Awesome ! God Bless these men for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in the public square.

WOW! Bless these Franciscans for bringing back Christ to the public square. They are still doing what St. Francis would do today,“preach the Gospel, if necessary use words”.

What a great way to start my day! Thank you!

I think the missing words are ....and His mind is on me..from a
transcription I have seen previously…Thank you for presenting this
wonderful video…note the woman who rushes after Father as he walks
away and touches his shoulder..reminding us of the woman in the Bible
who touches the hem of His garment…to be healed of years of constant
hemorrhaging. Amazing video! to watch again and again..something different each time!

Flash mob - a great idea! Imagine if all Christians at noon or 3pm EDT stopped and either knelt on one knee or bowed their head like the shepherds adoring the Christ Child.

Amen, thanks be to GOD!

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!

Wow!  Thanks so much I really needed to see this today:-)

Flash mob - a great idea! Imagine if all Christians at noon or 3pm EDT stopped and either knelt on one knee or bowed their head like the shepherds adoring the Christ Child.

Resurrecting the practice of the Angelus Prayer would do the trick.

A very inspiring apostolate! May the Holy Spirit reap a bountiful harvest of souls from the friars’ Eucharistic processions!

Absolutely inspiring indeed. Very moving too. To be honest however, It would’ve perhaps done better or made more of a sincere impression by eliminating the corny reggae and cheesy ‘New Agey’ music. Its hard to bend ones knee to Yanni. But thats probably just my opinion.

This was fantastic. So poignant and powerful, and yet simple.
Great way to start the Feast of Corpus Christi!
Miles

This gave me the chills…especially when the friar said that pretty much no one can defeat Him.

In his opening sermon to the birds, St Francis is reported to have said “My little sisters the birds, ye owe much to God, your Creator, and ye ought to sing his praise at all times and in all places”. These words could be changed to “my little brothers’ and applied to these two magnificent friars, as well as those who knelt in worship. May God bless all of them, and may all catholics stand openly, firm and proud in the sight of the Lord.

How I would LOVE to see Jesus brought to the streets
in San Francisco in such a setting!

Bless these Holy Friars and the beautiful work they do.

How I would LOVE to see Our Lord brought to San Francisco
in this way….

Bless the beautiful Friars for their wonderful work
they are doing for Our Lord!

May God Bless these men and may we ALL follow their lead . . . bringing our Lord to the forefront and the center of everything . . . in whatever way we can!

This is beautiful.  Thanks for transcribing what the priest said. I’m going to print it for my children.

Thank you so much for this transcription.  I posted the YouTube at my blog within moments after receiving it.  Several people have asked for the transcription so I know I speak for many when I say thank you!

My good friend sent me a link to this video.  And I am so glad he did!  very inspirational!

I love Franciscans.

It needs courage and devotion. I appreciate the Capuchin Fathers for this wonderful evangelisation. May Jesus bless them and send Holy Spirit to all the listeners and viewers.

Need as many people as possible for a series of Catholic flash mobs happening this around the country this Sunday. To participate meet at your local church this Sunday, start times can be found in the bulletin under “mass times”. Show up, make the flash mob epic!

This is a call to us all, to bring Our Lord to his people and to bring His light to shine in this very dark world.

Yea, it is very cool to see the public adoration of Our Lord but I have a question: is it o.k. to transport the Blessed Sacrament in a duffel bag? I am not trying to be difficult but if it is Jesus and worthy of our adoration then how could it be o.k. to transport His Precious Body in a duffel bag? I fear that His Prescious Body was desecrated while being transported. It makes us feel good to see the devotion of the friars and some of the onlookers but are we kidding ourselves that this is anything other than making us feel good? is this really worthy of HIM? If HE is worthy of adoration then surely HE is worthy of a proper procession to get there. If I am wrong, please let me know.

@ Ann:

YES, exactly what I was thinking.  Even a procession of two monks, but right from the church, then back to it, would have been the way to go.  After such a powerful video, wherein you can see many instances of grace stirring in hearts, it is painful to see Jesus put back into a duffelbag.  Anyway, God bless you, dear Fathers, for your initiative!  Your St. Francis indeed must have inspired you.

The Lord would travel anywhere to offer Salvation to All.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.

God bless those Franciscans!

I also was very moved by the presentation of our Lord to the “town square”, but I REALLY question using the duffel bag.  It really cheapened the whole idea for me, and I also wonder how that looked to non-believers; it is no wonder they laugh at us.  I think it was very disrespectful to transport the monstrance in a bag instead of processing porperly.  I cannot imagine one of our Friars doing that here.
I was going to re post this to my facebook page, but because of the disrespectful way they carried out our precious Lord, I will not be doing that.

“Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.”

Amen!

Do we know that these are real! friars?? And that this is truly the Body of Christ being brought into the market place? Cynic that I am it occurs to me that this whole thing might be a hoax…well done? Somehow I cannot see a real friar transporting the Real Presence in this manner as some here have pointed out. I think a real friar/priest would carry the pix
inside his robe..then bring out the monstrance from his duffle and place
reverently the Host inside, reversing the procedure when leaving..there seems to be too little regard in amount of reverence shown here to be real priests and Real Presence. But I admit the general idea would be good…and it has certainly made a lasting impressionand set many to thinking. But I would like more verification of whole incident.

awesome. awesome. awesome.

Oh people… I would stop debating about the duffle bag. A hoax? Seriously…?!?! Oh good gracious…

He obviously handled the Blessed Sacrament with extreme reverence and care. Anyone notice the friar held it straight up for several minutes (painful!) with piercing reverece… truly the sign of someone who passionately adores our Lord.

People stopped and KNELT before our Lord in the marketplace…absoultely amazing.

@Cathy: ” He obviously handled the Blessed Sacrament with extreme reverence and care…the friar held it straight up for several (painful)minutes with piercing reverence..truly the sign of someone who passionately adores our Lord”. Perhaps ...or perhaps just a very good actor. We have to take this whole scene on faith…or reject it as being just a well performed hoax..something UTUBE and the whole internet is ultra famous for…You cannot prove this a genuine happening on performance alone..we need PROOF these friars are whom they purport to be as to know for sure what we are witnessing here…the people kneeling could very well be co-actors in the endeavor…that’s what flash mobs are about…don’t be so easily taken in here…where is the proof…I still say that the manner in which the elements arrived ( in a duffle bag ) and carried away are very possibly “give-aways” to this hoax..and thus far you have not proven otherwise! I think real friars would have handled the “coming and the going” of the Sacred Body of Our Lord much differently. Much the way they always do…as mentioned in my previous text…and would have been even more effective, adding to the mystery of the Greatest of Mysteries…

St. Thomas said basically the same thing. :-)

It is marvellous. The Fathers took courage to present Jesus in the marketplace and talk to the people. There were few people whu knelt and revered the Eucharist. England is too secular to understand spirituality. May God help them to listen to him

The more I see this the more it bothers me. It was a nice show and maybe that was at: all for show.

I would love for Tim Drake to respond to the concerns about transporting Jesus in the duffel bag. If I can get any response elsewhere I will post it here. It may all be a matter of opinion/personal preference or a judgement call by those involved in which case I think this shows poor judgement for how best to conduct Eucharistic Adoration.

I can never get it out of my head that a Muslim man (can’t remember where I have seen this) said that if we really believed it was God we would be on our knees or prostrate. That is a big paraphrase of the original quote but the point is we often are very lax in our reverence and this video is rather scandalous because of the “duffel bag” issue. And yes, it is causing scandal among the posters here already. The duffel bag and lack of proper reverence is causing some to doubt the authenticity of the whole thing and to question what these friars were thinking, and so forth. That is scandal even if it is prudential judgment on how to handle it they have left themselves open to question.

Just because Adoration is a good thing doesn’t mean it is proper to do it anyplace, anytime anyhow.
This is now on YouTube.

