BOSTON -- Throngs of multicolored flowers decorated the altar steps of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on the night of April 25, highlighting the Easter joy of the Risen Lord. To the side, an unexpected feature made an appearance: a portrait of a smiling and waving Pope Francis, who had passed away four days earlier.

As the week-long Jubilee Year Eucharistic Congress continued through the Archdiocese of Boston -- with Masses, adoration, and eucharistic processions taking place through the Octave of Easter -- Auxiliary Bishop Mark W. O'Connell filled in as celebrant at the cathedral for Archbishop Richard G. Henning, who was in Rome for the papal funeral.

Bishop O'Connell greeted the assembly in Spanish with a triumphant "Christ is Risen!" to which the people enthusiastically responded, "He is truly Risen!"

"With great joy, we gather at this Mass to adore the eucharistic Lord," he said.

"Let's pray for Pope Francis and all cardinals who will soon meet to elect our next pope. May the Holy Spirit illuminate them and show them the way," Bishop O'Connell added.

Following the Gospel reading, taken from St. John, which sees a resurrected Jesus reveal himself once more to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, Father Marcos Enrique, pastor of St. Mark Parish in Dorchester, offered the homily in both English and Spanish.

While the news of the passing of Pope Francis had dimmed the light of Easter "maybe just a little," Father Enrique said, the late pope gave the church a parting gift of "this year as a Jubilee of Hope."

"And it is precisely the hope of the resurrection that has the power to pierce the darkness of death," he said.

Drawing attention to the apostles in the Gospel, Father Enrique said that, for them, too, "the light of the resurrection also seemed to dim, and the light of lights gave way to the night. And finding themselves in the night, they decided to go back, to go back to what they knew. To go back to that life they had before they met (Jesus) . . . They went back to the sea."

It was there, as they lived a meaningless existence -- weighed down by misery and disappointment -- that Jesus encountered them, he said.

Just as the disciples recognize Jesus because they are reminded of the first time they met him, of the first miracle they had experienced, Father Enrique told the assembly to ask the Lord "that we might recognize him in the midst of our reality, in the midst of our situation, no matter our fears, no matter our despair, no matter our disappointment, no matter how many times we have gone back."

Rafael Milla, a seminarian at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill, told The Pilot after the Mass that he was looking forward to the procession that was to follow, as he was hoping that it would send the message that Christ is Risen.

"This walk that we are about to embark on will also be a light to others -- hope to others -- as the pope used to say," Milla stated.

He added that Pope Francis's passing, not only during the year of the Jubilee of Hope but during the season of Easter, is a "grace" and seems only fitting, reminding the faithful of the late pope's exhortation to hope.

A golden monstrance held high led the procession that followed the bilingual Mass, attracting many participants who walked with reverence behind Jesus in the Eucharist through a busy Washington Street for the more than two miles that separate the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Sacred Heart Church in the North End of Boston.

Despite the traffic noise, the occasional police and ambulance siren, and lively chatter from nearby restaurants and businesses, the songs of the procession -- accompanied by guitars, castanets, and tambourines -- could not be drowned out. Many passersby stopped to witness the chanting marchers and take pictures with their phones.

Ana Garcia Hanley, who joined the eucharistic procession with her husband, Steven, told The Pilot that these public demonstrations of faith are "essential" in the local church of Boston, especially during Eastertime. She also said that "while it lasted a little longer," she appreciated the bilingual Mass at the cathedral as a way of reaching more people in the diverse Catholic community of Boston.

The procession concluded at Sacred Heart Parish with Night Prayer and benediction. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament continued throughout the night.