Bishop Earl Fernandes joined priests, deacons, religious and the faithful for a Eucharistic procession, Adoration and Benediction on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 19 at Columbus St. Cecilia Church.

The event was organized by the parishes of the diocese’s West Deanery and served as a kickoff to the three-year National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that will culminate with a National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024 in Indianapolis.

Included in the West Deanery are Columbus parishes Holy Family, St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, St. Cecilia, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Stephen the Martyr and Plain City St. Joseph, London St. Patrick, Grove City Our Lady of Perpetual Help and West Jefferson Ss. Simon & Jude churches.

Numerous parishes throughout the diocese held similar outdoor processions at their churches on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which was the last Sunday before the Church calendar returned to Ordinary Time.

Bishop Fernandes incenses the Blessed Sacrament at the fourth station during the procession.   CT photo by Ken Snow

The Eucharistic procession at St. Cecilia, which attracted an estimated 300 people, started after Vespers in the church. 

“Every type of procession should remind us of the procession that leads to heaven, to paradise, and that Jesus promises us that if we eat His flesh and drink His precious blood we will live forever,” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily during Vespers. “He will raise us on the last day. … We want to go to heaven, and the Eucharist is our superhighway which leads us all the way to paradise. …

“The procession at the end of Vespers will remind us of our future glory: the promise of the resurrection on the last day. It will remind us that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood will live and die in friendship with Jesus so as to be raised in glory with Him.”

Bishop Fernandes then carried the monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament out of the church and throughout the parish grounds with adorers following behind.

Stops were made at four stations with makeshift altars upon which the Body of Christ was placed for a brief time of prayer, Adoration and a Gospel reading. 

Bishop Fernandes, celebrating his first Corpus Christi Sunday in the diocese, incensed the monstrance at each station and then knelt in prayer along with some of the adorers while others stood silently in prayer.

“Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, handed on to His disciples a commandment: ‘Do this in remembrance of Me,’ and the Church does this in memory of Him,” the bishop had said during his homily. “And if our faith should waver, we need only to come into a church. For there He is, waiting for us. He did not fail us. He left us his most precious sacrament.

“He also wants to hear from us, to speak to us. Jesus thirsts for us. He thirsts for our love.

“For what do you thirst? We, who receive the body and blood of our Lord, ought to be transformed so that we can bring God’s love to the world. This is our mission. As Pope Benedict XVI said, ‘The way we live should be different because of our knowledge of the love of God and the source of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist, and that we live lives consistent with the mystery we receive and mystery we worship.’”

The faithful pray and stand at the first station during the Eucharistic procession.   CT photo by Ken Snow

Father Nic Ventura, pastor at St. Cecilia, read a Gospel passage at the first stop, and Father Seth Keller, parochial vicar at St. Cecilia, did the same at the second station.

Bishop Fernandes prays at the third station of the procession in front of a state of St. Cecilia, the parish's patroness.  CT photo by Ken Snow

The third station was situated in front of a statue of St. Cecilia, the parish’s patron, and the fourth station marked the final spot for a brief Adoration period before the procession returned to the church for Benediction.

Bishop Fernandes, deacons, priests and adorers stop at the fourth and final station of the procession with the Blessed Sacrament.  CT photo by Ken Snow

“It is one thing to say with our lips, ‘My Lord and my God, I believe,’” Bishop Fernandes had reminded those gathered during his homily. “It is another thing to show it by our words and our deeds. To be consistent, to be consistently Catholic, to be consistently Eucharistic, is to be blessed, broken and healed for the life of the world.

“Jesus thirsts – now – for our love. Jesus thirsts for our authentic worship, not only with our voices but with our actions. Let us satiate the thirst of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.”

Other Eucharistic Revival activities are planned in the diocese during the next three years, including relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian who died of leukemia and was beatified in 2021, coming to Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral in the fall. 

Some of the participants in the Eucharistic procession stand or kneel in the parking lot at St. Cecilia Church.  CT photo by Ken Snow