Consider what the possibilities are here w/o judgement:

       
(1) These are authentic priests of a Franciscan friary..doing just
what we see…bringing in a duffle bag the Eucharist to the market
place in a flash mob mode…worshipping and adoring His Body in a
public square…urging the passing crowd to “kneel and adore Him”
for a short period of time, and at the end returning the Monstrance
to the duffle bag..and once more disappearing into the crowd.
(2) These are actors going through the motions of Adoration of the
Eucharist using flash mob techniques…enticing the crowd to speculate
on the motions they are going through by inviting them to “kneel and
adore Him”....some are willing(maybe more actors) and some ignore.
They are not authenically presenting the True Body of Christ for Adoration nor are they actual priests/monks of the Franciscan order.

It would seem there must be a way to find out which the case is: #1 or
case #2?
Before we know for sure what we are dealing with, the duffle bag, etc dust up is useless…and pointless…for determining whether correct and proper procedure was followed by all involved. Maybe someone more computer literate than I out there can solve the dilemna…My own
suspicion is that we are more than likely dealing with scenario #2! Thus making all the points about the duffle bag, lack of respect, etc moot!
Although I cannot dismiss the value of maybe the discussion this has
prompted, especially in minds of many Catholic Christians who no longer
have authentic respect for the belief of this great Mystery of the Church.

God bless these Capuchins…

I wish we could have a procession of the Lord downtown through the streets.
The Secular Atheists are codifying everything in public for themselves.

But our Constitution still protects freedom of Religious Expression.

It struck me that this could be adapted with a large cross for a witness on Good Friday.

It is a truly wonderful video, To bad that we don’t have the same courage to stand up for our faith and be counted.  Instead, we are busy sitting on the fence or hiding behind it, afraid to voice an opinion about matters of a religious nature.

Ok all you cynics:

Here is the Capuchin Franciscan friar’s youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CapuchinFranciscan

His name is Brother Paul. He’s been a friar for 10 years and currently ministers as vocations animator for the Order in Britain, and also as a part-time university chaplain.

And here is his blog:

(in which he explains how him and another frair came up with this idea, how he got permission from both his order and the local parish priest, where the words/music came from, how they organized the “flash mob”, where the monstrance was from, how they chose a location,etc.)

http://acertainhope.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-of-eucharistic-flash-mob.html

He wanted to take Jesus to the streets…and use the modern culture (“flash mobs”) and media (youtube) to promote the Real Presence of Christ. I have a feeling that St. Francis and Blessed John Paul the Great are cheering him on.

p.s. skim his blog… that’s no actor.

And, here is his order’s website:
http://www.capuchinfriars.co.uk/

Where Br. Paul is listed as the contact for Vocations

AMEN AND AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is the KING!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ Cathy…Thanks for posting that information. You are a very good sleuth..and your research is much appreciated. This information helps
alot…many of us might still have preferred that the Sacred Host have
been carried on the person of the friar in a pyx and then placed in the empty montrance at the event. That seems to be perhaps more in keeping with the reverence issues involved here. But again, thanks for passing along the information…I would recommend going to Father Paul’s website and read how this all came about..most interesting!

My priest told me it is not good many times to do it because if the environment is anti-Catholic.  He said some rowdy people walked through the procession on church property when the Monstrance was being processed.

I read another article by Fr Landry…who said if we would spend more time in Adoration inside a church, it would do much good….

But yes, I wish we would have much more public witness of our faith.

Imagine if on June 29,2011 at noon, in each town around that world that has a Catholic church, a Eucharistic Flash Mob occurred. What a witness to Jesus Christ that would be!

http://acertainhope.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-of-eucharistic-flash-mob.html?showComment=1309271604966#c3309674395861344146

My friend Brother Paul explains how this witness came about.

