Over 500 people celebrated the great feast day of Corpus Christi on June 8 at St. Stanislaus, honoring the Real Presence, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ present in the Holy Eucharist.
Priests and seminarians from local parishes and from St. Francis de Sales seminary in Milwaukee also participated. A beautiful solemn High Mass was offered by Fr. Cliff Ermatinger, with Canon Erwan Josseaume and newly-ordained Fr. Ryan Ackmann acting as deacon and subdeacon. The Holy Sacrifice was beautifully and movingly accompanied by the St. Stanislaus adult choir, strings, trumpet and timpani.
Fr. Ermatinger’s sermon on the great gift of the Holy Eucharist entreated us to receive the Blessed Sacrament with all possible fervor and devotion and engaging our intellect and will in order to receive the abundant graces offered by Our Lord.
At the conclusion of the Mass, the clergy led a solemn procession along Historic Mitchell street to St. Anthony’s parish, where Benediction was offered. As the priests held the Blessed Sacrament aloft in a gold monstrance, children who had recently received their First Holy Communion scattered rose petals along the pathway. Participants joined the choir in beautiful hymns in praise of Our Lord all along the half mile procession.
“The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas