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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 |
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9th June - Optional memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon, Doctor of the Church. Born: c. 306. Died: 373. Ephrem was born in born c. 306 in Nisibis in Mesopotamia (now in modern Turkey) and joined the cathedral school there rising to become its head. Later, when the Persians captured Nisibis in 363 he became a monk living in a cave near Edessa. It was there that he produced a voluminous output of exegetical works and hymns which were later incorporated into the liturgy and translated into several languages. For these he was recognised as a Doctor of the Church in 1920. In 372 he organised charity towards victims of famine dying the following year. Almighty and ever living God, in your love fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit who inspired the Saint Ephrem to sing the praise of your mysteries and gave him the strength to serve you alone. |
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9th June - Optional memorial of St. Columba, Abbot. Born: c. 521. Died: 597. Columba was born c. 521 at Gartan in Donegal and is known to have founded monasteries at Derry (546), Durrow (c. 556) and probably at Kells before leaving Ireland with twelve companions to found the monastery at Iona. From the account of the saint’s life by Adomnàn he emerges as a prophet, visionary and miracle worker combining the skills of scholar, poet and ruler with a fearless commitment to God’s cause. Three surviving Latin poems including the Altus Prosator may well be his. He died in 597. Butler has the following account of his life: "St. Columba, commonly pronounced Colme, was one of the greatest patriarhs of the monastic order in Ireland, and the apostle to the Picts. To distinguish him from other saints of the same name he was surnames Colimkille, from the great number of monastic cells, called by the Irish Killes, of which he was the founder. He was of most noble extraction from Neil, and was born in Gartan, in the county of Tyeconnel, in 521. He learned from his childhood that there is nothing great, nothing worth our esteem or persuit which does nor advance the divine love in our souls to which he devoted himself with an entire disengagement of his heart from the world and in perfect purity of mind and body. He learned the divine scriptures and the lessons of an ascetic life under the holy bishop St. Finian, in his great school of Cluain-iriad. Being advanced to the order of priesthood in 546, he began to give admirable lessons of piety and sacred learning, and in a short time formed many disciples. He founded, about the year 550, the great monastery of Dairmagh, now called Durrough, which original name signifies Field of Oaks, and besides many smaller, those of Doire or Derry, in Ulster, and of Sord or Swords, about six miles from Dublin. St. Columba composed a rule which, as Usher, Tanner and Sir James Ware inform us, is still extant in the old Irish. This rile he settled in the hundred monasteries which he founded in Ireland and Scotland. It was chiefly borrowed from the ancient oriental monastic institutes, as the inqusitive Sir Roger Twisden observes of all the old British and Irish monastic orders. King Dermont, or Dermitrius, being offended at the zeal of St. Columba in reproving publc vices, the holy abbot left his native country and passed into North Britain, now called Scotland. He took along with him twelve disciples, and arrived there, according to Bede, in the year of Christ 565, the ninth of the reign of Bridius, the son of Meilochon, the most powerful king of the Picts; which nation the saint converted from idolatry to the faith of Christ by his preaching, virtues, and miracles. But this we are to understand only of the northern Pictsand the Highlanders, separated from the others by Mount Grampus, the highest part of which is called Drum-Albin; for Bede tells us in the same place that the southern Picts had received the faith long before by the preaching of St. Ninyas, the first bishop of Whitherne, in Galloway. The Picts having embraced the faith, gave St. Columba the little island of Hy, or Iona, called from him Y-colm-kille, twelve miles from the land, in which he built his great monastery which was for several ages the chief seminary of Noth Britain and continued long the burying place of the kings of Scotland. In the same school were educated the holy bishops Aidan, Finian, and Colman, who converted to the faith the English Northeners. This great monastery, several ages afterwards, embraced the rule of St.Benet. Almighty and ever living God, in Columba we see a zeal for your kingdom and a longing for its coming. Make our lives rich in good works that we too may share in his glory and be one with you. |
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11th June - Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle. Born: unknown. Died: 61. Feast day - 11 June Venerated in - Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church Canonized - Pre-Congregation Attributes - Red Martyr, Pilgrim's staff; olive branch; holding the Gospel of Matthew Patronage - Cyprus, Antioch, against hailstorms, invoked as peacemaker, peacekeeping missions Shrines - Monastery of St Barnabas in Famagusta, Cyprus There was a Levite of Cypriot origin called Joseph whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’). He owned a piece of land and he sold it and brought the money and presented it to the apostles.” (Acts of the Apostles 4: 36-37). Although called an apostle, he was not one of the twelve but may have been one of the seventy-two disciples mentioned in Luke 10. He is known to have introduced Paul to the sceptical and fearful apostles in Jerusalem, “Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how he had preached fearlessly at Damascus in the name of Jesus”. (Acts of the Apostles 9: 27). Together Paul and Barnabas travelled to Antioch and on the first of Paul’s missionary journeys where, at Lycaonia, because of the miracles they worked there, they were taken as the gods Zeus and Hermes come to earth in human form (Acts of the Apostles 14: 11-13). Together with Paul he spoke up for the gentile Christians at the Council at Jerusalem mentioned in Acts 15. Later, he and Paul quarrelled and parted company, Barnabas returning to his native Cyprus with John Mark to preach the Gospel there although references in Paul’s letters to the Galatians and Corinthians hint at a wider ministry and that the rift may have been healed (1 Corinthians 9: 6). Later in Paul’s ministry, he Barnabas and Titus are known to have returned to Jerusalem (Galatians 2: 1). Barnabas is believed to have been martyred by being burnt alive at Salamis in 61. Almighty and ever living God, you decreed that Saint Barnabas, filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, should be set apart to convert the nations, grant that the Gospel of Christ which he fearlessly preached, may be faithfully proclaimed by word and by deed. See also: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02300a.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnabas https://catholicsaints.info/saint-barnabas-the-apostle/ https://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/barnabas.htm https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/lives-of-the-saints/volume-vi-june/st-barnabas-apostle https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2014/06/st-barnabas.html |
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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 |
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Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
O Most Blessed Mother, heart of love, heart of mercy, ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer. As your children, we implore your intercession with Jesus your Son. Receive with understanding and compassion the petitions we place before you today, especially ...(special intention). We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open to those who ask for your prayer. We trust to your gentle care and intercession, those whom we love and who are sick or lonely or hurting. Help all of us, Holy Mother, to bear our burdens in this life until we may share eternal life and peace with God forever. Amen. |