Corpus Christi Procession, 2015, Sauk Centre

I talked about Sauk Centre's Corpus Christi procession last year: and, in another post, background on why this is a special day and what that in the procession is. I put links to that one at the end of this post.


(Before Mass, at Our Lady of Angels church. The monstrance is there on the altar, between the candelabras, with its back open.)


(Folks tend to spread out a bit, particularly the young men at the head of the procession.)


(I talked about the baldachin, that traveling tent covering the Host, last year. It's been a symbol of authority in Europe and cultures with European roots for roughly a thousand years.)


(Still heading for the first stop. the trailing end of the procession is almost in sight.)


(Approaching their first stop. Two households have a table set up for a few prayers and a blessing: one on the first leg of the procession, another on the return leg.)


(Entering St. Paul's, on Sinclair Lewis Avenue.)


(- - - and we're heading back toward Our Lady of Angels.)


(As usual, the head of the procession had a good lead on the folks behind the Host.)


(A blessing at the second house. You can't see then, but we had several babies in strollers, folks older than I am, and lots in between.)

Still celebrating:

• "Corpus Christi: Gnawing on a Hard Saying"
  (June 7, 2015)
  Particularly
  • CSI, Lanciano
  • "This Saying is Hard"
  • Two Millennia and Counting
• "Death? Been There, Done That"
  (April 5, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Jesus Died - - -
  • - - - and Stopped Being Dead
  • The Last Hour — Two Millennia and Counting
• "God's Kingdom, a Wedding Parable, and the Rest of the Story"
  Guest post (October 12, 2014)
• "Corpus Christi Procession: Sauk Centre, Minnesota, 2014"
  (June 22, 2014)
• "Corpus Christi: 'Whoever Eats My Flesh,' Two Millennia Later"
  (June 22, 2014)
  Particularly
  • "The Words of Eternal Life"
  • Hypostatic Union, Transubstantiation, and All That
  • Baldachins, Halos, and Diversity in Unity

Corpus Christi: Gnawing on a Hard Saying

It's Corpus Christi Sunday: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Weather permitting, we'll have a Corpus Christi procession here in Sauk Centre. That photo is from last year's event. I won't be walking, but I plan to take photos, posting them later today.

Taking what looks like a bit of unleavened bread for a walk makes sense to Catholics who understand our faith — maybe not so much to other folks.

Corpus Christi is Latin for Body of Christ, and what happens to unleavened bread connects to why we've been celebrating ever since that first Easter. (April 20, 2014)

Adoration

(Adoration chapel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota (2013))

I spend an hour each week in that room, doing something that's generally not even close to my top-one-hundred favorite activities: 'doing nothing.'

That's how Eucharistic adoration felt when I started two years back. Staying awake hasn't been a struggle lately, although I'm not sure how midsummer afternoons will be this year. (July 14, 2013)

Folks have many ways of spending their time in the chapel: praying; meditating; reading, either the Bible or one of the many booklets of prayers and meditations kept there. Lately I've started doing prayers from "The Catholic Prayer Book."¹

So, what's the big deal with spending time in that room? It's a nice place: quiet, comfortable, with plenty of reading material. But what's important is the Eucharist in that monstrance: the cross-shaped thing on the table.

My eyes perceive the Eucharist as a disk of unleavened bread: a perception confirmed by other senses each time I receive the Eucharist at Mass. That's all anyone has seen, touched, and tasted for the last two millennia — for the most part.

Some Eucharistic miracles, like the one at Bolsena, aren't well-documented. Others, like what happened at the St. Longinus monestery in Lanciano, are.

Besides documentation, the Lanciano incident left a bit of flesh and five globs of blood.

CSI, Lanciano

(From Junior, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Monstrance in the Lanciano shrine, 1971 analysis results.)

At the time, some 1,300 years back now, The Frentani city's name was Anxanum at the time. The city had been sacked by Goths, destroyed during the Lombard invasion, rebuilt around a castle built by the new rulers, and I'm getting off-topic.

Anyway, a Basilian hieromonk (It's a real word) doubted that Jesus Christ was really present while saying the Words of Consecration.²

I'm pretty sure that's happened quite a few times before and since — but this time the unleavened bread became flesh, and the wine became blood.

