Corpus Christi

Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116 I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Sequence of the Day:

"Lo! the angel's food is given

To the pilgrim who has striven;

See the children's bread from heaven,

which on dogs may not be spent...

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,

Jesu, of your love befriend us,

You refresh us, you defend us,

Your eternal goodness send us

In the land of life to see.

You who all things can know,

Who on earth such food bestow,

Grant us with your saints, though lowest,

where the heav'nly feast you show,

Fellow heirs and guest to be.  Amen. Alleluia."

"take it; this is my body...this is my blood."

We celebrate the gift of the Eucharist today on this feast of Corpus Christi. 

We celebrate reality.  We let reality hold firm our belief and give it life.  We trust the words of Christ to be as He says like the disciples in the gospel today who "found it to be as he told them," and such so we discover the truth of Jesus' words, "this is my body" and we are nourished by his generosity, fed at His table, strengthen by His presence.  

We say "Amen" and we enter into that Sacred exchange, where we give our weak consent and Jesus gives us his very body, blood, soul, and divinity; He comes to make our weak love strong.

God is near us; in communion, He comes to communicate his divine life and thus we enter into the wellspring of life. Here we discover the truth, we can only understand love by sharing in it.

This is the gift of the Eucharist, we share in Christ's love a love that is "taken, blessed, broken, and given."   When we leave the table, we are instructed to become what we receive, to be eucharist for the world. 

We carry around in us the dying of Christ so that the life of Christ might be made known.

"Vivimos para esa noche de la resurrection."  We live for the night of the resurrection.  In the Eucharist we are strengthen to keep our eyes fixed on the light, our will intoxicated by God's plan, our resolve strengthen and our desires rehabilitated.  Thus we are truly able to spend our lives longing for the night of the resurrection that await us all.

thus we fall in adoration of this great sacrament, God near us, Jesus stay with us.