On their parish feast day on June 7, 2026 – the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known traditionally as Corpus Christi Sunday – the clergy and parishioners of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, D.C., lived out their name, joining a procession with the Blessed Sacrament that wound from the church through part of their neighborhood.
“This is our way of giving witness to the community of our love and devotion of the Eucharist,” said Bishop-elect Gary Studniewski, the pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, as he invited people to walk with the procession after he celebrated a Mass for the parish feast day.
On May 1, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Studniewski and Father Robert Boxie III – the Catholic chaplain at Howard University – as new auxiliary bishops for Washington, and their episcopal ordinations will be on July 7 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Hundreds of parishioners, from children and parents to young adults to senior citizens, walked reverently in the procession, following their pastor as he processed with the Eucharist beneath a canopy held by four men from the parish.
After the procession went from outside the church through the parking lot, it moved from alongside Chevy Chase Parkway and then past Chevy Chase Circle, with Father Peter Mlynarczyk, a parochial vicar at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, carrying the Blessed Sacrament.
Then the procession continued on past Western Avenue to an outdoor altar set up outside a parish building, where participants sang the Latin hymn “Tantum Ergo” during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Bishop-elect Studniewski presided at the Benediction, blessing those present with the Eucharist. Moments earlier, he led people in praying to Jesus as “our hope… the light of the world… the source of new life… the food for everlasting life… (and) the food for our journey.”
In an interview after the Eucharistic procession, Bishop-elect Studniewski said, “I think we’ve given worthy love and devotion to the Eucharist today, and we want to continue that for the remainder of our earthly journey.”
He added, “We are the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament… It’s nice to give witness to the community.”
Earlier in his homily at the Mass that morning that preceded the procession, Bishop-elect Studniewski said, “As Catholic Christians, we have a particular way of remembering all God has done for us through Christ Jesus – the Eucharist.”
He said that Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper not as a symbol, but because “he wanted us to know He’s still among us.” Receiving Christ’s Body and Blood through the Eucharist, he said, “is the primary way we enter the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.”
At a reception afterward, Blessed Sacrament parishioners reflected on what it meant to participate in the Eucharistic procession.
Kathryn Mulder, who works for Yahoo and walked in the procession with her family after attending Mass with her mother, her husband and their four children, said, “It’s a beautiful thing to be part of, to celebrate the gift of the Eucharist.”
Also joining the procession with their four children were Kenny and Maria O’Connor. He works as an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and she teaches theater part-time.
“It’s great we do it. It’s our parish feast day,” Kenny O’Connor said, noting that a 40 Hours Devotion at the parish had begun on Friday evening and continued to that morning’s first Mass there.
He noted that people are hungry for a sense of purpose and a sense of community in life, and that public display of Eucharistic devotion “might plant a seed.”
That point was echoed by Maria O’Connor, who said, “Having a public demonstration of our love for Jesus is important and hopefully impactful for the community.”
She expressed hope that her family’s participation in the Eucharistic procession would have an impact on their four daughters and help them stay close to Jesus. “Any time we spend time and energy doing something related to Jesus, it shows the importance (of that) in our lives,” she said.
Patty Myler, a longtime parishioner who is now 79, noted, “I grew up in the parish and led the procession when I was in the second grade” after receiving her First Holy Communion.
The Eucharist minister at the parish said offering a public witness of devotion to the Eucharist is important at a time when “sometimes people take the Eucharist for granted.”
Myler is a member of the Christ Child Society, a national Catholic group founded by the late Mary Virginia Merrick, a Washingtonian and a Blessed Sacrament parishioner whose cause for canonization is underway.
Mary Shimp, a Blessed Sacrament parishioner who is retired from the tech industry, said, “It’s such a privilege to present such a public witness to our faith, and to share that with the people in this faith community.”
Alice Holian walked in the Eucharistic procession with her two children – her daughter Sunny, a fifth grader at Blessed Sacrament School, and her son Andrew, a second grader there – while her husband and their father Luke Holian was one of the men holding up poles to support the canopy over the priest with the Blessed Sacrament during the procession.
“It’s just a beautiful way to proclaim the message Christ is alive and well in this world. It’s a good opportunity for people to take notice as we walk through the neighborhood,” she said.
One day earlier after the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came to Washington for a prayerful commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Holian family had been among more than 1,000 people joining a Eucharistic procession through downtown organized by the Catholic Information Center. Alice Holian said that at a time when many people put faith off to the side of their lives, “It’s nice to put it in the forefront.”
Her husband Luke Holian was chatting at the reception with Chris Delaney, another Blessed Sacrament parishioner who had helped support the canopy during the Eucharistic procession. Asked about what it meant to take part in the procession, Delaney – a technical consultant for the government, said, “First I felt a connection to what we’re doing as a community, to recognize God’s love as He expresses it through each other. I felt we were sharing it through our larger community by carrying Christ through our neighborhood.”
Luke Holian – who works for a software development firm – said venerating the Eucharist through a procession was a way to continue “the faith of our fathers,” a faith that he and his wife are handing down to their daughter and son.
“It was a great reminder it’s okay to be Catholic. We don’t have to hide,” he said, adding, “It’s just such a fitting way to celebrate our parish being Blessed Sacrament.”
