Corpus Christi The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

June is the month of the Sacred Heart 

Commencement of the Parish Year for Eucharistic Revival

In other years: Saint Barnabas the Apostle

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 8 The Divine Office at Night - Ch 13 The Celebration of Lauds on Ordinary Days

Mass: Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Resp Ps 147; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Sequence Lauda Sion; Jn 6:1-58

He has granted peace in your borders.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH,

MARY, MOTHER OF THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

HEART OF JESUS, MOST WORTHY OF ALL PRAISE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? 

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

(1 Cor 10:16)

Welcome to the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Our "Pope of the Eucharist," Pope Saint Pius X (1835-1914), has this to teach us: "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven." Inspired by another great pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022), then, "Let us encourage one another to walk joyfully, our hearts filled with wonder, towards our encounter with the Holy Eucharist, so that we may experience and proclaim to others the truth of the words with which Jesus took leave of His disciples: 'Lo, I am with you always, until the end of the world' (Mt 28:20)."* Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. Amen. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Eucharist, pray for us.

And now for the voices for the week, all from popes. In doing so, united in faith and prayer as we are, we remember Pope Francis who is convalescing in Rome's Agostino Gemelli Hospital after a recent surgery. The Holy Father will pray the customary Sunday Angelus prayer in private "uniting himself spiritually with affection and gratitude to the faithful, wherever they may be, who wish to accompany him" (Vatican News, June 10, 2023). We accompany Pope Francis, and hear from yet another great and Great pontiff, Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540-604):

When we are linked by the power of prayer, we, as it were, hold each other's hand as we walk side by side along a slippery path; and thus by the bounteous disposition of charity, it comes about that the harder each one leans on the other, the more firmly we are riveted together in love.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

And since we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday ... 

Since there is in the Sacred Heart a symbol and a sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another, it is fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart - an act which is nothing else than an offering and a binding of oneself to Jesus Christ, seeing that whatever honor, veneration and love is given to this divine Heart is really and truly given to Christ Himself.

(Pope Leo XIII, 1810-1903)

Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.

(Pope Saint John XXIII, 1881-1963)

Modern man listens more readily to witnesses than to teachers; and if he does listens to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.

(Pope Saint Paul VI, 1897-1978)

Remember the past with gratitude. Live the present with enthusiasm. 

Look forward to the future with confidence.

(Pope Saint John Paul II, 1920-2005)

Purity of heart is what enables us to see.

(Pope Benedict XVI, 1927-2022)

Jesus Himself warns us that the path He proposes goes against the flow, even making us challenge society by the way we live, and as a result, becoming a nuisance. He reminds how many people have been, and still are, persecuted simply because they struggle for justice, because they take seriously their commitment to God and to others. Unless we wish to sink into obscure mediocrity, let us not long for an easy life, for "whoever would save his life will lose it "(Mt. 16:25).

(Pope Francis, b. 1936)

SAINT BARNABAS,

SAINT GASPAR BERTONI,

SAINT ONUPHRIUS,

BLESSED ALPHONSUS MAZUREK AND COMPANIONS,

BLESSED HILARY JANUSZEWSKI,

SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA,

SAINT DAVNET,

SAINT LIDWINA,

SAINT ELISHA,

BLESSED MARIA CANDIDA OF THE EUCHARIST,

BLESSED PETER SNOW AND RALPH GRIMSTON,

SAINT RICHARD OF CHICHESTER,

SAINT BOTOLPH,

SAINT GERMAINE COUSIN,

PRAY FOR US.

*Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis Sacrament of Charity, 97.

Today's photo: Another spur of the moment shot. Swiftly runs His word!

© Gertrude Feick 2023

Tuesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Respect Life Month

60th Anniversary of the Opening of the Second Vatican Council

Saints: Pope Saint John XXIII "Good Pope John" (1881-1963); Saint Kenneth (515-599); Blessed William Howard (1612-1680)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 8 The Divine Office at Night

Mass: Gal 5:1-6; Resp Ps 119; Lk 11:37-41

Let your mercy come to me, O Lord.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

MARY, QUEEN OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY,

SAINT JOSEPH, DEFENDER OF LIFE,

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

Only faith working through love.

