the] Ukrainian Catholic church a half-mile south of us…. This is a great opportunity. To have a procession like this, a parish needs the permission of the bishop, which we have received. The pastor of [the Ukranian church]…has furthermore taken the extra step of cancelling the normal Sunday Divine Liturgy at their parish (with permission of his bishop) in order for them to come celebrate Mass with us at 11. We will all then process together ending at [the Ukranian Catholic church] for Benediction.”

  47. ajf1984 says:

    The family and I were away this weekend and attended Mass at St. Wenceslaus Church in Iowa City, IA. Solid homily, in which Father touched on the importance of being properly disposed to receive the Holy Eucharist, as well as how central the Eucharist is to our lives. A nice touch–they had little foam board displays (8 1/2″ by 11″ size) along the walls of the nave of the Church with information of the various Eucharistic miracles that have occurred around the world. Mass ended and the Procession began–my 7 year-old was most intrigued and came along with me while the younger children and their mother watched the Procession go by. A great Corpus Christi, arranged for us by Providence I think, as we were planning to attend a later Mass at a different parish and discovered this one by accident!

  48. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    Procession after 11 AM Mass, at least 100 people walked around our very hilly block. Solid homily, including: “The Eucharist is, is…well, even to talk about it seems to trivialize it, but we have to proclaim it because of what a great gift it is!”

  49. MikeS says:

    I was traveling in Pennsylvania, at a parish I’d never been to. No procession, but a very good homily on the Eucharist and Memorial Day. The priest said people often ask him how going to mass makes them better Catholics. He said he tells them, “Going to mass and receiving the Eucharist doesn’t make you a better Catholic. It makes you a Catholic.” He then spoke about Memorial Day, and honoring the fallen by putting flags on their graves. He circled back to the Eucharist by saying that the flags are a symbol of our country, but the Eucharist is not a symbol. It really is Jesus’ body and blood.

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