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Thousands lined up in a full Cathedral of St. Paul to kneel and venerate relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and her parents Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin Oct. 6 in St. Paul. More than a few were in tears.
Veneration was preceded by hundreds of people walking a half-mile from the State Capitol to the Cathedral in the annual Candlelight Rosary Procession, many with lighted candles wrapped in transparent plastic against 15 to 20 mph winds. They accompanied two large, glass-enclosed reliquaries carrying the saints’ relics, each carried by six to eight men.
Several other men carried a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary atop a platform of red and white roses, as Knights of Columbus in full regalia led the way.
“Incredible,” said Barbara Dugan of St. Therese in Deephaven, about having the relics part of the procession. “I’m so proud to be Catholic. I feel so blessed.”
Dugan was with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Anna Dugan, who said the procession was beautiful.
Tom and Cheri Koezly of St. Peter in Forest Lake said it was amazing to be with the relics of the Martin family. “It’s a blessing especially because they are parents,” Cheri Koezly said of Sts. Louis and Zélie, while explaining that she and her husband participate in the procession each year, often with their five children.
The procession, sacred hymns and litanies, a homily from Archbishop Bernard Hebda, adoration of the Eucharist, veneration of the relics and Benediction filled the evening from about 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Bishops Joseph Williams and Michael Izen also participated.
The relics also were part of the annual Catholic school Children’s Rosary Pilgrimage Oct. 6 at the Cathedral. They have been part of events that began Oct. 4 in Stillwater and continue through Oct. 15 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and St. Therese in Deephaven.
Conducted annually during the Month of the Holy Rosary, the procession is sponsored by the Office of Worship of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in collaboration with the Family Rosary Processions Association.
This year’s event also included a “mega” Cor Jesu (Heart of Jesus) session of worship, music, confession, adoration and prayer teams. Usually held on the First Friday of each month with college students and young adults in St. Mary’s Chapel at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Cor Jesu was a much larger affair in the Cathedral.
During his homily, Archbishop Hebda invited people to stay as late as they could, while acknowledging many young families were attending as well.
The archbishop noted another special part of the evening: the monstrance holding the Eucharist was about 350 years old, on special loan for the event from Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay. Called the Perrot Monstrance, it is believed to have accompanied pioneering Father Louis Hennepin, who discovered St. Anthony’s Falls in Minneapolis, Archbishop Hebda said. It was last in the archdiocese during the 1941 Eucharistic Congress, the archbishop said.
“It seems only fitting, as the Church in the United States continues in its three-year (National) Eucharistic Revival, that we might focus this evening on what St. Thérèse teaches about how to relate to Jesus in the Eucharist,” the archbishop said, describing how her devotion to the Eucharist began at a very young age.
As St. Thérèse grew older, she wrote this, the archbishop said: “‘I picture my soul as a piece of land and beg the Blessed Virgin to remove from it any rubbish that would prevent it from being free. Then I ask her to set up a huge tent worthy of heaven, adorning it with her own jewelry. Finally, I invite the angels and saints to come and conduct a magnificent concert there. It seems to me that when Jesus descends into my heart, he is content to find himself so well received. And I, too, am content.’”
“My sisters and brothers,” the archbishop said, “as we continue this evening of adoration, as we continue with this celebration of Cor Jesu and recognize that love that pours forth from the heart of Jesus, let’s ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That we, like Thérèse, might be aware of the great gift, the Eucharist. That we might prepare our hearts, that we might rejoice at such a great gift, and that we might go forth and share with others our deep love of Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament.”
