Join us for the Brainerd Deanery Corpus Christi Procession!
Schedule of Events:
Mass: 2pm** St. Francis Church, 404 N. 9th St., Brainerd
Procession: 3pm to St. Andrew's Church, 1108 Willow St., Brainerd
Benediction & Luncheon: St. Andrew's
Trailers with seating are available for those unable to walk the route.
** Please note there will not be an 11:15am Mass at St. Francis, as it has moved to 2:00pm**
During the procession, we will offer prayers and sing several of the same Eucharistic Hymns that St. Thomas composed to glorify this great feast in the Church.
The procession will conclude with benediction inside of St. Andrews church and an inter-deanery picnic will follow.
First Communicants: You are invited to dress in your First Communion dresses and ties to walk in a special place in the procession!
On June 2nd, 2024, all of the parishes in the Brainerd Deanery will join together and process in Honor of the Body and Blood of our Savior. Together we will bring Our Lord into the world as an example of our belief in His true presence in the Eucharist, the Source and the Summit of our Catholic faith, and will process through Brainerd from St. Francis to St. Andrews churches.
History & Background
The feast of Corpus Christi was instituted for the Universal Church on August 11, 1264, with the Papal Bull Transiturus de hoc Mundo as a result of the fervent prayer, devotion, and dedication of a woman named Saint Juliana of Liege who tirelessly promoted the feast after Our Lord, in a vision, told her of his desire for a feast day dedicated to his most Holy Body and Blood. The Papal Bull is said to have been drafted by St. Thomas Aquinas as well as the Mass prayers for the feast and the hymns of the divine office at the request of Pope Urban the IV who had been a fervent supporter of the cause of Saint Juliana before he was Pope as the Archdeacon of Liege.
In the year 1207, Our Lord revealed to a young 16 year Juliana His desire for a feast day in the Church that would be devoted to His Most Holy Body and Blood. Through her visions Our Lord made known the damage being done to the faith and faith in the Eucharist by the lack of such a feast. It took Juliana more than 20 years to answer that call, believing that Our Lord couldn’t possibly be calling a young girl from Liege to implement such a feast within the Church. Afterall, there were priests and bishops who were much more suited to such a monumental task. However by 1228, Our Lord made it absolutely clear to her that she was the one He had chosen to accomplish this task. Through many obstacles she would eventually convince her bishop to implement this feast day within her diocese and he became a strong supporter of her cause and Our Lord’s desire.
Saint Juliana of Liège died in 1258 and did not live to see the feast and devotion she worked to promote, implemented through the entire universal Church. However, three years after her death in 1261, Jacques Pantaleon, who had supported Juliana’s message when he was Archdeacon of Liège, became Pope Urban IV and in 1264 he introduced the Feast for the entire Church. Since that time Catholic’s throughout the world have processed with our Lord into their communities.
Similarly we are living in a time when a record number of Catholics have expressed a lack of belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and consequently greater society have expressed a lack of faith in Jesus Christ at all. In answer to this crisis the Bishops of the United States have called for a 3 year Eucharistic Revival that will culminate in the first National Eucharistic Congress to be held in the United States in 83 years. Last weekend, four Eucharistic Procession routes began from 4 points in the United States, including the Marian Route that began in Itaska State Park. Pilgrims along these routes will process Our Lord through the country ending up in Indianapolis at the end of July for the National Congress.
