It was, as Father Matthew Biedrzycki called it, a day to bring the Real Presence of Christ to the people of North Philadelphia, as Christ Himself would have done.
About four dozen pilgrims who had just attended a culturally diverse Corpus Christi Mass at St. Malachy Church in North Philadelphia’s Yorktown neighborhood took Christ to the streets with them, carrying the Blessed Sacrament on one of many eucharistic processions held in the city and throughout the five-county area on Sunday, June 7.
“One of the biggest blessings that I’ve had as the priest here at St. Malachy is to be able to bring Jesus to the streets and to invite others to an encounter with Him,” said Father Biedrzycki, pastor of St. Malachy Parish.
“One of the ways that we’ve done that through the eucharistic processions is to literally bring Him into the presence of His people, people longing for light in a world of darkness.”
The choir sang in sunlight, offering the traditional spiritual hymn “Lead Me, Guide Me” while Father Biedrzycki carried the Body of Christ from the 176-year-old church.
The hymn rang out as the procession passed the nearby home of the late Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the gospel-infused artist whom many credit as the inventor of rock and roll music.
They shared Spanish hymns like “Pan de Vida” while bringing the Blessed Sacrament to Broad Street and crossing the busy thoroughfare.
Father Matthew Biedrzycki kneels before the monstrance at the Church of the Gesu on June 7, concluding a Corpus Christi procession through North Philadelphia. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)
With the Latin hymn “Tantum Ergo” on their lips, including the final stanzas of St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Pange Lingua,” the pilgrims lifted the Blessed Sacrament high as they entered their destination, the Church of the Gesu at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Francisville, about a mile away from St. Malachy.
Ifeanyi Onuoha, who joined the procession in North Philly, called the experience a rejuvenating reminder of his Catholic identity.
“Experiences like this remind us of why we do what we do, why we believe in God,” he said. “It’s a profound feast in the Church that is centered on why we are Catholics.”
Many people simply drove or biked past the procession, but some onlookers took in the procession, perhaps encountering a eucharistic procession in the streets of Philly for the first time, and not knowing what to make of it.
Father Biedrzycki said such a first encounter can unlock people’s desires for the divine.
They are “longing for something more, longing for an encounter with God, but they may not know what that is yet,” he said. “Moments like this are really providential, and I pray that many had a chance to encounter the Lord in some way today.”
Those who attended Mass before the procession saw ancient Latin words inscribed upon the tabernacle, which translated into English mean, “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven. Behold the Bread of Angels.”
Father Biedrzycki’s homily indeed shared the depth of God’s love for all of humanity through the beauty of the Eucharist broken for us, engaging us in living a life of the same love.
“Today, in the Eucharist, we are permitted to taste love, to enter into Communion with love, and so then, not only being able to live with love, but more importantly to be led by love in all that we do,” he said.
‘In other words, entering into holy Communion, the Lord invites us to look at ourselves and to prepare love.”
He linked that preparation of love to the call for greater discipleship by everyone, challenging each person to pray for someone they hope to bring into the faith.
“This is an opportunity for us not only to grow (but) to lead others to do the same, to public witness,” he said.
The procession’s endpoint at Church of the Gesu is also another step in a joint effort to forge greater bonds between the parish and the Jesuit high school, connections that both parties hope will grow.
“Father Biedrzycki has made an effort to include this church, because of the former parishioners now at St. Malachy,” said Prep history teacher Bill Connors, who helped organize the the procession to the church whose parish closed in 1993.
“It’s wonderful to have people who are not students of St. Joe’s Prep come in here, use this church, worship in this church.”
These Corpus Christi pilgrims who ended the procession at the Prep encountered the same traditional expression of faith that Pope Leo XIV employed earlier that day in Madrid, Spain, reminding others that Christ “who processes through the streets in the monstrance is the same one who identifies with the poor, the downtrodden, those who are alone and forsaken.”
Those words were not lost on Onuoha.
“It’s quite profound. It’s a message that people need to hear in our world today. It’s a message of hope,” Onuoha said.
“It gives us that hope that things are going to get better if you center your faith on God.”
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