Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Lectionary: 167
11 JUNE 2023 A.D.


Reading 1
Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a

Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.


Reading 2
1 Cor 10:16-17

Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.


Sequence — Lauda Sion

Laud, O Zion, your salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:

Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.

Special theme for glad thanksgiving
Is the quick'ning and the living
Bread today before you set:

From his hands of old partaken,
As we know, by faith unshaken,
Where the Twelve at supper met.

Full and clear ring out your chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
From your heart let praises burst:

For today the feast is holden,
When the institution olden
Of that supper was rehearsed.

Here the new law's new oblation,
By the new king's revelation,
Ends the form of ancient rite:

Now the new the old effaces,
Truth away the shadow chases,
Light dispels the gloom of night.

What he did at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne'er to cease:

And his rule for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.

This the truth each Christian learns,
Bread into his flesh he turns,
To his precious blood the wine:

Sight has fail'd, nor thought conceives,
But a dauntless faith believes,
Resting on a pow'r divine.

Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things are all we see:

Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
Yet in either wondrous token
Christ entire we know to be.

Whoso of this food partakes,
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:

Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Eats of him who cannot waste.

Bad and good the feast are sharing,
Of what divers dooms preparing,
Endless death, or endless life.

Life to these, to those damnation,
See how like participation
Is with unlike issues rife.

When the sacrament is broken,
Doubt not, but believe 'tis spoken,
That each sever'd outward token
doth the very whole contain.

Nought the precious gift divides,
Breaking but the sign betides
Jesus still the same abides,
still unbroken does remain.

(The shorter form of the sequence begins here)

Lo! the angel's food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.

You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav'nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.


Alleluia
Jn 6:51

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."


Overview of the Gospel:

• On the heels of his miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (John 6:1-15), Jesus delivers his
“bread of life” discourse in the synagogue at the seaside village of Capernaum (verse
59). The time is Passover (verse 4), one year before his Passion, death, and
Resurrection.

• In the first part of the discourse (verses 35-47), Jesus invites his listeners to have faith
in him. Their main objections at this point are his claim to have come down from
heaven (verses 33, 41-42) and his claim to be able to raise them on the last day (verse
35)—something he could only do if he were God.

• The second part of his address (verses 48-58) consists of an invitation to the Eucharist, the
partaking of his body and blood. His hearers are revolted by the idea, understanding him—
correctly—as speaking literally (this is evident by their reactions in verses 52, 60, 66). Later,
some of these hearers—including many of his disciples (verses 60, 66), including Judas
(verses 64-65, 70-71)—“no longer accompanied him” because of this teaching. Only those
who trusted in him completely, though as bewildered as the others, stayed with him (verses
67-69).


"God in his omnipotence could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches He had not more to give, than the Eucharist." ~St. Augustine

Sung today after distribution of Holy Communion at our Vigil Mass; brought me to tears of pure joy:



Panis angelicus
Fit panis hominum
Dat panis coelicus
Figuris terminum
O res mirabilis
Manducat dominum
Pauper, pauper
Servus et humilis

May the Bread of Angels
Become bread for mankind;
The Bread of Heaven puts
All foreshadowings to an end;
Oh, thing miraculous!
The body of the Lord will nourish
the poor, the poor,
the servile, and the humble.

BLESSED FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
Thank you for this beautiful post.  
I am praying the 24 Hours of Our Lord Jesus Christ Blessed.Luisa Piccarreta. It has 13 Imprimaturs. Praying through the 24 Hrs is nothing short of an illumination of Conscience.
Luisa was a bride of Christ and a victim soul. Her commitment to Him was total abandonment to the Divine Will. The 24 Hrs offers perspective of the extreme and mystical nature of Christs suffering through His eyes. It's life changing when you read this perspective on the Holy Eucharist. In fact you can never look at the Holy Eucharist or the mass in the same way.

Since this is considered private revelations we are not obligated to believe. But our Lord admonished us not to ignore His Prophets. Nothing Luisa says is against the teachings of the church nor does it defy the Word of God biblically. In fact if anything it lends clarity. Every single thing Luisa was given by our Lord has come to pass. And what remains is frightening. She was allowed to suffer the stigmata.

On this day of Corpus Chrisiti I will leave the moments in the 4th hour in which our Lord after finishing washing the feet of his Apostles (must read as he foretold the abandonment of the faith by his ordained sons and the absolute torture this is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.)

Read with great reverence.
Luisa Piccarreta
My Jesus, my joy and delight, I see that your love runs, and runs rapidly. You stand up, sorrowful
as You are, and You almost run to the altar where there is bread and wine ready for the Consecration.
I see You, my Heart, assuming a look wholly new and never seen before: your Divine Person acquires
a tender, loving, affectionate appearance; your eyes blaze with light, more than if they were suns; your
rosy face is radiant; your lips are smiling and burning with love; your creative hands assume the
attitude of creating. I see You, my Love, all transformed: your Divinity seems to overflow from your
Humanity.
My Heart and my Life, Jesus, this appearance of yours, never before seen, draws the attention of all
the Apostles. They are caught by a sweet enchantment and do not dare even to breathe. Your sweet
Mama runs in spirit to the foot of the altar, to admire the portents of your love. The Angels descend
from Heaven, asking themselves: "What is this? What is this? These are true follies, true excesses!
A God who creates, not heaven or earth, but Himself. And where? In the most wretched matter of
a little bread and a little wine."
But while they are all around You, Oh insatiable Love, I see that You take the bread in your hands;
You offer it to the Father, and I hear your most sweet voice say: "Holy Father, thanks be to You,
for always answering your Son. Holy Father, concur with Me. One day, You sent Me from Heaven
to earth to be incarnated in the womb of my Mama, to come and save Our children. Now, allow Me
to be incarnated in each Host, to continue their salvation and be life of each one of my children. Do
You see, O Father? Few hours of my life are left: who would have the heart to leave my children
orphaned and alone? Many are their enemies - the obscurities, the passions, the weaknesses to which
they are subject. Who will help them? O please, I supplicate You to let Me stay in each Host, to be
life of each one, and therefore put to flight their enemies; to be their light, strength and help in
everything. Otherwise, where shall they go? Who will help them? Our works are eternal, my love
is irresistible   I cannot leave my children, nor do I want to.

We should never receive Our Lord standing or in unconsecrated hands. It is GOD you are receiving. He couldn't leave us. What a GIFT of LOVE. God Bless you all.

One of my favorite feasts!

How beautiful, Sister, angelfire and Brother, abnk!

Many thanks for sharing.

SO WONDERFUL!

BNA