Photos of Corpus Christi 2016 at the Church of the Holy Innocents (NYC)

Corpus    Christi

Thursday after Trinity Sunday

“If any one saith, that, in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship, even external of latria; and is, consequently, neither to be venerated with a special festive solemnity, nor to be solemnly borne about in processions, according to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy church; or, is not to be proposed publicly to the people to be adored, and that the adorers thereof are idolaters; let him be anathema” (Canon VI of the Council of Trent Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist).

Three hundred and forty (340) faithful attended the 6PM Solemn Mass and Procession at Holy Innocents for the 8^th annual celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi this past Thursday, May 26, 2016. Our Pastor Fr. Leonard Villa was the Celebrant of the Mass, Fr. Tomasz Szczepanczyk was the Deacon, Fr. Robert Rodriguez was the Subdeacon, and 17 servers devotedly served Holy Mass.

          As was the case in previous years, Midtown Manhattan, not used to such magnificent Processions and demonstrations of such active and vibrant faith, seemed to stop and wonder what was going on. As the Procession went on, the parishioners jubilantly sang beautiful traditional hymns in Latin, English, Spanish, and Italian. Many passers-by stopped to see the Procession go by and to take pictures of such a wonderful Catholic sight; some even joined the Procession!

                Members of the Legion of Mary and the Catholic Daughters took part in the Procession. One of the members of the Regina Coeli Council of the Knights of Columbus carried the banner of the Blessed Sacrament. Two of our very young parishioners (a boy and a girl) threw rose petals from the moment the Procession left the church until it got back to the church. Four men from The Patrolman’s Fraternity of St. Michael carried the Canopy over the Blessed Sacrament as the Procession marched on around Midtown Manhattan. The choir sang the Messa a tre voci virili by Giuseppe Saverio Mercadante in such an unforgettable way that many of the parishioners expressed that they felt as if “they had died and gone to heaven!”

After the Mass and the Procession, the parishioners enjoyed one of those memorable and, by now, traditional festive receptions  that normally take place after such solemn Feasts at Holy Innocents. Thanks to the generosity of those who helped, it was really a very pleasant reception with the omnipresent Carthusian bottle of green Chartreuse.

Thanks to Mr. Michael Delong, who took around 600 photos of the entire evening, below you will find some of the selected photos.

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Photos taken by Mr. Michael Delong