A miraculous day

It wasn’t really a miracle, but definitely a mini-miracle.
I keep telling you that thus and so is my favorite Holy Day, and although the one I name as the current favorite, is always the real favorite, at least for that day, I do seem to have many favorites. That said, Corpus Christi is one of my most favorite Holy Days. All the Cathedral choirs gather for the service and a big procession. That means SIX choirs – the big Cathedral Choir, the Women’s Schola, and four youth choirs. The choir area is totally stuffed with singers. The music is usually Panis Angelicus and Ave Verum Corpus, two favorites, and when sung by the Schola Cantorum – the remarkable top-rung children’s choir, they are exquisitely beautiful. After Mass, a procession, complete with a bagpipe band, winds around the block and concludes with Benediction. The procession is lots of fun, and has lots of Tom Stratman music, but there is one drawback. Some of the music a little complex – text with several only vaguely familiar (after a year to forget them) verses under each other is always harder to read than just one verse – and the melody of one of the songs requires a bit of care. This makes looking at the music occasionally necessary. Add to that a very uneven sidewalk, and disaster awaits. I always opt for not falling down over singing every word, and this has been an effective technique so far. My friend Joanne grabbed my arm as we were leaving the church, and I was not sure if it was because she knows that given the chance, I will always go the wrong way, or if she was worried about the sidewalk too. Who was helping whom? In any case, I was grateful.
But, you ask, where was the miracle? Well, it has been raining steadily for three days. Jim, our director, said that in the twenty-four years he had been there, it has never rained for Corpus Christi. A decision about the procession would be made at the last minute. The very last minute. It had been raining all morning, and was raining when Mass started, but at just the right time, there was – not exactly a sun-break – but a switch from definite rain to misty-moisty. So the procession proceeded. Immediately after, the rain again took up its “no processions today” stance. But just a little too late.

The photos are courtesy of Maria. You can see her album of the procession here.