Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (or Corpus Christi)

Tomorrow, Sunday June 26, 2011, is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  For Catholic (and I would guess our sister Orthodox) Christians this is an especially solemn day of celebration.  It is the day we celebrate the Real Presence of Jesus Christ Our Lord at Mass.

The first reading is from Deuteronomy 8:2-3; 14b-16a.  It tells the story of the manna in the desert.  The people were in the desert starving.  God provided food in the form of manna which tasted of honey (a preview of the land "flowing with milk and honey") and looked like coriander seeds.  Manna literally means, "What is it?"  It has been called the bread from Heaven.



Manna in the desert gathered up by the people.

 Moses said to the people:  "Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.  He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."

Notice how this passage ties in with the Gospel reading:

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:  "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."



Jesus offering us His Body and Blood

 The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"


Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.  For My flesh is True Food, and My blood is True Drink.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent Me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me.  This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this Bread will live forever." 
John 6:51-58

There is nothing ambiguous or symbolic in what Jesus is saying.  "I AM the bread from Heaven."  "Whoever EATS MY FLESH and DRINKS MY BLOOD has eternal life."  He didn't say whoever symbolically eats my flesh or symbolically drinks my blood has eternal life.  There is nothing wishy-washy or symbolic about his language.  It is a wonderful mystery just as the Blessed Trinity is a mystery.  The Mass is a mystery.  I love God in all His majesty and mystery. 


Jesus, I trust in You!

A Celebration of the Feast of the Archangels



St. Michael battles Lucifer

 St. Michael, the Archangel - Feast day - September 29th.  The name Michael signifies "Who is like to God?" and was the warcry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against satan and his followers. Holy Scripture describes St. Michael as "one of the chief princes," and leader of the forces of heaven in their triumph over the powers of hell. He has been especially honored and invoked as patron and protector by the Church from the time of the Apostles.

Although he is always called "the Archangel," the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels - as Prince of the Seraphim. St. Michael is the patron of grocers, mariners, paratroopers, police and sickness.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=308




St. Raphael with Tobiah

 St. Raphael is one of seven Archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord. He was sent by God to help Tobit, Tobiah and Sarah. At the time, Tobit was blind and Tobiah's betrothed, Sarah, had had seven bridegrooms perish on the night of their weddings. Raphael accompanied Tobiah into Media disguised as a man named Azariah. Raphael helped him through his difficulties and taught him how to safely enter marriage with Sarah. Tobiah said that Raphael caused him to have his wife and that he gave joy to Sarah's parents for driving out the evil spirit in her. He also gave Raphael credit for his father's seeing the light of heaven and for receiving all good things through his intercession. Besides Raphael, Michael and Gabriel are the only Archangels mentioned by name in the bible. Raphael's name means "God heals." This identity came about because of the biblical story which claims that he "healed" the earth when it was defiled by the sins of the fallen angels in the apocryphal book of Enoch. Raphael is also identified as the angel who moved the waters of the healing sheep pool. He is also the patron of the blind, of happy meetings, of nurses, of physicians and of travelers. His feast day is celebrated on September 29th.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=203



St. Gabriel at the Annunciation

 The name Gabriel means "man of God," or "God has shown himself mighty." It appears first in the prophesies of Daniel in the Old Testament. The angel announced to Daniel the prophecy of the seventy weeks....He was the angel who appeared to Zachariah to announce the birth of St. John the Baptizer. Finally, he announced to Mary that she would bear a Son Who would be conceived of the Holy Spirit, Son of the Most High, and Saviour of the world. The feast day is September 29th. St. Gabriel is the patron of communications workers.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=279

Feast Day-Blessed Herman the Cripple

Ever heard of the Salve Regina or the Alma Redemptoris Mater?  Then you know just some of the work produced by Blessed Herman the Cripple (1013-1054).

"Born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida to a farm family.  His parents cared for him until the age of seven, but in 1020 they gave him over to the abbey of Reichenau Island in Lake Constance in southern German; he spent the rest of his life there.  He became a Benedictine monk at age twenty.  A genius, he studied and wrote on astronomy, theology, math, history, poetry, Arabic, Greek and Latin.  He built musical instruments, and astronomical equipment.  In later life he became blind, and had to give up his academic writing."  He was the most famous poet of his day.
http://saints.sqpn.com/blessed-herman-the-cripple/

Feast Day:  September 25.

Picture:  http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2008/09/blessed-herman-cripple-monk-1013-1054.html

Salve Regina:
Hail holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.


O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
http://www.secondexodus.com/html/prayers/salveregina.htm

Alma Redemptoris Mater  can be read here.