The celebrations started the day before with a solemn procession, and continued into the night with the Office of Readings. On Thursday, June 11, Corpus Christi was celebrated in a private setting at the Holy Sepulchre Church.
Only a few regulars and a group of about fifty sisters from the Sacred Heart Congregation were there that morning along with just a few pilgrims and tourists. The building was almost completely silent, making the solemnity all the more reverential.
.Accompanied by a few seminarians from the Patriarchate, His Beatitude Mgr. Fouad Twal presided over the Mass with about twenty priests in attendance. After the mass, those in attendance circled around the sepulcher three times. The many Franciscans of the city, along with the novices of Ain Karem and the friars from other convents from the country, made up most of the entourage following the canopy-covered monstrance carried by the patriarch.
“What are you celebrating?” asked tourists. Although they probably didn’t understand what was going on, but they were nonetheless enthusiastic in their response: “How beautiful!”
Only a few regulars and a group of about fifty sisters from the Sacred Heart Congregation were there that morning along with just a few pilgrims and tourists. The building was almost completely silent, making the solemnity all the more reverential.
.Accompanied by a few seminarians from the Patriarchate, His Beatitude Mgr. Fouad Twal presided over the Mass with about twenty priests in attendance. After the mass, those in attendance circled around the sepulcher three times. The many Franciscans of the city, along with the novices of Ain Karem and the friars from other convents from the country, made up most of the entourage following the canopy-covered monstrance carried by the patriarch.
“What are you celebrating?” asked tourists. Although they probably didn’t understand what was going on, but they were nonetheless enthusiastic in their response: “How beautiful!”