Eucharistic procession unites St. Peter Parish as one faith family under Christ, our king

Please visit the Clarion Herald’s Facebook page for additional photos of the Sept. 30 eucharistic procession at St. Peter Parish in Covington.

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Friday morning, more than 1,500 members of the faith community at St. Peter Parish in Covington gathered under pristine skies – and lined hallways inside nearly every building on parish grounds – to adore Christ during a stunning eucharistic procession led by their pastor, Father Daniel Brouillette.

Father Brouillette said he organized the prayer event as a powerful reminder that St. Peter Parish and all of its many ministries – including the parish school – are one family in faith, with Christ as its loving king.

“The Eucharist converts hearts, it changes mindsets,” said Father Brouillette, speaking before the 10 a.m. eucharistic procession and sharing his  belief that “many miracles" would occur as a result of exposing Christ – fully present in the Eucharist – so publicly and to so many people.

To hammer home the point that all were welcome, the procession was held on a half-day of school to make attendance as convenient as possible for those who were picking up their children at noon. In addition to inviting families connected with St. Peter School, invitations were extended to all parishioners, including students and parents from the area’s two Catholic homeschool associations.

Large student contingents from Covington’s three Catholic high schools – St. Scholastica Academy, Archbishop Hannan and St. Paul’s – also were on hand to walk in procession with the Blessed Sacrament. Four of those teenage participants were given the honor of holding the canopy over the Blessed Sacrament as it traveled across campus.

Another visible group was made up of third graders from St. Peter School and Parish School of Religion, who were invited to come to campus in the white dresses, veils and suits they had worn to their First Communion Mass last spring as second graders.

Throughout the procession, the faithful were further united through the praying of the rosary, focusing their meditations on the Luminous Mysteries.

St. Peter seventh grader Edith Simpson said she enjoyed seeing the entire St. Peter community coming “together in Christ.”

“Everyone was so respectful!” Edith said. “It was nice to know that Jesus is coming to meet me. He cares for all of us.”

Another St. Peter seventh grader, Conner Michel, said he experienced “a very sacred, happy moment” as the monstrance passed him and his classmates.

“I felt a sense of, ‘He’s here; he’s coming to us; he’s inside of us; he’s coming to help us; he’s here to bless all of us,’” Conner said. “It’s awesome for the whole school to be coming back together now that COVID’s finally all over with and we can get back to our normal lives again.”

The 40-minute eucharistic procession concluded in the school’s outdoor pavilion area, where Father Brouillette placed the monstrance on an altar set up inside the parish’s grotto dedicated to the Blessed Mother. After the benediction, Father Brouillette held the  Blessed Sacrament aloft for the final blessing and presented the monstrance to Father Daniel Okafor, St. Peter’s parochial vicar, as the recessional hymn “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” was sung.

St. Peter parishioner Michelle LeBlanc, a homeschooling mother of eight children, was especially proud to see her son carrying the procession’s cross. LeBlanc said her own family, part of the 120-family-strong local chapter of the Roman Catholic Homeschool Association of Louisiana (RCHAL), has always felt welcomed into parish life.

“St. Peter has always supported us as homeschoolers. It was so special to us for them to invite us to bless (the parish school today), because we’re all part of the same community,” LeBlanc said. “I love that Jesus is present in my community – physically present – but Father Bru is making him even more present to my children, to my friends, to my family. I really appreciate him going out of his way to provide that for us.

“I’ve always taught my kids that the church is a diamond that has many facets, and (therefore) reflects the light of Christ in different ways,” added LeBlanc. “St. Peter’s does a really good job trying to do that – between the school, homeschool families and the formation of our youth. We include the whole community – the teachers, the parents, people from every walk of life. We blend everybody into all of our ministries!”

St. Peter is no stranger to eucharistic processions; the parish conducts two annual ones on the Feasts of Corpus Christi and Christ the King. But the “whole-community” feel of today’s procession is one that Father Brouillette would like to replicate every September as a “visible” proclamation that Catholics follow one king: Christ.

“He is our source, our summit, our everything,” Father Brouillette told the crowd, just before releasing students to their families for the weekend. “It was a beautiful, very sacred, blessed event, and I hope it touched all of your hearts as much as it touched mine!”

Michael Kraus, the principal of St. Peter School, said he was “overwhelmed” by the reverence exhibited by his students, who had practiced for the eucharistic procession the previous day to ensure that logistics wouldn’t detract from the special prayer opportunity. Kraus said the gathering was an opportunity to revere someone who is “better than any celebrity” his students could ever meet – Jesus.

“This was a wonderful moment for our church and school community, our guests and extended family, to see that Christ is our focal point, Christ is our mission,” Kraus said.
 
“Jesus Christ himself is coming through our campus, and he is our king and our Lord,” Kraus marveled. “The children were joyful, they were reverent and they loved every bit of it!”

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