Corpus Christi Procession

Don't tempt me with a good time! The rubrics for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, suggest that a Eucharistic Procession after Mass is right and just. Well, our Church plant sits right on a city block, making a procession easy. No reason not to. 

Wanting to do it up right, we ordered a processional canopy from Catholic Liturgicals. They do good work for a much cheaper price. This 6'x5' top is beautiful, but needed some poles to make it serve for a canopy over the monstrance as we process around the block.

It is ready made for poles to attach at each corner. 

So I called up John, picked up 1 1/4" dowels from the lumber yard, and got to work. First step was to cut them down to 6'. 

Then round down the ends. No cutting corners on a job like this. 

Then we drilled a pilot hole in the end.

And screwed in a lag bolt. 

After cutting off the head of the bolt, it slipped right into the sewed grommet hole.

To cut the rawness of the wood, we coated them with a bit of linseed oil. Hopefully with more than I got on the floor. 

Remembering that the wind in Wyoming can blow, we attached an eyelet to run the stings through to keep the top settled on the pole. 

Worked good! 

Fun stuff. No denying we are Catholic around here. Jesus said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and by blood is drink indeed (John 6:53-55). Our Lord's real presence, body, blood, soul, and divinity, is wholly, truly, really, and substantially contained in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist (CCC 1374). 

Jesus is alive and well in the Consecrated Host at every Catholic Mass. That is worth receiving and also worth sharing. Eucharistic processions are a way for us to share the Sacramental Jesus with the entire world. It is also a way of blessing our ground and encouraging the faith of the people. "The Eucharist is 'the source and summit of the Christian life'" (CCC 1324). Corpus Christi Sunday, along with a Eucharistic Procession, is a way of driving this truth home. Let's ranch.