| June 22, 2025
Dear Friends in Christ, I wrote this last year for Corpus Christi weekend and thought I would share it again. We have a beautiful church. Beautiful grounds outside, beautiful stained-glass windows, beautiful statues, beautiful paintings, beautiful music, beautiful vestments and sacred vessels – this beauty is hopefully helping to raise our minds up to God. All those things are great and they help make us feel we are on holy ground – which is important. But the most important, precious gift we have in our church is what is found in the tabernacle – the Eucharist. In Holy Communion we have Jesus Christ truly present – body and blood, soul and divinity. He is truly present in our church. This is the most valuable, most cherished gift we have in our church and it sanctifies our parish. It’s nice to be reminded of that precious gift here on Corpus Christi weekend, where we celebrate The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian life. The Eucharist is why we are having our special procession this weekend – we are worshiping Jesus Christ who is truly with us in Holy Communion. It’s a special gift we have as Catholics. Of course, you can see the Church’s teaching about the Eucharist in the words of Jesus Himself in the Bible. You can also see the consistency of the Catholic Church’s teachings on the Eucharist from the early times of our Church in the writings of the early Church Fathers who wrote about the Eucharist in those first centuries after Christ’s resurrection. When we read the early Church Fathers, we see that the truths of our Catholic Faith have been there right from the beginning. God Bless, |