 |
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. "For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and after he had given thanks, be broke it, and ha said, "This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes."" 1 Corinthians 11: 24-26. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi is celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday although it is now transferred to the following Sunday. The feast celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine in the Blessed Sacrament. The feast came about following a vision of Juliana of Liège, an Augustinian nun that she received in 1209. She saw a gleaming disc with a dark spot on it. This, she was told, represented the lack of a feast devoted to the Eucharist in the annual cycle. At her urging and that of her spiritual advisor, John of Lausanne, the feast was introduced in the diocese of Liège for the first time in 1246. In 1264, Pope Urban IV, who had been the archdeacon at Liège, extended the feast to the whole Church. The text of the Mass and the Divine Office are said to be the work of St. Thomas Aquinas, possibly at the request of Pope Urban IV – link to his Bull of 1264 below. In these he explores three aspects of the Eucharist relating it to the past, the present and the future – a commemoration of Christ’s Passion and Sacrifice, as sacrament of union with Christ, and the pledge of the glory to come. The three year cycle of readings also reflect on different aspects of the Eucharist: year A on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy, 8: 2-3, 14-16, 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17, John 6: 51-58), year B on the Sacrifice of the New Covenant (Exodus 24: 3-8, Hebrews 9: 11-15, Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26), and year C on Christ nourishing the Church in the Eucharist (Genesis 14: 18-20, 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26, Luke 9: 11-17). The most significant difference in the Mass, apart from the sequence that comes before the Gospel Acclamation is the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament that comes at its end. Instead of the final blessing and dismissal the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in the monstrance on the altar and incensed. Then, led by the processional cross, acolytes, other altar servers and clergy and immediately preceded by two thurifers, the Blessed Sacrament is solemnly processed. The procession usually concludes with Benediction. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04390b.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_Corpus_Christi https://www.vatican.va/content/urbanus-iv/la/documents/bulla-transiturus-de-mundo-11-aug-1264.html |
||
 |
24th June ~ Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy. Now it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. “No,” she said, “He is to be called John.” They said to her, “But no one in your family has that name”, and they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” Why is St. John the Baptist considered so important? Dressed in camel skins and living on a diet of locusts and wild honey he must have presented a strange looking figure as he preached and baptised on the banks of the River Jordan. The pages of the Old Testament are littered with the names of the prophets – of those chosen by God to speak for Him – see the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 3. Repeatedly the prophets stress that it is not their own words that they utter, but rather that it is God speaking through them. St. John the Baptist is seen as the last of these Old Testament prophets calling the wayward Chosen People back to God and he did not mince his words in doing so calling the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Temple ‘aristocracy’ of the time, a ‘brood of vipers’. He stands astride both the Old and the New Testaments. He foretells the coming of the Messiah – one greater than he whose sandal strap he is not fit to undo. He baptises with water, but he warns that one is coming who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Finally, John’s baptism of Jesus is traditionally seen as the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry – He must increase as I must decrease. Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John....” But John would have agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28). The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan, and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus. Almighty and ever living God, you raised Saint John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord, give your people, we pray, the grace of spiritual joys and direct the hearts of all the faithful into the way of salvation and peace. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08486b.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Saint_John_the_Baptist https://catholicsaints.info/saint-john-the-baptist/ https://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/johnBaptistNativity.htm |
||
 |
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. “…the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless. You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die. So it is proof of God’s love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5: 5-9 Devotion to the Sacred Heart began with the revelations made to St. Gertrude (c. 1256-1302) of the Benedictine monastery of Helfta in Saxony. She received the stigmata and her own heart was pierced by a light from the heart of Christ. Devotion amongst Gertrude’s community was linked closely to the passion of Christ and in particular to the wound made by the lance in his side. The real impetus for devotion to the Sacred Heart came from St. Margaret Mary Alacocque (1648-90). In the final revelation, Christ told Mary that he desired for a feast of the Sacred Heart to be established in reparation on the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi. In 1875, to mark the bi-centenary of the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacocque, Pope Puis IX exhorted all Catholics to consecrate themselves the Sacred Heart. His successor, Pope Leo XIII, encouraged all Catholics to dedicate the whole world to the Sacred Heart on the 11th of June 1899. Pope Pius X required that this consecration be renewed annually and in 1925 Pope Pius XI laid down that this consecration be made on the feast of Christ the King. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07163a.htm https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/teachings/litany-to-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus-270 |
||
 |
28th June – Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Immaculate Heart of Mary signifies, first of all, the great purity and love of the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary for God. This purity is manifested in her “Yes” to the Father at the Incarnation, her love for, and cooperation with, the Incarnate Son in His redemptive mission, and her docility to the Holy Spirit, enabling her to remain free of the stain of personal sin throughout her life. Mary’s Immaculate Heart, therefore, points us to her profound interior life, where she experienced both joys and sorrows, yet remained faithful, as we, too, are called to do. Pope St. John Paul II said, “From Mary, we learn to love Christ, her Son and the Son of God…. Learn from her to be always faithful, to trust that God’s Word to you will be fulfilled and that nothing is impossible with God.” When we honour the Immaculate Heart, we give ultimate honour to Jesus. As we honour the Mother, we honour the Son. In addition, the Blessed Virgin is our mother as well (see Revelation 12:17), and her mother’s heart is incomparable. St. Louis de Montfort said, “If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart, it still would not equal the love of the heart of Mary for her children.” The Immaculate Heart of Mary was honoured to some degree prior to the 17th century, but St. John Eudes, a 17th-century French priest, popularized this devotion with his great love of the Blessed Mother. See also: |