Father Charles Trullols and others prayed for the clouds to go away on Saturday morning, May 20 and downtown Washington, D.C. received its share of sunlight during a 70-degree morning.
Father Trullols, a priest from Spain, directs the Catholic Information Center on K Street, which was holding its first Eucharistic Procession that day. CIC estimates that more than 500 people attended what could be an annual event.
As it wound past several blocks, including Farragut Square, Lafayette Square, and McPherson Square, the two-hour procession passed by the places of work of accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, and others.
It passed people who appeared to be homeless. Father Trullols, an Opus Dei priest, is part of a personal prelature in the Catholic Church founded by St. Josemaría Escrivá that tries to help laypeople view their work as a means of sanctification, so being a part of the hustle and bustle of the city is not outside of his realm of comfort.
The procession included families – including mothers and fathers pushing strollers – as well as young people. Participants kept a reverent silence during the procession, joining in a recitation of the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary during the first part of the walk. They also sang traditional hymns, including Immaculate Mary and the Salve Regina. Many people in the procession kneeled on pavement in front of the Eucharist during the altar stops.
There were also members of religious communities dressed in their habits, such as the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, the Missionaries of Charity, and Servadoras, a religious order from Argentina. The event was well-documented, from livestreaming smartphones to larger, stationary cameras and video recorders.
“He feeds us spiritually,” Father Trullols proclaimed during the first altar stop, after a Gospel reading recounting Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000. “We need His strength.” He led the procession in praying for the elected leadership of the United States, as well as the country and noted that Jesus Christ was not coming to the District of Columbia on that day as a tourist. A seven-member choir sang sacred music.
Father Charles Gallagher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in the District, read from the Gospel of John, where Jesus proclaimed that He is the Bread of Life. At an altar set up across the Veterans Affairs Department, the priest prayed for military members, as well as veterans and those who have died serving the United States. A native of Hyattsville who graduated from The Heights School in Potomac, which is run by Opus Dei, Father Gallagher also thanked the Metropolitan Police Department for helping to ensure a safe and well-run event.
One of 40 yellow-vested Catholic Information Center volunteers who worked the event, Moira Delaney also served on a committee of eight people who planned the event. She said she saw bystanders kneeling on the sidewalk as a sign of devotion to the Eucharist, as the procession was passing them.
“It completely exceeded my expectations,” Father Trullols said after the Eucharistic Procession, which he said that he envisioned as a way that CIC could participated in the three-year Eucharistic Revival in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. As he spoke, on the sidewalk outside of CIC, the air was full of conversation from those who had just completed the Eucharistic Procession, including many who had attended Mass at CIC just before the procession.
What remained on the sidewalks and streets that the group had traversed were white and red rose petals that children had distributed as a sign of devotion.
Some of Father Trullols’s CIC regulars, including those who attend its weekday noon Mass, have promised him that there would be two or three times as many people next year, should the CIC decide to hold the event.