The flesh and blood have long since dried out, but they're still in a church in Lanciano.

The most recent analysis of them I know of was made in 1971. Odoardo Linoli, professor of anatomy and pathological histology/chemistry and clinical microscopy, found that the flesh is human cardiac tissue.

The blood is type AB, the same blood type found on the shroud of Turin. The blood's sero-proteic percentages are consistent with fresh normal blood. Linoli found no trace of preservatives.³

I suppose someone could have been maintaining a scam for all these centuries, making forgeries using technology we don't have yet, but my guess is that a simpler explanation is true.

When Jesus said "eat my flesh," and "this is my body," our Lord meant it. (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22)

"This Saying is Hard"

Our Lord didn't mince words about what's needed:

"Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

"Whoever eats ¹⁹ my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

"For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
(John 6:53-55)

Matthew 26:26-29 says pretty much the same thing, with emphasis on the forgiveness of sins.

"Eats," in John 6:54, isn't the verb Greeks used for nice human-style eating. It's the verb for how animals eat. "Munch" or "gnaw" are somewhat equivalent words in today's English. (John 6, footnote 19, NAB)

One of the things I like about Jesus is that our Lord doesn't avoid awkward realities.

John 6:60-66 starts with many of our Lord's disciples saying "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" — and ends with many of them leaving.

I'm in Simon Peter's position: I must accept the reality of the Eucharist. There is no other viable option:

"Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?'

"Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

"We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.' "
(John 6:67-69)

As a Catholic, I'm obliged to receive the Eucharist once a year — minimum — and I'm expected to be at Mass each Sunday. Adoration of the Eucharist is a good idea, transubstantiation is what we call the bread and wine becoming flesh and blood, and there's a lot more to say about it. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1373-1381, 2177-2183)

I receive the Eucharist each Sunday, by the way. It's my compromise between the bare-bones minimum and daily Mass. Maybe someday I'll stop being a night owl and make morning Mass part of my routine, and that's another topic.

I understand and accept that our Lord really is present at each Mass, but don't understand how bread and wine become body and blood. As I said last week, I like to understand things: but God's God and I'm not. Some things I can't understand. (May 31, 2015)

Two Millennia and Counting

Accepting that our Lord really is physically present at each Mass is easier for me, now that Peter's Bark has been under under way for two millennia.

As Gamaliel said, "if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself."

Since then, the authority my Lord gave Peter has been passed along to hundreds of Popes: including recognized Saints; terrible administrators; and Benedict IX, who was kicked out twice and sold the Papacy once.

An outfit "of human origin" would have torn itself to bits by now: several times. And that's — what else? — yet another topic. (September 14, 2014; July 13, 2014; April 27, 2014)

Finally, a bit of what three recent Popes said about the Eucharist:

"...Really partaking of the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another. 'Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread'. In this way all of us are made members of His Body, 'but severally members one of another'...."
("Lumen Gentium," Pope Paul VI (November 21, 1964)

---

"...It is most fitting that my first stop among the Korean people should be in a church such as this, where the minds and hearts of the faithful are constantly raised up in adoration before Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist,

• Christ offering himself to the Father in Sacrifice for our salvation;
• Christ giving himself to us to be eaten as the Bread of Life, so that we, too, may give ourselves for the life of others;
• Christ consoling and strengthening us on our earthly pilgrimage with his abiding presence and friendship.

"In beholding the Word made flesh, now sacramentally present in the Eucharist, the eyes of our bodies are united with the eyes of faith in gazing upon the presence 'par excellence' of Emmanuel, 'God with us', until that day when the sacramental veil will be lifted in the Kingdom of heaven. ..."
("Eucharistic Adoration in the parish church of Nonhyondong," Homily of St. John Paul II (October 7, 1989))

---

"...Actually it is wrong to set celebration and adoration against each other, as if they were competing. Exactly the opposite is true: worship of the Blessed Sacrament is, as it were, the spiritual 'context' in which the community can celebrate the Eucharist well and in truth. Only if it is preceded, accompanied and followed by this inner attitude of faith and adoration can the liturgical action express its full meaning and value...."
("Solemnity of the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ," Pope Benedict XVI (June 7, 2012))

