This Sunday is Corpus Christi Sunday! The day in which we celebrate the Eucaharist as it truly is, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As is common in many places throughout the Church, we are having a Eucharistic Procession through the neighborhood in order to show off that which we love the most and are the most proud of: the Eucharist. Many of our parishioners have put in a great amount of time and effort to pull this all off. If you see one of them around in the coming weeks, I ask that you thank them for all the work they have done. We thank Larissa Smith our Parish Life Coordinator, Greg Bolts for coordinating route logistics, Jaime Fuentes for leading Adoration for those not able to join in the processions, Andy and Traci Bazzelle for their work with the servers, Matt Wurtenberger for being of Master of Ceremonies, Marty Boos for coordinating the beautiful sawdust images, Barb Wallace for coordinating First Aid, and Mary Strapman for coordinating the music during the procession. There is no way we could have pulled off this beautiful moment without them. If you are able, we invite you to join us after the 11 am Mass for this incredible moment.
Before the Gospel this Sunday we had the sequence Lauda Sion which was written by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 16th century for this great feast. When thinking about the Eucharist it is one of my favorite things to go to as it beautifully summarizes so much of the reality of the gift that the Eucharist is in our lives. The final 2 stanzas fully summarize the feast we celebrate this day.
Christ willed what he himself had done
Should be renewed while time should run
In memory of his parting hour:
Thus, tutored in his school divine
We consecrate the bread and wine
And lo — a Host of saving power.
This faith to Christian men is given —
Bread is made flesh by words from heaven:
Into his blood the wine is turned:
What thought baffles nature’s powers
Of sense and sight? This faith of ours
Proves more than nature e’er discerned.
-Fr. Andrew