A time of healing

Celebrating Corpus Christi in China

By Cynthia Chu
September 2005

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Scarboro lay missioner Cynthia Chu and the official photograther for the celebration, Henry Zuo, whose photos are shown here.

Scarboro lay missioner Cynthia Chu and the official photographer for the celebration, Henry Zuo, whose photos are shown here

It was the Feast of Corpus Christi and my local parish in China held a grand celebration for the Year of the Eucharist. It began with mass at 8:30 a.m. and continued with singing, talks, a Eucharistic procession, lunch, reciting of the rosary, more singing and talks, and ended with benediction at 3:00 p.m.

The talks given by three seminarians from the Shanghai seminary were interspersed with related hymns making them interesting and more meaningful. The three young men were very good speakers—energetic, enthusiastic and creative. At various points in their talks, they invoked charismatic responses from the congregation. Amazingly there was a resounding response, disproving my perception of a shy and reserved Chinese people.

Since this is the diocesan cathedral, parishioners from churches within the diocese also came, so it was a full house with temporary seating out in the courtyard. One would think that most people would have left after mass or at least after lunch. However, the majority stayed.

Lunch was free. If it were anywhere else in China, pushing and elbowing to get the free food might be expected. Not here. Everyone waited patiently for their turn. And the young people served the food to others before they fed themselves.

Procession into the courtyard of the cathedral on the Feast of Corpus Christi, China

Before closing, the priest asked anyone who wished to receive physical or spiritual healing to come forward and a healing team would pray over them. One man walked up; then a few followed suit. The team began to pray and invited the congregation to extend their hands to pray along with the team. After this first group returned to their seats, a great number filed forward for healing prayer, and more and more people kept going up. It was quite moving.

Prayer of healing

Throughout the day, I noticed a young man taking pictures. He was the official photographer for the celebration. I made a point of locating him afterwards to ask if he would email me the pictures so I could share them with my Canadian friends. We began talking and he gave me the DVD he had made of the parish’s Christmas celebration. I viewed it at home and found that it was superbly done showing the baptisms, the Christmas story, and the testimonials. This young man followed through with his promise to send pictures of the Corpus Christi celebration and I am happy to share some of them with you here.

Cynthia Chu is a Scarboro lay missioner serving in China.

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