At the prompting of his Confirmation students, the pastor of a Catholic church in Arkansas led a 15-mile Eucharistic procession on Palm Sunday, witnessing the beauty of the Catholic faith and the reality of the Eucharist to a largely non-Catholic region.
Arkansas Catholic reports that Father Joseph Friend, the pastor of Holy Cross Church in Crossett, Holy Spirit Church in Hamburg, and Our Lady of the Lake Church in Lake Village, said his students encouraged the idea. They walked through Delta, a region in Arkansas that borders Louisiana and is considered the “deepest of the deep South.”
“A few years ago, we gave our confirmation class a few options of what they could do for their confirmation retreat,” Fr. Friend said. “The one they selected was a 15-mile walk with the Eucharist from one church to the other. When I heard what they’d selected, I was like, ‘Let’s do this. This is awesome.’”
The students invited friends, family, and acquaintances; 60 people joined the procession along Highway 82, according to the outlet.
Fr. Friend added that the pilgrimage was a “local response to the ongoing spirit of the National Eucharistic Revival, emphasizing the Real Presence of Christ not just within church walls but in the streets of the community.”
The whole journey lasted seven hours, and Fr. Friend carried the Blessed Sacrament under a canopy with a local Catholic, David Dick, acting as thurifer (an altar server who spreads incense).
The procession, Dick said, was more challenging than he expected, but God gave them the grace to go through with it.
“God definitely granted us the grace,” he said. “A big part of our procession was to highlight our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, and to do it in a public way to maybe spark interest or just to witness or particular faith. So being a part of that was very humbling, and it encouraged me to have a more reverential attitude. I think the incense adds to that. You see it all through Scripture — it being used as a symbol of our prayers rising to heaven, of it purifying the way.”
Local residents noticed the procession, and according to the report, “people all across southeast Arkansas are talking about it.”
Fr. Friend told the outlet that he drives frequently and has to stop at gas stations often, and he’s been asked about the procession even there.
“Now, I even have the gas station clerks asking me, ‘Are you that Catholic priest who’s walking around town with all those people?’” Fr. Friend said. “We border Louisiana, so what was really cool was seeing some Catholics who were traveling, who would stop on the side of the road and start recording us. Some people would stop and look and ask questions.”
“What a cool way in the Delta to live our faith,” the priest added later. “With our source and summit of our faith — the Eucharist — leading the way.”