From the Pastor’s Desk,

The Feast of Corpus Christi which we are celebrating this weekend had been celebrated on
the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to solemnly commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist. In
some countries it is a Holy Day of obligation, but not here in the United States.
St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, Belgium, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the
Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in its honor. This desire is said to have been
increased by a vision of the Church under the appearance of the full moon having one dark spot,
which signified the absence of such a solemnity. She made known her ideas to Robert de Thourotte,
the Bishop of Liège, to the learned Dominican Hugh, later Cardinal Legate in the Netherlands, and to
Jacques Pantaléon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, afterwards Bishop of Verdun, Patriarch of Jerusalem,
and finally Pope Urban IV. St. Juliana would not take no for an answer. Bishop Robert after
some study was impressed, and at this time in history individual bishops had the right of ordering
feasts for their dioceses, in 1246 he ordered the celebration to be held in the following year.
Bishop Robert died on October 16, 1246 before the feast was first celebrated but the feast
was celebrated by the canons of St. Martin at Liège. The new bishop of Liège, requested the pope
to extend the celebration to the entire world. Pope Urban IV, was an admirer of the feast and published
the Bull "Transiturus" on September 8th, 1264. The Pope extolled the love of Our Saviour as
expressed in the Holy Eucharist, and ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday
after Trinity Sunday. The early decree does not call for a procession as a feature of the celebration.
The Corpus Christi procession, already held in some places, was added by Popes Martin V and
Eugene IV.
What a perfect weekend to also celebrate as a Diocese the ordination to the priesthood of Fr.
Daniel Belken and Fr. Allen Kirchner. They were ordained on Friday evening in Cape Girardeau.
Please keep them in prayer as they begin their priestly ministry to the people of God here in our Diocese.
~Rev. Lewis Hejna