A late addition to the Yahoo newsphoto pool from last night:
I have posted a full translation of the Holy Father's Corpus Domni homily two posts above. Yet another treasure in the Holy Father's Magisterial texts.
More photos of the Corpus Domini procession:
The following 2 photos are an odd juxtaposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the Pope with shop signs along Rome's Via Merulana,
the processional road from the Lateran to Santa Maria Maggiore:
As the Vatican Radio commentator noted yesterday, Corpus Domini is the one solemnity that the Holy Father leads primarily as the Bishop of Rome, pastor of this diocese, not as the Pope. A distinctly Roman feast in which even the liturgy at the Lateran Basilica (the Cathedral of Rome) last night was predominantly in Italian. (If you watched the telecast, you may have enjoyed - as I did - the exuberant Italian flavor of the entire Mass, particularly the hymns and the singing.)
Indeed, the Corpus Domini procession in Rome - with its army of followers and devotees who turn out faithfully every year - is one of the remaining grand manifestations of popular devotion in the modern world.
It is a rare glimpse - not always sufficiently shown by the TV coverage - into that still-existing world of religious confraternities and sodalities, with their distinctive and colorful standards and uniforms, that hark back to the Middle Ages.
The Vatican commentator was right about one thing. Anyone visiting Rome would do well to schedule it around Corpus Domini, because it is the one occasion when you have the best chance of seeing the Pope from fairly near without having to worry about getting any tickets.
From the huge square in front of the Lateran Basilica where the Corpus Domini Mass is celebrated to the mile-long procession route and around Santa Maria Maggiore, a devoted tourist/pilgrim could theoretically have his/her fill of a Eucharistic experience that is also a prime papal event.
Finally, I could not resist cropping and enlarging this image:
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/06/2009 17:46]