@ Thirstfor Truth—no problem, I’m glad I could help clear up questions. :)

@Cathy, we’re not cynics.  We’re just people concerned about something in a Youtube video.  We only care about keeping our Lord, Jesus Christ, safe from desecration.  The Blessed Sacrament is not to be taken lightly. Remember, St Tarcisius, was martyred for protecting the Blessed Sacrament. I will ask my priest, but I believe he needed to wear a humeral veil while holding the monstrance. Also I believe (and will ask) about the duffle bag issue. I think he should have carried the pyx in a burse.  Or just processed wearing a humeral veil, carrying the monstrance.

Leave it to some who search for the negative in something beautiful. Bless those who look for the positive in good intentions even if they appear otherwise.

As an Orthodox Christian the public exhibition of the Sacrament is not part of our custom. Nevertheless, I am moved by this act of public adoration. One might consider this a new type of limited martyrdom… a willingness to risk public abuse for the proclamation of Christ. Lord let me immitate in ways appropriate to my life!

“Leave it to some who search for the negative in something beautiful. Bless those who look for the positive in good intentions even if they appear otherwise.”

So to ask questions or state concerns is negative and cynical? Hmmm, is that like when we uphold Church teaching we are bigoted and hateful? The concerns and questions on this issue have been stated politely and in such a way as to be open to thoughtful answers. Most of the answers have been disrespectful and not helpful since they are based on opinions and feelings. I haven’t yet seen an intelligent, thoughtful response to the concerns that isn’t centered on how the viewer “feels”.

The concerns had less to do with the friars intentions than with the method.

Yes, it is beautiful to see Our Lord being adored but there is a proper way to expose the Blessed Sacrament and the concern/question is was this the best way? Was this the best they could do: a duffel bag? No humeral veil? And yes, I understand that the friars had permission to do it, but the question still remains, just because you can do it, should you do it? and what is the best way to do it? Sorry we can do better and the whole flash mob mentality leaves me cold. If this were to become a trend, it would be just as easy for another flash mob to come on the scene to disrupt or purposefully desecrate the Blessed Sacrament. I just don’t understand the idea that it is a good idea to subject Our Lord to the disrespect and sacriledge that took place with some of the onlookers. It was Jesus’ choice to expose himself to humiliation when he walked the earth, but I am not sure that we have the right to subject him to it now.

Someone mentioned that Blesseds Mother Theresa and John Paul II would love to see this flash mob adoration. How do we know? You are guessing and presuming to know their minds. Unless there is a specific quote from them that the method of transporting Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is not important, that any old duffel bag will do and that no care should be taken when handling it, we should just leave them out of this discussion.

I would love to see more public displays of the Blessed Sacrament, I just hope that they would be done with more reverence and respect than a duffel bag.

@Ann..You raise some interesting points and make some valid comments!
As for the permission the Friars had? Father Paul admitted that the permission he obtained was rather “low level”...they did not seek
(said they did not think to ask)the permission of the local bishop(s).
The method in which the Sacred Host was transported in a duffle bag is
legitimate concern to many…the lack of humeral of less concern but again it is a legitimate question. Whether Blesseds Mother Teresa or
John Paul II would have approved and sanctioned…useless conjecture!
In all, the flash mob went well, Thanks be to God, but it could also
have been an ugly confrontation ...and in another time or place it
might have ended badly. Was it worth that risk? Perhaps some will say
it was if even only one person was inspired to seek the Lord…and maybe
some will say there is a better and less risky way to bring the Lord to the market place. It would all be just opinion…that is why
we could use some imput from our Shepherds…but none were asked. And that makes for a certain amount of discomfort when left alone to discern
what could have been made clear by the Bishop(s)had they been involved.

A friend forwarded this wonderful message to me and I showed it to two friends who were in my home for our weekly rosary prayer group. One of them asked me to forward it to our local priest in Mudgee, NSW, Australia. 
thank you so much for this very moving and powerful witness.  I shall be forwarding it to other friends and family members also.

Bless you.
Anne Nicholson

The Alpha and the Omega amen. Thank you brothers

May God bless those Friars with His graces to continue to evangelize.  Can they come to Downtown Miami? AWESOME as only God can be AWESOME.

