On Sunday, June 23rd St. Anselm Church celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ ~ Corpus Christi.
As has now become customary at St. Anselm, the parish observed the Feast (the weather co-operating) with an outdoor procession lead by the clergy of the parish and accompanied by the St. Anselm Adult Choir and a host of parishioners. The procession proceeded down 82nd Street to Third Avenue, along Third to 83rd Street and then returned to the church by processing up to Fourth Avenue.
Along the way there were two stations, the rectory steps and the academy’s kindergarten steps, where the procession stopped, the Host was venerated with incensing and hymns, and the assembled parishioners were blessed with the monstrance. The celebration then concluded in the church with the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Feast, first proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas and made a universal solemnity for the church by Pope Urban IV in 1264, is an affirmation of our faith in the presence of Christ: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist. Traditionally, it has been celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. Since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, it has been observed in the United States on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday, that is the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost.
Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist
as the memorial of your suffering and death.
May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood,
help us to experience the salvation
won for us and the peace of the kingdom,
where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
All the best,
The St. Anselm Publicity Committee