St. Vincent Ferrer Hosts Adoration, Talks on Saturday Night of Eucharistic Pilgrimage

| 05/29/2024

By: Steven Schwankert

The procession reached the Midtown church after having traveled halfway down Manhattan during the day

Archdiocese of New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo Colacicco speaks at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan, during a stop on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, May 25, 2024.
Archdiocese of New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo Colacicco speaks at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan, during a stop on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, May 25, 2024. Photo by Steven Schwankert/The Good Newsroom

About 200 priests, brothers and sisters religious, and lay people spent part of the hottest evening of the year so far at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan Saturday, as the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage stopped there for the night.

The procession reached the church slightly ahead of its scheduled 7 p.m. arrival time, having traveled down half of Manhattan during the day. After benediction, adoration and choral music began during a 30-minute interlude prior to talks by Archdiocese of New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo Colacicco, Sister Mary Pietrina Busse, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, and Father Peter Martyr Yungwirth, OP, pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer.

“The power of the Eucharist ignites a fire within the soul that enables us to do what the world deems impossible,” said Bishop Colacicco, who serves on both the Bishops Advisory Group and the board of directors of the National Eucharistic Congress, to be held in Indianapolis in July. “The Eucharist is the fuel for the sacrifice of self for the greater good. It is the source and summit of true love,” he said.

“To believe and to be convinced that Jesus is here, present among us in the most holy sacrament on the altar, enables us to be our true selves, to be faithful to the call of our vocations and by this faithfulness to bring others to that truth. This is the path to holiness,” Bishop Colacicco said.

After more music, Sister Mary Pietrina, recalled the impact of the Eucharist on the founder of her congregation, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Mother Mary Alphonsa).

“There are some glimpses in her writings years after her conversion of how intensely personal her relationship with the Eucharist became. In a letter written to the sister who co-founded the community, she tells how, ‘When before the altar, everything seems safe and hopeful.’”

“On a day when struggling with ill health, she wrote gratefully of having, ‘a long visit to our Lord, which was life-giving.’ Her frequent visits were what sustained her through her many years of service,” Sister Mary Pietrina said.

Following another musical selection, Father Yungwirth addressed those in attendance.

“Christ desires to impress Himself upon us. He desires to mold us in Himself. He wants to shape us to be like Him, so that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” Father Yungwirth said.

“He wants us to participate in the perfect union that He has with the Father. You see, the Eucharist doesn’t just transform the Church, nor does it just transform the saints. The Eucharist also transforms us. God can transform you, and He can transform me. And the more that we are open to this reality, the more that it will bear fruit,” he said.

After more music and time for adoration, the evening’s event concluded with compline, as the procession ended for its final night in the Archdiocese of New York.

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