Corpus Christi 2024
Devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is at the heart of the Order’s life as a religious order. The feast of Corpus Christi emerged in the same ferment of religious reform and flourishing of spiritual renewal in the 12th and 13th centuries in which our Order was born. We have a special devotion to this feast therefore, which forms part of our defence of the Faith and service to those who are sick and poor in spirit.
Corpus Christi in London
On 2 June the Grand Priory, led by the Grand Prior, took part in the 10th annual Corpus Christi procession in central London. This amazing act of witness to the Eucharistic heart of Our Lord started with a solemn pontifical Mass celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía at the diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, the church of Corpus Christi, Covent Garden, before the procession headed to the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, near Piccadilly Circus, where there was an hour and half of adoration. The procession then re-formed, walking through Oxford Circus to the Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family, and on to St James’s Spanish Place, where the Nuncio gave pontifical Benediction.
There was record attendances, with thousands of the Faithful filling some of the main thoroughfares of our capital city with their hymns of praise and prayer - Strand, Trafalgar Square, Regents Street, and Oxford Street - to the amazement of tourists and shoppers, and overflowing from the churches at Maiden Lane and Warwick Street into the streets.
At Warwick Street, the home of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, created to welcome converts from Anglicanism, we prayed for the conversion of England back to the Faith of our Fathers: Mgr Keith Newton, the outgoing Ordinary and Mgr David Waller, who will be ordained bishop and become Ordinary later this month, walking in the procession.
At the Ukrainian Cathedral, we prayed for peace and for the people of Ukraine, devastated by war, Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski walking in the procession and giving Benediction from the steps of the cathedral, accompanied by the beautiful chant of the Ukrainian choir.
At St James’s, the choir sang the glorious Lauda Sion, a setting of the sequence for the feast by Mendelssohn, as the Nuncio carried the monstrance on the last leg of Our Lord’s journey up the aisle of a packed church, before imparting solemn Benediction.
The Order is identified as a co-creator and prime mover of this event, pivotal in connecting and bringing together these parish communities. It is very fitting that the Order runs projects for Our Lords the Poor at both St James’s and Warwick Street, showing directly the way in which the charism of the Order functions. We are truly blessed that the Holy Spirit caused this to happen - including through the work of some dedicated souls.
Photos (c) Marcin Mazur/cbcew and (c) Joshua Wong - details available on request.
Corpus Christi in Arundel
Members of the Order also attended the annual Corpus Christi celebrations at Arundel, by kind invitation of the Bishop of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk. Graham Hutton sent this report:
The Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard always celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi with great solemnity and beauty. A magnificent carpet of flowers is laid out in the central aisle of the Cathedral in honour of the Blessed Sacrament which, at the end of Mass, is customarily carried in procession over the floral carpet and then through the streets of Arundel to the courtyard of the nearby Castle for Adoration. Children who have just received first Holy Communion walk carrying baskets of flower petals which they strew before the Blessed Sacrament. The tradition dates back to 1877, just three years after the completion of the Cathedral, and was begun by Henry, 15th Duke of Norfolk after he had experienced this originally Italian tradition in the village of Sutri near Rome.
Every year the carpet of flowers represents a different theme, and this year the design, which used 8,400 flowers in its execution, was dedicated to prayer for peace. By a tradition which dates back over 30 years, Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta have the privilege of being invited to sit in the sanctuary of the Cathedral and to take a leading position in the procession behind the Duke's party.
The Cathedral was packed to its full capacity of 600 for the Mass which was celebrated by Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton. Just as the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the monstrance a very heavy rain storm began and it was quickly decided that the procession should be confined to the Cathedral, the first time in his memory that the full procession has been unable to take place because of rain. Nevertheless, what we witnessed from our position in the sanctuary was a very moving sight, as the Bishop, accompanied only by the Duke of Norfolk carrying the canopy, took the Blessed Sacrament first down the central aisle over the carpet of flowers and then around the whole of the Cathedral. This was an extremely prayerful time with the whole congregation focused on Our Lord. Although we must hope that next year the weather will permit the procession to the Castle to take place, I certainly felt that we had experienced something very special this year.
