St. Francis Xavier dispatches hundreds of saints into the neighborhood

by Peter Finney Jr.

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

All Saints’ Day Mass is one of Father Joe Palermo's favorites of the year because he gets to share the traditions of the church with his students.

On All Saints’ Day, Father Palermo went even further. He led the entire school on a several-block eucharistic procession around the neighborhood to celebrate Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Hundreds of students dressed as their favorite saints and walked around their church and school.

Father Palermo was astounded by the liturgy and his students’ reaction to the procession:

“It’s my favorite school Mass because all of our children dress up as saints, and if you talk to each of them and ask them why they picked that particular saint, they almost always can tell you the story of the saint and how the saint followed the Lord and what the particular work of charity was that they did. It’s meaningful for them. They get more invested in it, and I love it.

“The very first of these eucharistic processions was in the city of Cologne, Germany (in the 1200s), and it kind of took off from there. Other cities decided, ’We need to do this, too.’ So, it spread around Europe. We do eucharistic adoration around here from time to time with the children, and occasionally we’ve even processed Jesus in church, but this was the first time we’ve gone out into the neighborhood. We thought it would be a wonderful witnessing experience for them of how much we treasure the Blessed Eucharist.

“I saw the little ones out there, and they were so reverent, so quiet to observe this and soak it all in. It’s a wonderful way to teach the faith. Children learn much more by tangible and visible things than they do by hearing things. I hope they’ll learn that we’re all trying to follow Jesus into heaven to become saints. That’s our No. 1 goal and mission. If we don’t accomplish that, oh my goodness, we’ve missed the whole point of life.’’

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