---

Background:

• Matthew 26:26-29
• John 6:53-55
• Code of Cannon Law (English)
  • The Most Holy Eucharist (Cann. 897 - 958)
  • The Reservation and Veneration of the Most Holy Eucharist (Cann. 934 - 944)
• "Solemnity of the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ"
  Pope Benedict XVI (June 7, 2012)
• "Eucharistic Adoration in the parish church of Nonhyondong"
  Homily of St. John Paul II (October 7, 1989)
• "Mysterium Fidei"
  Pope Paul VI (September 3, 1965)
• "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church - Lumen Gentium"
  Pope Paul VI, Documents of the II Vatican Council (November 21, 1964)

Why we celebrate:

• "Death? Been There, Done That"
  (April 5, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Jesus Died - - -
  • - - - and Stopped Being Dead
  • The Last Hour — Two Millennia and Counting
• "God's Kingdom, a Wedding Parable, and the Rest of the Story"
  Guest post (October 12, 2014)
• "Corpus Christi Procession: Sauk Centre, Minnesota, 2014"
  (June 22, 2014)
• "Corpus Christi: 'Whoever Eats My Flesh,' Two Millennia Later"
  (June 22, 2014)
• "Where Past, Present, and Future Come Together"
  Guest post (February 23, 2014)

---

¹ "The Catholic Prayer Book;" Msgr. Michael Buckley (Compiler), Tony Castle (Editor); Servant Books; Revised Updated edition (February 22, 2013)
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1616366100.

² The Words of Consecration in English are "This is my body, this is my blood." My language wouldn't be close to its present form for more than a thousand years when the Anxanum/Lanciano incident happened, and I've been over that before. (May 24, 2015)

³ ("The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano:Historical, Theological, Scientific and Photographic Documentation," Fr. Nicola Nasuti, OFM Conv.)

Corpus Christi Procession: Sauk Centre, Minnesota, 2014

I wrote about Corpus Christi, or the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, in this morning's post. (June 22, 2014)

The small central Minnesota town where I live lost track of doing Corpus Christi processions somewhere in the 20th century, but revived the custom in 2003. (August 2, 2009)

Walking in the procession isn't required: which is just as well, since my walk is more of a lurch. A fair number of folks hung around after this morning's Mass, though, and joined the parade: make that joined the procession. Instead of trying to keep up, I took pictures.


(Getting ready for the procession, at Our Lady of Angels church. The monstrance is there on the altar, between the candelabras, with its back open.)


(They've reached St. Paul's. That tent-like thing, or canopy, is called a baldachin, and I wrote about that this morning.)


(The procession stopped twice: once on the way out, and on the way back. This is the second stop, for a benediction and more singing.)

Folks sang and prayed as they walked: in a mix of English and Latin, as is our custom around here.

I wondered if we'd have a procession this year. We've been rained out a few times: and thunderstorms were in the forecast. One of the folks in the procession gave me an odd look while I was taking this last photo. I hadn't thought about the impression given by some older guy with a Grizzly Adams beard, shadowing the procession in a van and taking pictures: and that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Corpus Christi: "Whoever Eats My Flesh," Two Millennia Later"
  (June 22, 2014)
• "Jesus: Two Millennia of Truth and Alternatives"
  (May 4, 2014)
• "Sunday Obligation, Rules, Emotions, and Me"
  (October 9, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Church on Sunday: What's the Big Deal?
• "Corpus Christi, and Running into Walls"
  (June 26, 2011)
• "The Road to Emmaus, and Rome, and Sauk Centre, and - - -"
  (May 8, 2011)

Corpus Christi: "Whoever Eats My Flesh," Two Millennia Later

Earlier this year, someone asked me if I realized that Catholics are cannibals. I responded with something like 'yes, but it wasn't our idea.'

I'm pretty sure that the person wasn't trying to be offensive. I run into odd notions about Catholic beliefs fairly often. I suspect they're often rooted in America's endemic anti-catholicism. (January 6, 2013; February 29, 2012)

Besides: the person was quite right in this case.

