Nests 88, 811 Commemorate Corpus Christi Tradition

By Diane L. Mechlinski

Pictured above are Nest 88 and 811 members taking part in the Feast of the Corpus Christi tradition. Click to enlarge.

The Feast of the Corpus Christi (Boze Cialo) is a day on which the Catholic Church commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Since the Eucharist is the central feature of Catholicism, made present in the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, this feast is considered to be of enormous importance.

The celebration of Corpus Christi, common to the pre-Vatican II American Catholic church, is relatively unknown to many present-day Americans. However, this perception is generally out of touch with world Catholicism, wherein it is celebrated ceremoniously and with great solemnity throughout Europe, including Poland and Polonia worldwide.

Three important rituals form the core of the Polish Roman Catholic Corpus Christi devotions. They include the four Corpus Christi altars (Bozy Domek), greenery and the Corpus Christi procession.

“Bringing Christ out into our streets, into our daily lives, is most important,” said Rev. Msgr. Daniel Plocharczyk, pastor of Sacred Heart Church. “God took flesh in order to become our companion along the way, especially in our streets and homes –– we are proclaiming this.”

Upholding this tradition, Sacred Heart Church in New Britain, Conn., held its traditional procession honoring this feast on Sunday, June 10. In addition to the hundreds of parishioners that participated in the procession, organizations from within the city’s Polonia were well-represented, such as Nests 88 and 811, New Britain, Conn., the Jan Pawel II Saturday Polish Language School, the Haller Post Veterans and Ladies Auxiliary, and the Polish Scouts. Each of these organizations decorated their representative altar with colorful flowers, the traditional greenery, rugs and linens –– some in the thematic Polish colors of red and white, thereby professing their belief in bringing Christ amongst their everyday lives. As in this celebration, Nest 88 celebrated its 100th anniversary in June and has been, and continues to be, a constant presence within its Polish-American community. The second altar along the processional route was decorated by Nest 811 and was representative for both Nest 88 and Nest 811.

Little girls from this year’s First Holy Communion class at Sacred Heart carried baskets filled with rose petals, dropping them along the roadway as the procession, which began on Broad Street at the base of the church, wound its way through the nearby neighborhood, after which it returned to the church where the last altar, upon its steps, was decorated.

Observing New Britain’s Polonia, from those very youngest children tossing the flower petals along the processional way, to the older individuals who have lived with this most special observance their entire lives, bringing it from Poland to their new lives here in the United States, it appears most evident that church tradition remains important and is proudly lauded. The voices of the Sacred Heart Church parish Children’s Choir, singing traditional as well as modern hymns in both English and Polish, was affirmation of the Boze Cialo (Corpus Christi) legacy being reborn and instilled into the next generations.

Following the Mass and procession, Msgr. Plocharczyk and Rev. Stanislaw Dudek (also of Sacred Heart Church) distributed handfuls of candy into the baskets of all the eagerly-awaiting participant children.