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Feast of Corpus Christi: Many parishes plan processions
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May 30, 2024While all are still cherishing the moments lived with the perpetual pilgrims traveling on the Juan Diego Route to Indianapolis, this Sunday marks the Feast of Corpus Christi. However, this year, there will be no central event at Corpus Christi Cathedral: “This year, our traditional Diocesan Eucharistic procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi will be deferred due to its proximity to the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. We will embrace the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage as our Eucharistic moment for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, which is so important to us by name, and we will unite with the entire Church in preparing for the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July,” said Bishop Michael Mulvey to STC.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was a unique opportunity for spiritual renewal and solidarity. Many moments of encounter with the pilgrims, adoration and festive processions in Kingsville, Robstown, and Corpus Christi were solemn celebrations of Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist.
The seven college students and graduates, accompanied by Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, fostered an Emmaus-like experience in which people could deepen their faith by walking and praying alongside each other.
However, the absence of a diocesan-wide procession doesn’t mean that the Feast of Corpus Christi will not be solemnly celebrated: Many parishes are planning processions around their churches.
The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast in the Christian calendar resulted from approximately forty years of work on the part of Juliana of Liège, a 13th-century Belgian nun. Orphaned at the age of five, she and her sister Agnes were entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns at the convent and leprosarium of Mont-Cornillon, where Juliana developed a special veneration for the Blessed Sacrament.
After entering the convent at 16, she began experiencing a series of visions during Eucharistic adoration around 1208.
Juliana pondered Jesus’ revelations in her heart for approximately twenty years before they were brought to the local bishop. Eventually, the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated for the first time in Liège in 1246.
At the same time, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, proposed to Pope Urban IV to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist, emphasizing the joy of the Eucharist as the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Pope Urban VI proclaimed Corpus Christi a Solemnity of the Universal Church in 1264; however, it wasn’t celebrated as such until 1307.