Here's part of today's Gospel reading:

"Whoever eats ¹⁹ my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

"For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
(John 6:54-55)

After two millennia, that part of the Gospel may not seem as shocking as it did when my Lord told folks in Capernaum's synagogue. Not, at least, until we start thinking about it.

"Take and Eat"

Some of the more fastidious versions of Christianity sidestep my Lord's indelicate comments, like the ones in John 6:55 and Matthew 26:26-28.

Folks who heard Jesus that day in Capernaum's synagogue understood what my Lord meant. Quite a few went back to their old way of life after their leader said 'eat me.' (John 6:60-66)

I can see why, since the what Jesus said was more like "...whoever gnaws my flesh...."

Translations from one language to another can be tricky, since words with nearly the same 'dictionary' meaning can be associated with very different feelings. More about this bit from John:

"Eats: the verb used in these verses is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: 'munch,' 'gnaw.' This may be part of John's emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf ⇒ John 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning 'eat.' "
(footnote 19)

"The Words of Eternal Life"

Jesus said, 'I am God,' and made the claim stick. (John 8:58; John 14:9-11; Luke 24) Since I believe that, it's like Peter said: my options are limited.

"Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?'

"Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

"We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.' "
(John 6:67-69)

I didn't become a Catholic just because I read those verses, and that's another topic.

Discussing who Jesus is and why this is a big day for Catholics doesn't demand words like hypostatic union and transubstantiation, but I'm a recovering English teacher and an adult convert to Catholicism. Feel free to skip to the next heading (Baldachins, Halos, and Diversity in Unity): or check out World Cup trivia.

Hypostatic Union, Transubstantiation, and All That

Since I'm a Catholic, I acknowledge that Jesus is human and divine. The Son of God is one person: "eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father...," as it says in the Nicene Creed.

I don't understand how that works, not in detail. But we've got a word for it: hypostatic union.

"HYPOSTATIC UNION: The union of the divine and human natures in the one divine Person (Greek: hypostasis) of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (252, 468).

"The Chalcedonian Definition agreed with Theodore that there were two natures in the Incarnation. However, the Council of Chalcedon also insisted that hypostasis be used as it was in the Trinitarian definition: to indicate the person and not the nature as with Apollinarius."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary)

Some folks who accept the idea that Jesus is divine have had trouble believing that Jesus is really human. Occasionally someone decides that my Lord couldn't, or shouldn't, have been both human and divine. Their names for the workarounds vary, but these alternatives to reality fall into one of three groups: or four, depending on how you split them up. (May 4, 2014)

What we're celebrating today involves transubstantiation. It's why that person asked me if I knew that Catholics are cannibals.

"TRANSUBSTANTIATION: The scholastic term used to designate the unique change of the Eucharistic bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. 'Transubstantiation' indicates that through the consecration of the bread and the wine there occurs the change of the entire substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ, and of the entire substance of the wine into the Blood of Christ—even though the appearances or 'species' of bread and wine remain (1376)."
(Catechism, Glossary)

"Substance," and "appearances" or "species," in this case are philosophical terms. What they mean is that the unleavened bread doesn't look or taste any different; and the wine is still wine, as far as my physical senses can tell. But under, or behind, or beyond, what my senses tell me: my Lord is there: actually present; not a symbol; really, unequivocally, there.

Eucharistic miracles happen, when we're able to perceive the change with our senses: but these events are very few and far between. The highest-profile one I can remember offhand is the Miracle of Lanciano, about 1,300 years back.

What happened in Lanciano, Italy, isn't the sort of 'I saw the face of [whoever] in a jar of peanut butter' thing. The Church methodically checks out claims of miraculous happenings, and that's yet another topic. (December 8, 2010)

Baldachins, Halos, and Diversity in Unity

Where was I? Who Jesus is, The Body and Blood of Christ, and why today is special. Right.

Weather permitting,we'll do a Corpus Christi procession from Our Lady of Angels to St. Paul's. I'm hoping that we can have the procession: maybe between thunderstorms. This will be the last one we'll have with Father Statz. He revived the tradition here, this is his last month in Sauk Centre, and that's yet again another topic.

