The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ/Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 7:35-59 Humility

I will take up the cup of salvation, 

and call on the name of the Lord.

HEART OF JESUS, TABERNACLE OF THE MOST HIGH,

JESUS, SOURCE OF NEW LIFE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

MARY, HOUSE OF GOLD,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US. 

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

(John 6:51)

Buon domenica and welcome to Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. What a privileged way to enter the month of June dedicated to the Sacred Heart. For all this, we give God the praise.

There is certainly quite a bit to reflect upon today. One line that stood out is found in the first reading at Mass, from the Book of Exodus. It is the people's response to Moses, when Moses came to all the people and related all the words and ordinances of the Lord. With one voice, all the people answered: "We will do everything that the Lord has told us." Hmmm. Are you ready to do everything that the Lord tells you? You might consider something Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote: "Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be." Or as Dante wrote, "In His will is our peace." When you receive Holy Communion today and every day, ask for the grace to do everything that the Lord tells you. May we do God's holy will and find the peace that only the Lord can give.

Our voices for this week are all about the Eucharist. After all, not only is it Corpus Christi, our country is preparing for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress to converge upon Indianapolis, Indiana, yes, the Hoosier State, July 17-21. 

Indeed, the Eucharist is God's response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life, because in the Eucharist Christ Himself is truly in our midst to nourish, console, and sustain us on our journey.

(Pope Francis, Greeting to the Organizing Committee of the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States of America, June 19, 2023)

The Eucharistic sacrifice is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life.

(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 11)

If the sacred liturgy holds the first place in the life of the Church, then the Eucharistic Mystery stands at the heart and center of the liturgy, since it is the font of life that cleanses us and strengthens us to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united to each other by the closest ties of love.

(Pope Saint Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, 2)

Keep yourselves free from sin so that every day you may share in the mystic meal; 

by doing so our bodies become the body of Christ.

(Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem, d. 433)

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 which with Jesus took leave of His disciples, "Lo, I am with you always until the end of the world" (Mt 28:20)

(Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 97)

There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. 

If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.

(Saint John Vianney, 1786-1859)

Holy Communion is the safest and shortest way to heaven.

(Pope Pius X "Pope of the Eucharist," 1835-1914)

SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER,

SAINT POTHINUS AND BLANDINA,

SAINT CHARLES LWANGA AND HIS COMPANIONS,

SAINT KEVIN,

SAINT CLOTILDE,

SAINT OPTATUS,

SAINT BONIFACE "APOSTLE OF GERMANY", BISHOP, MARTYR,

SAINT NORBERT,

SAINT MARCELLIN CHAMPAGNAT,

SAINT JARLATH,

SAINT COLMAN OF DROMORE,

SAINT ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER,

BLESSED ANNE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW,

SAINT JAMES BERTHIEU,

SAINT WILLIAM OF YORK,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Precious in the eyes of the Lord.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

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

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

World Blood Donor Day

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 11 The Celebration of Vigils on Sunday
Mass: Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Resp Ps 147; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Sequence (Laud, O Zion); Jn 6:51-58

Glorify the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.