Ann, read ALL the comments. Positive comments were from those that were moved. Negative were from those that were more concerned about the method used. I have faith that the Lord was pleased with the Friars intentions.  We are all humans and sometimes our methods are questioned by other humans. I believe that HE was pleased with the love expressed.
Now even if this was done by actors, or even by misguided Friars, the Lord used it to produce much good (ie review the comments)

While I was certainly impressed with the friars’ deed and intention, I too was concerned about him placing the whole Monstrance in the duffel bag like that.  Last Sunday, I attended a very beautiful Corpus Christi procession around our church, with Father in full vestments, carrying the Monstrance, under a canopy, attended by incence- and candle-bearing altar servers…with many prayers and lots of reverence.  I guess I just would have felt better if the friar had been accompanied by, say, some candle-bearers (aren’t there usually candles during Eucharistic Adoration, of some kind or other?), or especially if the whole Monstrance had NOT been just put in the duffel bag, but, as another poster suggested, at least the Pyx had been carried near his heart.  Other than that, if they had the bishop’s permission and someone on hand or something to protect from possible desecration of the Holy Eucharist, I would probably be fine with something like this.  It could be a great witness to the Real Presence and the belief of Catholics.

@ Ann: “letter of the law vs. spirit of the law”

I did not like the duffel bag carry case for Our Lord either, but as one who has taken our Lord to hospitals to patients, how reverent is it to put him in a pyx and carry him in your purse. I always worried, what if I was in a wreck and nobody knew our Lord was there? I quit doing it because I felt weird about it.

On the other hand, we need to evangelize the Real Presence as located in the Monstrance and our Lord is probably happy to get out amoung the people anyway he can? He’s the first one to “empty himself”.

For those of you who claim this may be fake, I happen to know these friars and have seen them celebrate mass in a normal setting. I also know they are university chaplains in the local area. Therefore you can be assured that this is NOT FAKED.

I was so uplifted by this video and then I read the comments.  Just enjoy it and feel the love.  Praise be to God.

Brilliant!

How beautiful!  Thank you for the witness!

Thanks so much for posting this. After so much legal and cultural negligence of the teachings of Jesus, it is so good to see that, for some, His presence speaks louder than our words. I am uplifted.

Awsome! I just hope I would be one to stop, kneel, and pray. Shows me how weak I could be, but hopefully His strength would show through.

Thanks.

Where is the part where Christ tells the priests to stop molesting little boys? Hypocrites ...

That brought tears to my eyes, especially when people started applauding. There’s still hope!

Awsome video.
The duffel bag thing also upset me at first, but then I remembered that our Lord was born in a stable, in the midst of animals, in a feeding trough. I think He was transported with love and reverence and brought out to people who would not otherwise have to opportunity to behold Him. Pray for the conversion of all those who beheld him that day and for the rest of us as well.

I was profoundly moved by this invitation to worship - just speechless at the public demonstration of faith.  The exhortation by our Capuchin Fathers is pure poetry.  And the applause…  !  A tribute unknown in Jesus’ own time on earth.  I got a sense of Our Lords own joy and enjoyment of this Christian Flash Mob.

That was truly beautiful.

To Rob C:  Jesus cries for those children and all children who have been harmed in any by adults just as He cried in OKC for the destruction there.  Have you seen the statute of Jesus across the street from OKC Memorial?  Let us worship Him at every opportunity and pray hard, long, and often that our children will be protected from all perpetrators.

I found this quote on the www.perpetualadoration.org website several years ago.  I think the “Street Adoration” in Preston, England makes the quote real to me.  Thank you, Tim Drake.

“We will go throughout the city, we will pass among the people assailed by thousands of everyday problems, we will go to meet these brothers and sisters of ours and we will show the Sacrament of Christ’s presence to all: ‘Behold the bread of angels, the bread of pilgrims; the true bread of children.’
In this bread the Almighty, the Eternal, the thrice Holy has made Himself close to us, has become ‘God-With-Us,’ Emmanuel.”

Pope John Paul II

Wow…much better than a flash mob. Wow!

