May 2, 2018

Norwood –  Bishop Terry R. LaValley will preside at a Corpus Christi celebration June 3 at St. Andrew’s Church.
Mass will begin at 2 p.m. followed by a procession with the Blessed Sacrament around the block and back into the church where benediction will conclude the service.

Priests, deacons, sisters, Knights of Columbus councils, all women and men societies, and youth groups are invited to participate.

A reception will be held in the Meditation Garden following the service.

The Knights of Columbus at St. Andrew’s initiated this annual Corpus Christi service in 2015 with the intent of rotating between St. Mary’s in Potsdam and Sacred Heart in Massena.

A year of planning
Deacon Philip Regan, one of the organizers of the annual celebration, writes about its origins:
The Feast of Corpus Christi honors the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. “Corpus Christi” is Latin for “Body of Christ.” Taken from the book, “God is Near Us,” by Cardinal Ratzinger, later to be Pope Benedict XVI, there is a chapter on Corpus Christi which gives us a deeper meaning and understanding of this great feast. Cardinal Ratzinger breaks it down into three parts. First, is standing before the Lord. This is when we are celebrating the Mass, meeting together around the Lord, for the Lord, standing side by side. Second, is walking with the Lord, the procession. Third, is kneeling before the Lord glorifying Him during benediction.

I’d like to share how the seed was planted for our first celebration in 2015. We (Norwood Knights of Columbus) were discussing the Feast day at our August 2014 meeting and thought it would be great to celebrate this Feast as in the days of old. Msgr. John Murphy, our pastor, gave us the green light to start planning for Corpus Christi, 2015.

We had a little less than a year so, the first step was to invite Bishop LaValley to be our principle celebrant. Knowing how busy he is, we were pleased and honored when we received his letter accepting our invitation! We then compiled a list of active and retired priests, deacons, and other religious; invitations were sent. We also invited surrounding Knights of Columbus Councils and the different societies of area parishes. Information was sent to parishes for their bulletins so the date could be saved.

We approached the Village Board to get approval for the procession around the block. They in turn, contacted the Norwood Volunteer Fire Department who provided personnel to control traffic at the intersections.

Everything was in place. All we had to do was pray for a wonderful turnout.

On June 7, 2015 our church was blessed with over 155 participants. Nearly everyone joined in the procession around the block. What a beautiful site in Norwood with the Bishop carrying the Monstrance, which held the Blessed Sacrament, The 4th Degree Knights providing color, priests, deacons religious, altar servers, and parishioners from all over singing and praying as they processed. Back at the church we ended with Benediction.

A reception followed with the help from our Altar Rosary Society.

The success of this day was beyond our expectations. We all agreed this must become an annual celebration. After discussing at our next meeting we thought it best to rotate with different parishes in hopes of keeping the Feast of Corpus Christi a glorious celebration in our area. St.  Mary’s parish in Potsdam hosted Corpus Christi in 2016 and Sacred Heart Church in Massena hosted it in 2017.

We are excited to be the host this year. Our goal is to make it more successful than 2015!

Please mark your calendars and join us if you can. We encourage our youth from surrounding parishes to attend. I truly believe it will remain in their hearts for a long time and hopefully they will want to come back.