Wow Churches in Poland Celebrate Corpus Christi with Beautiful Processions - Primate says the Eucharist Cannot be Replaced by Virtual Reality


   
On Thursday, June 3rd, 2021, the Catholic church celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi or the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus. It is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. This Solemnity is 
now assigned to the nearest Sunday in many countries.  Following Polish tradition, colourful processions were held around the country. 
 Poland has lifted many of its COVID-19 restrictions, but many Catholic dioceses toned down the celebrations as compared with the pre-pandemic years. 
The Catholic faithful in Poland usually attend Mass and then walk in a procession of the Blessed Sacrament while the faithful sing.
The Polish Primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, spoke about the longing for the presence, the meeting, and not only the external form of the celebration. It is about - as he added - a vivid awareness that the Eucharist is a sacrament of God's presence and that this essence could and can never be replaced by virtual reality. The Metropolitan of Gniezno presided over the Holy Mass. and the Eucharistic procession through the streets of Gniezno. To enable the participation in the liturgy of as many faithful as possible, the Eucharist was celebrated at the field altar in front of the Gniezno cathedral. "I think that today, when we slowly come out of the pandemic, when the limitations related to it are losing ground, the joy of meeting Jesus returns in us and the awareness that without this Eucharistic presence, without our presence with Him, without this meeting, without the path that he shares with us, everything we experience and live does not make sense, ”said Archbishop Polak in the homily.
“It's about the essence of things, about the meeting, it's about the presence that virtual reality could not and can never replace for us. It is about living awareness that the Eucharist is a sacrament of God's presence, that the Lord is here. We go with him. We carry him. We kneel before him. We love him. He enters our lives. He blesses us and strengthens us, ”the Primate emphasized.
In Poland the majority of the population is Catholic and nearly 95 percent of citizens identify as religious and about half attend church weekly. The processions are attended by thousands, as the feast is one of the most important in the Roman Catholic Church.
The feast has been celebrated in Poland since 1320, with the first mention of processions taking place around the 15th century.
Sources: https://www.ekai.pl/prymas-polski-eucharystii-nie-moze-zastapic-wirtualna-rzeczywistosc/ - www.thenews.pl

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