Oh my goodness.  Have the naysayers forgotten that Jesus was the messiah that was born in a stable, surrounded by animal dung???  That he was the king who rode to his glory on the back of an ass, and died surrounded by criminals?  Do you really think a duffel bag is less reverent than someone’s pocket?  We humans are unworthy to touch him!  At least the duffel bag has not sinned.  Just the fact that He submits himself to be in this WORLD is demeaning. It is a crime to diminish this beautiful thing they have done, by complaining about the duffel bag!

Awesome!  Thank you Brothers!  We need to see more of this throughout our country and the world.  It was very moving and made me cry, especially when I heard the applause. Praise be to our Almighty God!!!!!!

oh hallelujah…..my Lord and my God…...praise You Lord Jesus Christ now and forever amen….thank you Lord for these beautiful light bearers….truly modern day warriors for You my Lord..:)

I was part of this amazing witness to Our Lord.  I am the Secretary of the Catholic Society for the University in Preston.  Our Lord was truly present in the Blessed Sacrament as well as each and every one of us.  We felt His love, His Peace and His joy. He touched our souls that day.  We have caused some interest, anger and controversy but so did Jesus when he started his ministry.  We hope that this will spread and let Jesus touch everyone.  God Bless everyone who has given us so many uplifting and beautiful comments.  We are truly blessed in having three very spiritual franciscan brothers who were all present on the day, who guide and inspire us in our catholic faith.

Teresa - A proud Catholic Prestonian

So I checked with a Capuchin priest and he advised “good intention, improper execution”. In a public procession the priest is not even allowed to touch the monstrance with his bare hands. We either respect the authority of our Church in such matters or we don’t, despite the good intentions…because we all know where those can lead.

I don’t see anything amazing about this video, as a Catholic I find it offensive that the friars just took people by surprise and then went on to drone about Jesus as savior. It reeks of the worst kind of evangelism that puts people off. Those of us who know and love the Holy Eucharist will definitely bow down, but aren’t we inwardly acting like pious holy people and making a show of our faith, to people who don’t even know our Lord. I think Jesus would hold us responsible for behaving in such an uncharitable manner towards those who don’t know him and its very likely that such behavior will lead people away rather than bring them close to our Lord. When we go in procession, people have more respect because they know its a religious gathering, but taking people by surprise in a public space is uncharitable.

Upon further reflection, review, study of Church teaching as regards the public exposition of the Eucharist, and consulting with priestly authority, and after seeing all these comments, I think there is nothing left to say other than “Houston, we have a problem”, and to re-quote the Capuchin priest who I consulted and studied the video “good intention, improper execution”. As Catholics we don’t get to make it up as we go along. Feeling good does not make it right.

This video and these posts have prompted my wonderings… Feeling good does not make a thing right. Doing what is right does not always make you feel good. Why do our hearts not always lift when (through the priest at every Mass) the Lord says: ‘Lift up your hearts’? ...Lord Jesus, please lift up our hearts. Faithfulness is not measured by our own opinions. As Catholics, not even law is the final measure of our reverence and love. What is Jesus asking of us when He says: ‘If your righteousness goes no deeper than that of the scribes and pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven’? ...O God, let the secret movements of our hearts and the outer form of our worship be in harmony with your Holy Spirit. Save us from cowardice and send your Spirit upon us, that from within we may boldly say: ‘Abba, Father! Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!’

St. Clare would be proud!

This was fantastic.  Do it again.  I hope all take to the streets like this.  Amen.

I’d kneel… in a heartbeat… not from a desire to evangelize (perhaps some of the comments about time, place, and other circumstances are relevant in that regard), but simply because I would have just been handed a choice to adore or not to adore my Lord. I would not say ‘no’? I’d leave all the questions about whether it was well- or poorly-done to those who have the authority to answer them. Nor would I be wondering whether these were actors or not… I’d just kneel and let those matters sort themselves out.

This was AWESOME!  Thank you for showing it!  Jesus Christ is Lord and before Him every knee shall bend!