Corpus Christi is celebrated each year on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday (which is the second Sunday following Pentecost). In many places the annual procession with the Blessed Sacrament will be held. But why?
Q: What does “Corpus Christi” mean?
A: The words “Corpus Christi” mean “Body of Christ” and are another name for the “Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ” celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. This solemnity marks with particular emphasis the doctrine of Christ’s real presence—body, blood, soul, and divinity—in the Eucharist.
Q: What is a Corpus Christi procession?
A: The Corpus Christi procession, most often held on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, is a “public witness of faith and devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament” (Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass [HCWEMOM], 101). Founded upon the Church’s belief that Jesus becomes substantially present to us in the Eucharist at Mass, the Corpus Christi procession is one of the ways that we express our devotion to Christ (Eucharistic adoration, 40 Hours devotions, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament are other forms).
A Corpus Christi procession usually begins after the celebration of Mass, at which the host for the procession is consecrated. Placed in a monstrance (a sacred vessel that displays the sacred host to the faithful), the Blessed Sacrament is then carried out of the church and through the streets of the city or neighborhood accompanied by the songs and prayers of the people. Often there are altars decorated along the route where the monstrance is placed and the people are blessed. In this way the Church shows that Christ, here among us, walks with us on our pilgrimage to heaven.
Q: What are the origins of the Corpus Christi procession?
A: The Corpus Christi procession and many of the other Eucharistic devotions seem to have begun in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These devotions responded to a multitude of factors, among which were a greater appreciation and understanding of Christ’s Eucharistic presence and a desire to express this truth outwardly.
Influencing the rise in Eucharistic devotions were the visions of an Augustinian nun, Juliana of Liège, in 1209 that indicated an annual celebration devoted to the Body of Christ should be added to the Church’s calendar. In 1264, Pope Urban IV, who had resided in Liège prior to his becoming Pope and was familiar with Juliana’s visions, established the feast of the Body of Christ for the entire Church. St. Thomas Aquinas (d.1274) is said to have composed the liturgical texts for this new feast, as well as the hymns O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo (which are the last two stanzas of the hymn Pange Lingua) which are still sung today.
Q: What is the relationship of the Corpus Christi procession to the Mass?
A: The Magisterium today is adamant that the Corpus Christi procession and all other Eucharistic devotions be understood as being rooted in the celebration of the Mass. One basic principle for every Eucharistic devotion is that they “must have an intrinsic reference to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, or dispose the faithful for its celebration, or prolong the worship which is essential to that Sacrifice” (Directory on Popular Piety, 161). The celebration of the Eucharist, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “is itself the Church’s supreme act of adoration” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 66). Seen in this way, Eucharistic devotions and the Mass complement one another and are not in competition with each other.
Q: Why should we participate in the Corpus Christi procession?
A: The annual procession on the feast of Corpus Christi “holds particular importance and significance in the pastoral life of the parish or city…. In processions in which the Eucharist is carried through the streets in a solemn rite with singing, the Christian people bear public witness of faith and devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament” (HCWEMOM, 101, 102). Says Pope John Paul II, “The devout participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic procession on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a grace from the Lord which yearly brings joy to those who take part in it” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 10). He continues: “In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into the body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope” (62).
Q: Where are the ritual guidelines found for celebrating the Corpus Christi Procession?
The ritual text Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass was one of the first of the Church’s books published after the Second Vatican Council, promulgated by the Congregation for Divine Worship on June 21, 1973, which happened to be the Solemnity of Corpus Christi that year. The text contains a number of Eucharistic rituals, including “The Order of Distributing Holy Communion outside Mass” and “Administration of Communion and Viaticum to the Sick by an Extraordinary Minister.”
The book’s third chapter, “Various Forms of Worship of the Most Holy Eucharist,” includes three sections: “Exposition of the Most Holy Eucharist,” “Eucharistic Congresses,” and “Eucharistic Processions.” This chapter on forms of Eucharistic worship, as with the first two and the text generally, contains not only a brief theological treatment of the topic (lex credendi), but also the rubrics and texts used for celebrating (lex orandi).
As Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass explains, “Among Eucharistic processions, the one that customarily takes place every year on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or on another convenient day near to the Solemnity, holds particular importance and significance in the pastoral life of a parish or city. It is appropriate, therefore, when the circumstances of today permit and it can truly be a sign of common faith and adoration, that this procession be observed….” (102). The text says that it is for the local Ordinary to permit Corpus Christi processions (101).
“It is desirable,” the text says, “that the procession with the Most Blessed Sacrament be held after the Mass in which the host to be carried in the procession has been consecrated” (103).
Concerning the procession’s specifics, the rite encourages “stations where the Eucharistic blessing is given. Songs and prayers that are offered should be so ordered that all show their faith in Christ and direct their attention to the Lord alone” (104).
The priest himself vests in a white cope, while “lights, incense, and the canopy under which the Priest carrying the Sacrament walks should be used in accordance with local customs. It is desirable that the procession should go from one church to another. Nevertheless, if local circumstances suggest it, the procession may also return to the same church from which it began. At the end of the procession, benediction with the Most Blessed Sacrament is imparted in the church where the procession ends…. Then the Most Blessed Sacrament is reposed” (105-8).
