The body of Christ versus football (25/06/2006)

I took part in my first ever Corpus Christi Procession today and it was both amazing and great fun. For those of you not in the know it has become part of Catholic tradition to publicly process with the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance with banners, pictures, a processional cross etc and the faithful singing songs through the streets as a form of adoration. The Blessed Sacrament being the name Catholics give to the host once consecrated by the priest which has then become the body of Christ (Corpus Christi). I hope to have some pictures of the actual procession I took part in, in due course, but in the meantime this link from wikipedia will have to do!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Procession_with_blessed_sacrament_1.jpg

I loved being part of the procession for several different reasons. On a completely secular level and just because I'm rather contrary I liked the fact that I wasn't watching football this afternoon unlike most other people in the country, I liked the fact that we held up the motorists while we walked at a snail's pace, and I like the bewildered faces of the people we passed on the streets. On a more religious level I was enjoying this very public display of religiousity in our predominantly secular London with, lets face it, a rather an unashamed statement of Catholicism! I enjoyed being with soooo many people (there were lots of us!), young, old, male, female, black, white etc united by common belief and purpose.

The Corpus Christi procession really exemplifies what is so weird and wonderful about Catholicism. Catholics believe that a wafer, albeit a consecrated one, gets transformed into the body of Christ - hey that's weird enough but they also go about eating it each time they go to Mass!! OK, I being rather crude with my choice of words, but think about it, it seems like utter nonsense, yet all these people were out there expressing their adoration of the Blessed sacrament, kneeling in front of it and the women covering their heads in the presence of Christ. Did these people look mad - no! Did I feel like a bit of a fraud? Yes!

I really enjoyed singing the songs yet I couldn't quite put my whole heart and soul into it because I don't yet believe the words that I was singing. I still remain to be convinced that Catholicism teaches the Truth as revealed by God. Yet there is just something so strong about the faith that keeps me going back to Mass each week and I sincerely hope that I walk my next Corpus Christi procession as a proud Catholic!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And here's one of the photos from the procession, courtesy of joe - see his blog for other pictures http://catholiclondoner.blogspot.com/2006/07/more-picture-stuff.html