Processions’ public witness expresses National Eucharistic Revival’s vision, as movement begins parish year

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- With the feast of Corpus Christi, the National Eucharistic Revival enters its second year and shifts its focus to parish renewal -- a year organizers expect will inspire more parishes to increase the Eucharist’s visibility in their communities through Eucharistic processions. In many U.S. dioceses, Corpus Christi is June 11. “Processions have been a very public witness and display of faith,” said Joel Stepanek, the National Eucharistic Revival’s chief mission officer. “Just the stories and the images of the various processions that have been undertaken ... have been some of the most striking examples of how, on a diocesan level, there has been a response to this call for revival.” Launched as an initiative of the U.S. Catholic bishops in June 2022, the National Eucharistic Revival is a three-year movement that includes a National Eucharistic Congress next year in Indianapolis. The revival’s first year was titled “The Year of Diocesan Revival,” and efforts focused on formation for diocesan leadership and diocesan-wide events. The revival’s second year, “The Year of Parish Revival,” aims to reach Catholics in their parishes through renewed attention to the “art” of the Mass, Eucharistic devotions, and small-group faith sharing and formation.

A clergyman carries a monstrance in a Eucharistic procession through the Manhattan borough of New York City to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a Pentecost vigil May 27, 2023. The Charismatic Renewal event in Spanish attracted close to 2,700 people. OSV News photo/Jeffrey Bruno