Our Faith

June 10, 2022 | catholicnewsherald.com

Celebrate the Real Presence

Pope Francis celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, with Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on June 6, 2021.

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Feast of Corpus Christi is June 19

SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — Each year the Church honors Our Lord in the Eucharist on the Feast of Corpus Christi, also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Here are some things you may not know about this joyful celebration. What is Corpus Christi?

The Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the Real Presence of the Body and Bood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

The feast day was established in 1246 by Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege at the suggestion of St. Juliana of Mont Carvillon. It was extended to the universal Church by Pope Urban IV in 1264 after St. Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Church, proposed a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist that emphasized the joy of the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Jesus. Having recognized in 1264 the authenticity of a Eucharistic miracle in Bolsena, the pontiff, then living in Orvieto, established the feast of Corpus Christi on Aug. 11, 1264, as a solemnity for the whole Roman Catholic Church.

The office was composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, and the procession was approved by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. Corpus Christi is a “movable” feast: originally observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. In 1970 it was shifted to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday for U.S. dioceses and most of the world.

This year, Corpus Christi falls on Sunday, June 19. Traditions of Corpus Christi

On this holy day that honors Our Lord’s Presence in the Eucharist, after Mass Our Lord is placed in a monstrance that is then carried by a priest to four different altars representing the four corners of the earth. While processing, the congregation follows and sings. At each altar there are readings and prayers.

The procession is followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Some parishes also offer a Holy Hour in the church on this feast day.

Each year in Rome, the pope presides over a Eucharistic procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The procession begins at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and proceeds to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where it concludes with Benediction. — www.wikipedia.com contributed.

Daily Scripture readings

JUNE 12-18

Sunday (The Most Holy Trinity): Proverbs 8:22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15; Monday (St. Anthony of Padua): 1 Kings 21:1-16, Matthew 5:38-42; Tuesday: 1 Kings 21:17-29, Matthew 5:43-48; Wednesday: 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18; Thursday: Sirach 48:1-14, Matthew 6:7-15; Friday: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20, Matthew 6:19-23; Saturday: 2 Chronicles 24:17-25, Matthew 6:24-34 JUNE 19-25

Sunday (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ): Genesis 14:18-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Luke 9:11b-17; Monday: 2 Kings 17:58, 13-15a, 18, Matthew 7:1-5; Tuesday (St. Aloysius Gonzaga): 2 Kings 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36, Matthew 7:6, 12-14; Wednesday (Sts. Paulina of Nola, John Fisher and Thomas More): 2 Kings 22:8-13, 23:1-3, Matthew 7:15-20; Thursday (The Nativity of St. John the Baptist): Isaiah 49:1-6, Acts 13:22-26, Luke 1:57-66, 80; Friday (The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus): Ezekiel 34:11-16, Romans 5:5b-11, Luke 15:3-7; Saturday (The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary): Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19, Luke 2:41-51 JUNE 26-JULY 2

Sunday: 1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-18, Luke 9:51-62; Monday (St. Cyril of Alexandria): Amos 2:6-10, 13-16, Matthew 8:18-22; Tuesday (St. Irenaeus): Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12, Matthew 8:23-27; Wednesday (Sts. Peter and Paul): Acts 12:1-11, 2 Timothy 4:68, 17-18, Matthew 16:13-19; Thursday (The first Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church): Amos 7:10-17, Matthew 9:1-8; Friday: Amos 8:4-6, 9-12, Matthew 9:9-13; Saturday: Amos 9:11-15, Matthew 9:14-17

Our faith

CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI 3

Pope Francis

In praise of wrinkles

Why are the elderly unappreciated and seen as useless when they carry so much wisdom about life and can open the door to God’s tenderness, Pope Francis asked.

Criticizing the obsession of trying to stay forever young in appearance, he said people must not hide or try to get rid of their wrinkles.

“Wrinkles are a sign of experience, a sign of life, a sign of maturity, a sign of having made a journey. Do not touch them to become young, that your face might look young,” the pope said June 8 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square. “What matters is the entire personality; it’s the heart that matters, and the heart remains with that youth of a good wine – the more it ages the better it is,” he said to applause.

The pope continued his series of talks about old age by looking at St. John’s account of Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-21). Jesus tries to explain to the elderly Pharisee about the need to be born again.

Jesus says that to see the kingdom of God, one needs to be “born from above,” which means “a rebirth from above with the grace of God” and not to be “reborn physically” as if this life had been a waste of time or a “failed experiment” that needed to be erased and done over, the pope said.

“This life is precious in God’s eyes – it identifies us as beings who are loved tenderly by God,” the pope said.

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus has something to teach people today, who, like Nicodemus, misunderstand what “rebirth” is and should be in the light of faith.

Today, he said, there is a “dream of an eternal youth” and a “myth that makes us want to return to our mother’s womb to come back always with a young body.”

The world, which shows “a worrisome tendency to consider the birth of a child as the simple matter of the production and biological reproduction of the human being,” also cultivates this “myth of eternal youth There is a mission proper to old age, he said, which is to help show people the hope and love that come with “being destined for eternity in God” and journeying toward one’s final destination with the wisdom of lived experience. Being old is not an obstacle “to the being born from above that Jesus speaks of, but it becomes the opportune time to illuminate it” and make it credible to others, the pope said.

The kind of tenderness grandparents show their grandchildren “opens the door toward understanding God’s tenderness,” he said, “and old age helps us understand this aspect of God who is tenderness.”

He said people should question why “this throwaway culture decided to throw out the elderly, considering them useless.”