The Feast of Corpus Christ Members of the Polish Community celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ) on June 19th at St Luke’s Parish in Stroudsburg. After the celebration of the Mass in Polish, the community honored the Blessed Sacrament with a procession and prayers of thanksgiving.
In other countries like Poland, Austria, and Germany, this feast is celebrated on June 16th but in the United States, the date has been changed to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. The people of the Polish community remembered their Catholic heritage in Poland and processed around the Church building stopping at altar shrines to pray.
Before Mass, members of the congregation made four altars each honoring the Body of Christ.
Each of these altars were beautifully decorated with many flowers, banners, and pictures meant to honor Jesus Christ in this sacrament of the Eucharist. Many ethnic groups from Poland came to the celebration with their respected attire from each region as Polish Highlanders or Cracovian.
The Mass ended with all congregants walking in procession to each of the altars, ringing bells and throwing flower petals as they solemnly moved along. Father Sylwester Pierzak, a Polish priest from the Diocese of Paterson, NJ, presided at Mass and led the procession while carrying the Monstrance which enshrined the Blessed Sacrament. He is one of a small team of Polish priests who come to serve the growing Polish population in the Poconos.
We are happy to have our parish home in St. Luke’s Church. The doors of the church are open to us by our pastor, Father Michael Quinnan, Deacon Phil Zimich and entire pastoral staff.
Marcin Bienias Student of Jan Paul II Polish School, Stroudsburg, PA