Although Corpus Christi is a city on the Texas Coast, that's not what we're celebrating today. "Corpus Christi" is Latin for Body of Christ. In a sense, every Mass is a celebration of Corpus Christi, but we set aside one each year as a special event. (Catechism, 1322-1405)

The current (2003) English translation of the Roman Missal calls today "the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ." That'll probably upset some folks, and that's — what else? — another topic.

Pope Francis celebrated Corpus Christi Thursday, Rome time. He celebrated Mass in front of the main entrance to the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome.

Folks in Rome did the traditional Corpus Christi procession to the Basilica of St Mary Major, but the Pope wasn't with them.

I think he had good reasons:

"While thousands of people lined the streets holding candles and praying as the Holy Eucharist was carried by the Vicar General for the diocese of Rome and the procession was led by the bishops of Rome, Pope Francis made his way in a closed-in car to Mary Major for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and his solemn blessing.

"Pope Francis decided not to take part in the procession on foot between the two basilicas partly due to his upcoming commitments over the next few days but more importantly he preferred to avoid the attention he would receive in an open car which he thought could distract the faithful's attention from the Blessed Sacrament, exposed and taken in procession."
("Pope Celebrates Corpus Christi," Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese (June 20, 2014))

Keeping the focus on the Blessed Sacrament, my Lord under the appearance of unleavened bread, is why folks from Poland to Minnesota and beyond have the Consecrated Host under a sort of traveling tent. It's called a baldachin, and has been a symbol of authority in Europe and cultures with European roots for a thousand years, more or less.


(From Silar, Magdalena Bryll Cefeida, Joyce Chan, Eigenes Werk, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission.)

A thousand years from now, we may have another widely-recognized symbol of authority: but we'll still have the same reason for using it.

A sort of bonus to being Catholic is that we're accumulating a growing collection of symbolic expressions of faith. For example, the pelican became a symbol for the Eucharist about eight centuries back; ichthys (fish) and two letters of the Greek alphabet go much further back, and of course there's the Cross.

Most if not all Christian symbols have been used by folks who weren't Christians: like the halo, which has roots in ancient Greece and Egypt, and probably Buddhist iconography.

Then there are Christmas trees, which showed up in 15th or 16th century Germany.

Many Nigerian Christians have celebrated Christmas with Jollof rice/Benachin and Tuwon Shinkafa.

The point is that for two millennia and counting, we've been practicing diversity in unity. And that's still more topics. (December 9, 2012; April 18, 2012)

Related posts:

• Yesterday, today - - -
  
  • "Jesus: Two Millennia of Truth and Alternatives"
    (May 4, 2014)
  • "Believing Impossible Things: Not Required"
    (March 30, 2014)
  • "Jesus, God, and What St. Augustine Said"
    (December 26, 2012)
  • "The Man Who Wouldn't Stay Dead"
    (March 11, 2012)
  • "Miracles, Mass, Bread and Wine"
    (June 7, 2010)
• - - - and forever
  
  • "Looking Forward to Heaven"
    (August 25, 2013)
  • "Fasting, Penance: and Infinite Depths of Joy"
    (June 3, 2012)
  • "Marching Through Time"
    (April 1, 2012)
  • "An Eternal Life I can Live With"
    (August 27, 2011)
  • "Last Judgment: Attendance Mandatory"
    (May 21, 2011)

Corpus Christi, and Running into Walls

Corpus Christi - It's the name of a city in Texas.

It's also a sort of nickname for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, (the Body and Blood of Christ). (Canon 1246) What we celebrated today is often called the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It's done in English partly, I suspect, because quite a few Americans don't know all that much Latin.

Using English to describe today's solemnity takes longer than saying it in Latin - but it's in the language most Americans understand, and I think it's a good idea to make sure that folks know just what it is they're celebrating.

The Savior of Humanity Shows up in Person: So What?

What's the big deal about Mass?

Me? I go because Jesus is there. My Lord. Second Person in the Trinity. Son of the Living God. Through Whom all things were made.¹ Physically present in a parish church, here in central Minnesota.

Offhand, I'd say that's a pretty big deal.

Not that Jesus recorded any records that went platinum, or won an Olympic medal. The Man whose name means "God saves"² has never been interviewed by David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres, or Oprah. Even so, I think it makes sense to worship the Son of God who died, horribly: and didn't stay dead.


