Solemnity of Corpus Christi

U.S. Navy Chaplain conducts mass during the battle for the island of Saipan

during World War II.

Although the Solemnity of Corpus Christi was technically last Thursday, my diocese officially celebrates it today, Sunday, June 14, 2009.

From The Liturgy of the Hours:

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

PRAYER: LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOU GAVE US THE EUCHARIST AS THE MEMORIAL OF YOUR SUFFERING AND DEATH. MAY OUR WORSHIP OF THIS SACRAMENT OF YOUR BODY AND BLOOD HELP US TO EXPERIENCE THE SALVATION YOU WON FOR US AND THE PEACE OF THE KINGDOM WHERE YOU LIVE WITH THE FATHER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, ONE GOD, FOREVER AND EVER.