Dear Parishioners,

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ - Corpus Christi. The feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1246 by Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege, Belgium at the suggestion of St. Juliana of Mont Carvillon. Saint Juliana looked upon the Holy Eucharist with great reverence, and desired to have a feast within the Church devoted specifically to its honor. On September 8, 1264, Pope Urban IV issued the papal bull "Transiturus", which established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church, to be celebrated on the Thursday following the Most Holy Trinity Sunday. At the request of Pope Urban IV, St. Thomas Aquinas composed the office (the official prayers of the Church) for the feast.

For centuries after the celebration was extended to the universal Church, the feast was celebrated with a Eucharistic procession, in which the Sacred Host was carried throughout the town, accompanied by hymns and litanies, and the faithful would venerate the Body of Christ as the procession passed by.

The feast of Corpus Christi is truly a celebration of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. The Church honors the Eucharistic Lord as one Body, and does so joyfully, solemnly, and publicly. When the Eucharist is carried through the streets in a solemn procession, the Christian people give public witness of their faith and devotion toward the sacrament of the Eucharist. Our public display of faith and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist should attract people who see the procession and invite them to join into closer communion with Christ in His Church.

God bless.
Fr. Gregg