The Eucharist in a monstrance: adoration after Mass at Our Lady of the Angels, Sauk Centre. June 26, 2011.

The Eucharist: Something to Gnaw On

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has quite a bit to say about the Eucharist.³ Jesus, my Lord, really is there - it is his Body and Blood. (Catechism, 1333; John 6:51-58)

And, yes: we really gnaw on the flesh of my Lord. (footnote 19 of John:6) Gnaw. Munch. Like an animal chewing. Really. No kidding.

Like they said, "...'This saying is hard; who can accept it?' " (John 6:60)

"This Saying is Hard"

About two thousand years later, even a gung ho Catholic like me thinks "this saying is hard." But if I didn't think chewing on the flesh of my Savior was important, I wouldn't be there.

I converted to Catholicism because I thought it made sense. I wouldn't be at Mass if I didn't believe that what I receive really is the Body of my Lord. Like they say, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.⁴

Do I taste meat when I chew? No. I don't expect to.⁴

But I don't need to see bread turn into muscle, or wine into blood, to believe that Jesus is present. Some folks do - and get a demonstration. And that's another topic.⁵

I don't have to run into walls to believe that they're really there. Which is a metaphor that can't be taken very literally.

And that's yet another topic.

Related posts:

• "The Road to Emmaus, and Rome, and Sauk Centre, and - - -"
  (May 8, 2011)
• "Celebrating Mass, Flossing My Teeth"
  (October 20, 2010)
• "Really 'Spiritual' Experiences: Those are Okay"
  (April 22, 2010)
• "Maundy Thursday, Holy Thursday: Yeah, It's a Pretty Big Deal"
  (April 1, 2010)
• "Catholics Invented Transubstantiation Like Newton Invented Gravity"
  (September 21, 2009)

In the news:

• "After 93 years, Corpus Christi procession to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia"
  CNA (Catholic News Agency) (June 23, 2011)

---

¹ See "Declaration 'Dominus Iesus' on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church," Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

² Catechism, 430

³ I think Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1406-1419 might be a good place to start - followed by 1326-1405.

⁴ Catechism, 1374

⁵ See "Message to Archbishop Enzio d'Antonio of Lanciano-Ortona," John Paul II, From Castel Gandolfo (August 6, 1999)

Corpus Christi Procession, Sauk Centre, Minnesota, June 14, 2009

Processions of one sort or another are a big part of Catholic ritual. Somehow, Catholics in Sauk Centre had gotten out of the habit. I moved to this town in early 1986, and for seventeen years there wasn't a procession outside the church walls.

Until about six years ago, in June of 2003.

On June 14, 2003 we carried the missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from Our Lady of the Angels Church to St. Paul's, near downtown. (More about that procession at "Procession of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.")

We had a Corpus Christie ("Body of Christ") procession on Sunday, June 18, 2006. I spent quite a bit of 2007 getting parts of me either fixed or swapped out, so I don't remember if there was a procession that year or not. I didn't record one again until Sunday, June 14, 2009. Which is where this post picks up.

After a brief mention of the event in my Sauk Centre Journal, I wrote: "I'll be writing about that later, in one of my blogs." That was about a month and a half ago.

Since then, I've found a pretty good discussion of what Corpus Christi is about: a homily given by Pope Benedict XVI on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, or Corpus Christi Sunday, June 15, 2006. A Vatican translation of "A Synthesis of Creation" is on the ZENIT website.

I took photos of the June 14, 2009, procession, here in Sauk Centre.


June 14, 2009, was a beautiful day. The procession started at Our Lady of the Angels church.


Here we go. That's the deacon, nearest the stop sign.


The Crucifix leads the way. That's a double door they're coming out of: it's plenty wide most of the time, but today it's creating something of a bottleneck.


The monstrance is outside now, under a canopy. The four men holding the fabric had quite a job, walking and keeping it steady.


Crucifix, attendants, monstrance containing the host. We're ready to go.


As I said: It's harder to keep that canopy straight that you might think.

That's it for tonight. I hope to add the rest in the next few days.

Background:

• "A Synthesis of Creation"
  Vatican translation of a papal homily delivered June 16, 2006
  ZENIT (July 4, 2006)