Campus Eucharistic Procession to End Year of Faith

Jesus will walk the Benedictine College campus to see out the Year of Faith.

On November 24, the feast of Christ the King, Benedictine College’s College Ministry will hold a candlelit Eucharistic Procession through the campus in Atchison, Kan.

According to David Trotter, Benedictine’s director for Mission and Ministry, the procession will begin in the Abbey Church and will have four stops at altars sponsored by various student groups. Fr. Brendan Rolling, O.S.B., head chaplain at Benedictine College, will be the main celebrant at the Mass. He and other campus Chaplains will carry the Blessed Sacrament during the procession.

“Concluding the Year of Faith with a special Mass and Eucharistic Procession is a unique demonstration of our Faith, and a call to discipleship—to follow the Lord in faith,” said Trotter. “Our Lord will process through campus, bringing His abundant graces and blessings with Him.”

Benedictine College has celebrated the Year of Faith in a number of ways:

• Abbot James Albers consecrated Benedictine College to the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sept. 8, 2013. The college installed a 21-foot fountain statue of Our Lady of Grace in the academic quad.
• The college has devoted both the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to themes that focus on the Year of Faith: “Be Faithful, Courageous and Strong” and “Be the Light.” The themes are used for programming campuswide.
• A program of personal consecration has seen hundreds of Benedictine College friends, faculty, staff and students consecrate themselves to the Blessed Mother.
• The school continues to be the flagship college of the New Evangelization.

“Benedictine spiritually is closely linked with Eucharistic devotion,” Trotter explained. “The earliest Eucharistic processions where those of Benedictine priests who carried the Eucharist to sick monks. One of the first Eucharistic processions recorded was that of Lanfranc of Pavia, the Benedictine Abbot of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury. St. Benedict’s devotion to the Eucharist was so great that just moments before his death, with the help of his fellow monks, he was able to receive communion.”

Benedictine College has many opportunities for Eucharistic adoration on campus, including perpetual adoration in St. Benedict’s Church, which is attached to Elizabeth Hall.

Founded in 1858, Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, residential, liberal arts college located on the bluffs above the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas. The school is proud to have been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report as well as one of the top Catholic colleges in the nation by First Things magazine and the Newman Guide. It prides itself on outstanding academics, extraordinary faith life, strong athletic programs, and an exceptional sense of community and belonging. It has a mission to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship.