Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The meaning of the celebration

+ A special liturgical celebration honoring the mystery of the Eucharist was first proposed by Saint Juliana of Mount Cornillon, a Norbertine nun in Belgium. 

+ In 1264, Pope Urban IV (who had known Saint Juliana and her friend and confident Blessed Eva of Liege) approved the feast of Corpus Christi and extended the celebration to the Universal Church.

+ At the request of Pope Urban, Saint Thomas Aquinas composed the prayers and hymns used in the Divine Office and Mass for the feast and some of these prayers continue to be used for the celebration even today. 

+ Over the centuries the focus of the celebration came to center on the consecrated host of the Mass (so much so that Blessed Pope Pius IX created a separate feast in honor of the Precious Blood of Christ on July 1). However, in the reforms preceding and following the Second Vatican Council, the focus of this solemnity was broadened to again celebrate the fullness of the mystery of Christ’s gift of his Body and Blood and his abiding presence in the Church (see the Collect and Preface for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).

For prayer and reflection

“Brothers and sisters, today where should we go “to prepare the Lord’s supper”? The procession with the Blessed Sacrament – a hallmark of the feast of Corpus Domini, yet one that for the moment we cannot celebrate – reminds us that we are called to go out and bring Jesus to others. To go out with enthusiasm, bringing Christ to those we meet in our daily lives. May we become a Church with pitcher in hand, a Church that reawakens thirst and brings water. Let us open wide our hearts in love, so that we can be the large and welcoming room where everyone can enter and meet the Lord. Let us break the bread of our lives in compassion and solidarity, so that through us the world may see the grandeur of God’s love. Then the Lord will come, he will surprise us once more, he will again become food for the life of the world. And he will satisfy us always, until the day when, at the heavenly banquet, we will contemplate his face and come to know the joy that has no end.”—Pope Francis, Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2021

Spiritual bonus 

On this day, the Church also celebrates the commemoration of Saints Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, who were martyred together near Rome in 304. Their names are included in the Roman Canon (the First Eucharistic Prayer).

Prayer

O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament
have left us a memorial of your Passion,
grant us, we pray,
so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood
that we may always experience in ourselves
the fruits of your redemption.
Who live and reign with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.