As the Parish Year of the National Eucharistic Revival began, faith communities from the Riverside Vicariate of the Diocese came together on July 22 for a Eucharistic Procession led by Bishop Alberto Rojas, 13 priests and 5 deacons.
Despite the nearly 100-degree weather, about 600 faithful parishioners of St. Catherine of Alexandria, the host parish, and several others from the Riverside Vicariate joined together to walk in prayer and reverence while the Bishop and several pastors took turns leading with the Blessed Sacrament held aloft in a monstrance.
The procession started at 9 a.m. at St. Catherine of Alexandria, moving East on Arlington Ave, stopped, then headed South through the Riverside Medical Center parking lot, then finally moved Northwest along Brockton Ave until they reached back to St. Catherine Church. One of the priests leading the procession was Father Theodore P. Drennan, Pastor of St. Thomas The Apostle Church and Vicar Forane for the Riverside Vicariate.
“It’s beautiful because Christ is there, he is present,” Maria Crystal Guerrero, parishioner, St. Francis of De Sales, Riverside said.
The Eucharistic Procession was to honor the current parish year of the National Eucharistic Revival, a movement to restore understanding and devotion to this great mystery here in the United States by helping us renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
“This is a very beautiful holy experience for me,” Guerrero said. “I would love to keep growing in my faith and become as holy as I can.”
The three-year National Eucharistic Revival began on June 19, 2022, the Feast of Corpus Christi, initiating a Diocesan Year. During that first year Bishop Rojas led a Diocesan Eucharistic Procession in the City of San Bernardino that drew more than a thousand Catholics despite a torrential rainstorm. Following the procession, he asked each of the six vicariates of the diocese to hold their own Eucharistic Procession. The High Desert Vicariate held its procession on May 16 in the city of Barstow.
During this Parish Year of the Revival, the goal is to foster Eucharistic devotion at the parish level, strengthening our liturgical life through faithful celebration of the Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, missions, resources, preaching, and organic movements of the Holy Spirit, according to the National Eucharistic Revival website.
The National Eucharistic Revival movement will end at the National Eucharistic Congress set to take place from July 17-21, 2024, in Indianapolis, Indiana with more than 80,000 Catholics of all ages gathering to reconsecrate their hearts to the source and summit of our faith.
Elena Macias is the Managing Editor of the Inland Catholic BYTE.