The Solemnity of the Body and Blood (Corpus Christi)

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Tomorrow will be the Solemnity of the Body and Blood (Corpus Christi or Corpus et Sanguis Christi) is there anything special to happen at your parish?

Mine will be a mini procession inside the church with the montrance and the benediction of the monstrance would be the blessing instead of the priest giving the blessing.

Bad news for me: I’ll be the thurifer and will have to walk backwards last Christ the King an accident almost happened thanks to my partner ze boat bearer it was avoided.

Good news for me: I’m the thurifer and it will be smokey and I don’t have to really worry about anything except for keeping the charcoal burning and that there are enough charcoals because at a single mass we usually use at least 7; 3 for the entrance, 2 for the gospel and another two for the offertory onwards.
 
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We have two thurifiers during the procession, one thurifies the Blessed Sacrament while the other would pull on his girdle so that he would not misstep as he walks backward. They would exchange position when the thurifier is tired. EHMCs (six) would carry the canopy and the priest carries the monstrance.
 
Calendar nerd mode: 📆🤓

Last Thursday, Invalid date, was the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corporis et Sanguinis Christi). It is a general Holy Day of Obligation as enumerated in Canon Law.

However in many places, including the US, the feast is translated to tomorrow, June 3, 2018.
 
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I genuinely don’t know, but knowing the temperament of the assistant priest, I should imagine a small procession is likely. I shan’t be there, sadly, I have to work. But Mass this evening was lovely, and a letter from the Archbishop was read out which talked about our unity before the Eucharist, and asked us to pray for our priests especially this year.
 
Don’t think there is anything special happening at our parish, but our Archdiocese procession through the city is tomorrow. After mass at the University Chaplaincy then holy hour at the church where the procession concludes. Been looking forward to tomorrow all week
 
at one of the Masses tomorrow there will be a Procession before the Mass. But not at every Mass. At least that is what I think.
 
It’s very special here in Italy. I’m going to Mass at this church where they hold an Infiorata event (something which happens all over the province for Corpus Christi) - the locals make a carpet of flowers all around the square (about 1km long) and at the end of Mass, the Procession takes place following the route of the flowers.


Everyone starts very early in the morning to get their part of the carpet ready in time. They use flower petals and also pulses and beans. It’s fascinating to watch them create these wonderful pictures.
 
It’s interesting, because Corpus Christi is the feast of the Body AND Blood of Christ, but in August (July on the old calendar) there is the feast of the Precious Blood.
 
At least one liturgist decries the custom of having the thurifer walk backwards as (a) not in the rubrics, (b) advised against by respected commentaries on the rubrics and (c ) a violation of common sense and reasonable care of both the thurifer and thurible:
“It is better to walk straight, not backwards or sideways”
The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, Dr. Adrian Fortescue, 1962

www.romanitaspress.com

Eucharistic Processions: some common problems

Explains the rules for processions with the Blessed Sacrament.
www.romanitaspress.com www.romanitaspress.com
 
A little over a mile, to the other parish in town.

We are a tourist town, the procession will go right down the main tourist area, a historic downtown. 19th Annual procession!
 
We have done this in our cathedral for more than a century. Perhaps it is more cultural then if it is against the rubric. Of course, nobody is saying it is against the rubric, if there is a rubric at all for the procession. Well, maybe for the scrupulous, then nothing would be right.

The thurifier thurifying the Blessed Sacrament has to walk backward since it is a procession. How else he does it anyway.
 
Reuben_J said:
We have done this in our cathedral for more than a century. Perhaps it is more cultural then if it is against the rubric. Of course, nobody is saying it is against the rubric, if there is a rubric at all for the procession. Well, maybe for the scrupulous, then nothing would be right.

The thurifier thurifying the Blessed Sacrament has to walk backward since it is a procession. How else he does it anyway.
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No, that is my point. The thurifer does not have to walk backwards. It is not in the rubrics. Walking backwards with burning hot charcoal isn’t in the rubrics because it is unnecessary and will inevitably lead to an accident such as the one you narrowly avoided yourself. The incense will be in the air when the Blessed Sacrament passes by, either way. In one way, however, the procession is more likely to be held up by a nasty accident.

Your diocese may have done it that way for a 100 years and it may not be up to you to decide how it is to be done, but it is not true that it must be done that way. Not only is it not necessary to walk backwards, but it has been advised that it is better not to do it that way, as it risks the thurifer falling, disrupting the solemnity of the procession and probably hurting himself or damaging the thurible in the bargain.
 
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Besides a homily on the Real Presence? I can’t say. I was very pleased with what I heard tonight, though.

I don’t imagine we’ll be doing much special unless we get a new priest. We’re sharing one for the time being.
 
Nothing special at my parish. Father gave a wonderful homily. He said that those who take communion in the hand should create a throne by placing their dominant hand below their other hand. For those who take communion on their tongue, they should not be chewing gum. They should spit out the gum before coming up to the line. He said that he watches to see if people actually swallow the host and not save it for a black mass or to desecrate it.
Oh, we have a seminarian from New Orleans here for the summer while he interns as a chaplain at one of the local hospitals.
 
The Cathedral where I am had its theophoric procession last Saturday evening.
We used two thuribles and brought along 6 pots with burning incense. The Rector, who presided at Mass, carried the Sanctissum on a truck. May, I say – we filled the whole neighborhood with smoke!
 
Sadly our parish and most of the parishes in our archdiocese aren’t to big with processions and liturgical celebrations outside of mass (very rare to find a procession or vespers here). Luckily, since becoming a server I was able to work with our previous parish priest in establishing a small period of adoration before the final blessing on the Corpus Christi mass. It was a step in the right direction without creating a fuss with our parish, so I hopefully in the future we can reintroduce some of these great practices!
 
I’m rather envious of those who get to participate in processions with incense. We had a normal mass with a short message on the Real Presence, and we said aloud the Long Sequence. The bouquets near the altar and on the pews were stunning, though. I really appreciate the people who work at decorating the church.
 
Solemnity of Corpus Christi is always big around here which include procession in one of the mass. The cathedral is huge with big compound. However the procession here is within the compound which ended at the parish hall where thr Blessed Sacrament is adored.

In the next diocese where the cathedral was in the middle of the city, the procession was into the street and traffic came to standstill. The Body of Christ is being shown to everybody, it was majestic spectacle.
 
Don’t worry no accident happened yesterday and it was spectacular I just had to watch out because some person decided that it would be delightful to cross my path instead of kneeling or standing still. But everything else went well the church was filled with smoke thanks to me and the boat bearer who was a great assistant.
 
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