(Gal 5:6)

It is the depth of God's love in each one of us that will inspire us and help us cleanse the inside of our cups and dishes (see today's Gospel Lk 11:37-41). United in faith and prayer, may we go to the depths and cleanse ourselves from any plunder and evil (Lk 11:39). We certainly do not want Jesus to be calling us fools (see Lk 11:40). Heart of Jesus, Source of Truth, Justice, Charity, and Liberty, have mercy on us.

Loving Savior, be pleased to show yourself to us who knock, so that in knowing you we may love only you, love you alone, desire you alone, contemplate only you day and night, and always think of you. Inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God. So may your love pervade our whole being, possess us completely, and fill our senses, that we may know no other love but love for you who are everlasting. May our love be so great that the many waters of the sky, land and sea cannot extinguish it in us: many waters could not extinguish love.

(From an instruction by Saint Columban, abbot, in Office of Readings, Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday)

As we commemorate Pope Saint John XXIII, we ask him to intercede for us. "Good Pope John", as he was called, gave us eight Encyclical Letters. All of them can be found translated into a variety of languages on www.vatican.va. Here is something from Pacem et Terris, given two months before Good Pope John died.

The family, founded upon marriage freely contracted, one and indissoluble, must be regarded as the natural, primary cell of human society. The interests of the family, therefore, must be taken very specifically into consideration in social and economic affairs, as well as in the spheres of faith and morals. For all of these have to do with strengthening the family and assisting it in the fulfillment of of its mission.

(Pope Saint John XXIII, Pacem et Terris Peace on Earth, On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity, and Liberty, April 11, 1963, 16)

POPE SAINT JOHN XXIII,

POPE SAINT JOHN PAUL II,

SAINT KENNETH,

BLESSED WILLIAM HOWARD,

PRAY FOR US.

Fun fact: Pope Saint John XXIII and Pope Saint John Paul II were canonized by Pope Francis on the same day, April 27, 2014. Mary, Queen of all saints, pray for us.

Today's photo: I will delight in your commands.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Saint: Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church, "Servant of the servants of God" (540-604)

First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 14-20 

Mass: Col 1:15-20; Resp Ps 100; Lk 5:33-39

Serve the Lord with gladness.

BLESSED GREGORY, RAISED UPON THE THROWN OF PETER, SOUGHT ALWAYS THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD AND LIVED IN CELEBRATION OF THAT LOVE.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

On this First Friday of the Month we commemorate Pope Saint Gregory the Great. And how great he was! He was certainly a man who listened to the Lord through the words of Saint Benedict: "Seeking his workman in a multitude of people, the Lord calls out to him and lifts his voice again: Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" (RB Prol. 14). Furthermore, what is known of the life of Saint Benedict comes from one principal source, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who in the second book of his Dialogues recounts the Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict. Here is more about our saint of the day, from a footnote in a 2012 thesis of mine, The Lived Theology of St. Benedict: Echoes of St. Paul the Apostle in the "Holy Rule":

St. Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604) comes with his own impeccable credentials. Around 575 he converted his home on the Coelian Hill in Rome into a monastery and founded six other monasteries in Sicily. Gregory became a deacon to Pope Pelagius II and was then elected Pope in 590. He left voluminous writings for all the faithful-laity, monks, and clergy-including 580 letters, works on the moral life, the priesthood, homilies, and his Dialogues, the Dialogorum Libri, presented as a dialogue between Gregory and his deacon, Peter. The first three books of the Dialogue contain stories about the lives and miracles of Italian saints. The fourth book contains teaching on the moral life. Book II is "the best and practically only source of information about St. Benedict" (Jordan Aumann, Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, London, 1985, pp. 74-75).

The following quotations are all attributed to our saint of the day:

Merely to love things above is already to mount on high.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great) 

Be not anxious about what you have, but about what you are.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

When we are linked by the power of prayer, we, as it were, hold each other's hand as we walk side by side along a slippery path; and thus by the bounteous disposition of charity, it comes about that the harder each one leans on the other, the more firmly we are riveted together in brotherly love.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

POPE SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: From our garden of delights.

© Gertrude Feick 2021