Present in His Presence – 4.3-mile Procession Proves Fruitful in Charleston.
Many parishes across the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi in June with spectacular yet solemn, peaceful, and reverently prayerful processions, but one procession literally when the extra mile.
Saint Agnes Parish in Charleston, WV, lead a 4.3-mile Corpus Christi procession from St Agnes church all the way to one of the Diocesan’s designated Year of Hope pilgrimage sites – The Basilica of the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral.
More than 100 faithful of all ages participated with about 65 people walking the entire distance in extreme temperatures and humidity that day.
Local police officers guided the group as they made the trek that crossed the Kanawha River. On the way to the Co-Cathedral, there was a significant pause. The group stopped at the state Capitol where an altar was set up on the Capitol steps, Fr. Phillip Szabo and the faithful gathered prayed for government employees and elected officials.
Benediction was held at Sacred Heart. According to the faithful in the state’s capitol city, “Charleston has never seen such a powerful witness of our faith!”
In the St. Agnes Parish bulletin for last week, June 29th, Fr. Szabo shared as he noted, “just one of what I imagine will be many miracles that came from the procession:
“As we neared the Capitol building where we stopped to pray for our government leaders and bless the Capitol complex, we passed a woman who was kneeling on the sidewalk as we went by. She ended up following us the rest of the way and told us a very surprising story after everything was over. She is a Catholic and explained that she had come to Charleston on that very day just to pray at the Capitol by herself, because of the increasing amount of unrest in the world.
“She had no idea that, on the one day she chose to pray at the Capitol, she would be met by Jesus Himself and all of us who were there to do the same thing!”
In closing, as Fr. Szabo says to his parishioners, “May God bless you all and may He bless us all with a growing love for His presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist!”
