Eucharist

In full vestments and flanked by pines, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens held high the Eucharist in a golden monstrance, making the sign of the cross over the stream that flowed gently from the placid lake behind him. Next to him, a signpost read, “Here 1,475 FT above the ocean, the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way 2,552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.”

The southern arm of the national pilgrimage launched from the tip of Texas in Brownsville — nearly half a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border — and will wind around the Gulf of Mexico and traverse the country’s southeast on its way to Indianapolis to attend the July 17-21 10th National Eucharistic Congress.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone told pilgrims at a Pentecost Mass launching the western route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage — the St. Junipero Serra Route — that the faith publicly lived in love has the “power to change history.”