Ro­man Catholic priest Mon­sign­or Chris­t­ian Per­reira yes­ter­day urged parish­ioners to pray for af­ford­able food prices and safe­ty of mo­torists on the "dan­ger­ous" and "de­mon­ic" roads. Per­reira made the plea when he ad­dressed con­gre­gants at the an­nu­al Cor­pus Christi Mass in a packed Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help Ro­man Catholic Church on Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do. Yes­ter­day, hun­dreds of Ro­man Catholic faith­ful gath­ered for Holy Mass at the church and par­tic­i­pat­ed in the tra­di­tion­al pro­ces­sion through the streets of San Fer­nan­do. Five stops were made dur­ing the pro­ces­sion. Among them were the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, Chancery Lane, the San Fer­nan­do Mar­ket, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and Irv­ing Park. Per­reira told parish­ioners when they stopped at the San Fer­nan­do mar­ket, that they should pray for the farm­ers who toil to pro­vide food for the na­tion and pray that "peo­ple will know af­ford­able food prices and our farm­ers will know jus­tice."

He told them as they stopped at Li­brary Cor­ner: "Pray for those on the now dan­ger­ous, now de­mon­ic roads." Parish­ioners were urged pray for teach­ers, stu­dents and ad­min­is­tra­tors when they stopped at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fice on Sut­ton Street. "So there would be safe­ty in schools and that they be­come true en­vi­ron­ments of learn­ing," he said. As the pro­ces­sion stopped at Irv­ing Park, which is home to many des­ti­tutes, Per­reira said they should pray for bene­dic­tion of the home­less who are con­sid­ered the out­casts of so­ci­ety. At the hos­pi­tal, they were told to pray for the sick so they may have faith, and pray for the doc­tors and nurs­es. Dur­ing his homi­ly, Per­reira said prepar­ing for Holy Mass is more than get­ting dressed up in nice clothes, and he urged parish­ioners to re­mem­ber the mes­sage of Cor­pus Christi. Yes­ter­day, young girls in beau­ti­ful white dress­es, com­plete with veils, tiaras and flo­ral bas­kets, gath­ered to­geth­er with young boys in white shirts and ties, for their First Com­mu­nion.

Stu­dents of St Joseph's Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege and St Gabriel's Girls' Ro­man Catholic, dressed in their school uni­forms, were al­so present for the Mass which was fol­lowed by a street pro­ces­sion. Per­reira urged those present to re­flect their prepa­ra­tions for the Passover (the Last Sup­per) and the mean­ing of Cor­pus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. "How se­ri­ous­ly do we take prepa­ra­tions for Holy Mass? Prepar­ing for Mass is more than putting on nice gar­ments (for at­tend­ing church.) It is dis­pos­ing of the our old mind­set," he said. Per­reira re­mind­ed parish­ioners that their free­dom to wor­ship is a "priv­i­lege." "Many peo­ple in the world do not get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to at­tend Mass. "Some­times it is once a week, once a month. As Catholics, we should take this more se­ri­ous­ly. Pre­pare for Mass," he said. On Cor­pus Christi, ado­ra­tion is paid to the Eu­charist which sig­ni­fies the Body and Blood of Je­sus Christ to all Catholics. Yes­ter­day, Per­reira called on the con­gre­ga­tion to make the Eu­charist the "fo­cal point" of their dai­ly lives and let it live in them. "The Holy Eu­charist in the source from which life flows," he said.