By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Archbishop Thomas Wenski is asking archdiocesan pastors to hold eucharistic processions on the feast of Corpus Christi, Sunday, June 11, 2023.
Photographer: JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC
Father Rafael Capó, vice president of Mission at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, holds the monstrance during adoration at an EPIC Night of Mercy event celebrated at the university in April 2021. Father Capó is one of 50 priests selected as "Eucharistic preachers" for the nationwide Eucharistic Revival. Two others also are from the Archdiocese of Miami: Father Elvis Gonzalez, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Miami, and Father Joseph Jean-Louis, administrator of Christ the King Church in Perrine.
The processions would launch the second year of the national Eucharistic Revival, which began last year at the diocesan level and continues this year at the parish level.
The national revival would conclude with a Eucharistic Congress in July 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The goal of the three-year event is to revive the Eucharistic faith among Catholics in the U.S.
In a letter emailed to all the pastors May 1, the archbishop wrote: “To mark the beginning of the Parish Year, the USCCB steering committee of the Eucharistic Revival is inviting every parish in the country to plan a Eucharistic procession on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 11, 2023.”
He noted that he opened the three-year celebration on the feast of Corpus Christi last year with a Mass and indoor procession at a diocesan-wide gathering of the Hispanic Charismatic Movement.
“Of course, here in South Florida, the summer heat might discourage people’s participation in a long outdoor procession at midday,” the archbishop continued. “However, there is always the possibility of a procession following an evening Mass (Saturday or Sunday).”
He described the Corpus Christi processions outside the church as “a public manifestation of our people’s faith in the abiding Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.”
“There is just about one month to prepare,” he added, encouraging pastors to conclude the processions with benediction and perhaps invite the children who made their first Communions this Easter season to return in their first Communion outfits and lead off the procession.
The email also linked to a Knights of Columbus site — https://www.kofc.org/en/who-we-are/our-faith/eucharist.html — with “options and ideas to help with your planning.”
Parishes who do hold processions this year are invited to send one or two photographs to the Florida Catholic – [email protected] – so they can be published in a slide show on the archdiocesan website.
