Feast of Corpus Christi

From our parish bulletin for this week:

Dearest Friends in Christ,

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, in Latin Corpus Christi. It is a day within the Church calendar given to the faithful in order to contemplate this great gift of Jesus’ own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the form of bread and wine. It was before the Eucharist that St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote, “Godhead here in hiding whom I do adore, masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more; see, Lord, at Thy service low here lies a heart lost, all lost in wonder at the God Thou art!” Such contemplation upon the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the Source and Summit of our Christian life, will necessarily lend itself to us perceiving how the Eucharist is truly the heart that gives life to any Catholic family, meaning that we should begin or continue to avail our lives to the life of grace by embracing in our lives the mystery of the Eucharist.

This is why as a parish family we see great importance in adoration. Adoring the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, the sacrament of God’s infinite generosity towards man, is our generous response to Him in this sacrament of love. These moments before the Lord are simple and yet very profound! As one man once described it to St. John Mary Vianney, “I look at Him, and He looks at me.” What could be more profound then those quiet moments before the Presence of our Lord? It is during this time in adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament that we come to the Source and Summit of our Christian lives in order to configure our lives more to that of Christ.

To encourage more people to take advantage of this opportunity to spend time before our Lord, St. John Bosco once wrote, “Do you want the Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often. Do you want Him to give you few graces? Visit Him rarely. Do you want the devil to attack you? Visit Jesus rarely in the Blessed Sacrament. Do you want him to flee from you? Visit Jesus often…take refuge often at the feet of Jesus.” Also I encourage families to make an effort to come early to Mass or stay a little while after Mass in order to adore our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, to take refuge often at the feet of Jesus. Faithfulness here will unquestionably lead to fruitfulness in your life.

Pax et bonum,
Fr. Justin