Corpus Christi procession through the town offered public witness of eucharistic devotion
As temperatures rose under the midday sun on June 22, so did prayers from the faithful of St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville as they processed with the Eucharist down the town’s main street.
Despite the mid-90s heat, a couple hundred parishioners took part in a Corpus Christi procession traveling about a half-mile through the town in St. Charles County. Father Josh Deters carried the Eucharist in a monstrance under a canopy held by Knights of Columbus, accompanied by several servers carrying processional torches, members of the American Heritage Girls and Cub Scouts, and four recent confirmandi, who scattered red rose petals.
The crowd, which included several children in their first Communion attire, prayed the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary as they walked past the restaurants and businesses with patrons looking on. The procession stopped at a makeshift altar set up in front of a parishioner’s business to recite the Novena to the Sacred Heart before returning to the church for Benediction — and ice cream treats.
The feast of Corpus Christi, or the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is an opportunity every year to remember the immense gift the Eucharist is, especially if it has become too routine for us, Father Josh Deters said in his homily at Mass before the procession.
“I just want to encourage you to want love from Jesus,” he said. “Jesus has offered Himself in the Eucharist for us, and all that is left is for us to want to receive that love.”
Jesus instituted the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, giving us the greatest gift a friend can give: the gift of His enduring presence with us, he said.
“What was initiated in the secrecy and quiet of the upper room, we now proclaim, we now march with through the streets of our town,” Father Deters said. “We do so with so much confidence, knowing that nothing — not death, not a person, not any weakness we have — nothing can separate us from the love Jesus has for us and the desire He has to be in our presence.”
St. Joseph Parish held a similar Corpus Christi procession through town in 2023 as part of the parish’s 150th anniversary celebration. Parish leaders wanted to reinstitute the practice as an annual tradition in response to the National Eucharistic Revival, the three-year effort by the U.S. bishops to increase devotion to the Eucharist that concluded on June 22, said Hector Molina, St. Joseph’s director of evangelization.
“In organizing this procession, we wanted to manifest and demonstrate our faith in our devotion to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. So what better way than organizing a public procession demonstrating that faith and giving witness to the community at large?” he said.
Our faith is personal but should not be private, Molina said. The Eucharistic Revival showed us how to bring the eucharistic Lord “out into the byways and highways, into the thoroughfares, so that those who don’t know Him might come to know Him.”
“This is something that I think Catholics across the country, throughout the world, are craving — a return to this beautiful and solemn pageantry and liturgical expression that celebrates our faith,” he said. “…One of the great fruits of the Eucharistic Revival and the (National Eucharistic) Congress was, I think, it showed forth to the faithful and to the pastors as well the importance of celebrating that faith not just within the four walls of our churches at the sacred liturgy, but of seeking opportunities to manifest that faith publicly.”
This was the first time Michael Collins, the owner of the business that served as the procession’s halfway stop, had participated in a Corpus Christi procession.
“I feel very blessed. Jesus did something for me — He physically came to my office,” Collins said. “And I feel very humbled. It’s very humbling, very beautiful, very holy. It’s hard to put into words how my wife and I felt.”
Parishioner Marybeth Risley participated in the procession with her husband and three of her children, ages 17, 9 and 5.
“It’s a great witness to our children to live our faith out loud,” she said.
Her children had spent the previous week participating in St. Joseph’s Vacation Bible School and Christpower retreat, and the Corpus Christi procession was the culmination of the week of diving deeper in faith, she said.
“My children have been learning about Christ and Mary all week, and now this is a great way to put Jesus into action,” she said. “He’s there for us. He’s walking with us down the streets. And we need to be God’s hands and feet in our community.”
