Corpus Christi procession celebrates feast day, launch of National Eucharistic Revival

Following 10 a.m. Mass June 19, hundreds of people streamed out of the Cathedral of St. Paul’s front doors and down its grand stone staircase behind a canopy carried over a monstrance bearing the Body of Christ.

The procession wound slowly around the Cathedral, with a brief period of adoration and a simple benediction in its courtyard before a bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, before returning to the stairs, where Archbishop Bernard Hebda held the monstrance aloft to bless the Twin Cities.

The procession marked the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the feast of Corpus Christi, as well as the nationwide launch of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to revitalize Catholics’ understanding of and love for Jesus in the Eucharist.

“It’s a remembrance of what Christ left us for the journey” Cathedral parishioner Jim Smith said of the Eucharist and the importance of the procession that day. “It’s something that people go to — they go to him. That’s critically important.”

Bearing the procession canopy, formally known as a “baldacchino,” were four members of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement at St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis. Among them were Kathy Trinh, 29, and Toan Chu, 30, who married three years ago. They said bearing the canopy was an honor they felt especially privileged to undertake together.

“For us as a married couple, just to be physically next to the Eucharist felt like truly a blessing,” Trinh said.

“We were definitely called to a higher purpose,” Chu added.

While processing, participants sang traditional hymns including “Humbly We Adore Thee” and “Soul of My Savior.” After the archbishop blessed the city, they returned to the Cathedral’s interior, where they adored the Eucharist, with the monstrance atop the tabernacle on the high altar, under a dome painted with a dove representing the Holy Spirit. Following solemn benediction, many of the participants returned to the Cathedral courtyard for an ice cream social, despite temperatures nearing 100 degrees.

Holding his ice cream, Father Tim Tran, parochial vicar of St. Odilia in Shoreview and coordinator of local efforts to promote the Eucharistic Revival, said that the symbolism of the Eucharist under the Holy Spirit was appropriate. “It’s very exciting to see what the Holy Spirit has in store,” he said of the Revival. “It falls on the heels of the (Archdiocesan) Synod, so it was really meaningful to me. It was like we have the Holy Spirit as the oven, with the bread and it’s baking, and we’ve got to spread the aroma around. That was what we were doing.”

Cathedral Rector Father John Ubel, who carried the monstrance in the procession, also said it’s significant that the Revival follows the Archdiocesan Synod, a three-year process of discernment for the needs of the local Church that culminated Pentecost weekend, June 3-5.

“I have great hopes for the Eucharistic Revival, that we can recover some of the zeal and enthusiasm of our forbearers,” he said. “I hope that with this kickoff, that people see the power of the holy Eucharist and that it really helps renew our archdiocese, especially falling upon the Synod. I think the timing is perfect.”

Father Ubel is also inspired by the 1941 National Eucharistic Congress, which was held in St. Paul and drew 100,000 people. The chalice used at the Mass prior to the procession had been given to the Cathedral for use during that Congress (the monstrance used dated to 1865).

As part of the Eucharistic Revival, a National Eucharistic Congress is planned for Indianapolis in July 2024. Leading the entire Eucharistic Revival effort is Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, who previously ministered as an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis 2013-2021. Bishop Cozzens is chairman of the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, which conceived of the initiative.