STROUDSBURG – Members of the Polish community celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) on June 19, 2022, at Saint Luke Parish.
After the celebration of Mass in Polish, the community honored the Blessed Sacrament with a Eucharistic Procession and Prayers of Thanksgiving. 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 the faithful 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, N.J., presided at Mass and led the procession while carrying the monstrance that 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.