'O wondrous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may upon their Lord and Master feed.' Sunday Reflections, Corpus Christi Sunday, Year C

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Pope Benedict elevating the Body of Christ
[Wikipedia; photo]

Corpus Christi, Year C

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year C 

In most countries, including the Vatican, this solemnity, formerly celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, is now celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, this year replacing the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 9:11b-17 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

When the crowds learned it, they followed Jesus, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who needed healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.


Léachtaí i nGaeilge


The Elevation of the Host
Jean Béraud [Wikipedia; source]

Jean Béraud’s painting reminds me of Sunday Mass when I was growing up in Holy Family parish in Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s. During the Consecration and the Elevation of the Host and then of the Chalice, there would be a ‘living silence’ expressing a sense of awe at what was happening, the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit acting through the priest. The silence would then be broken by everyone coughing, releasing the life-giving tension of the community’s shared act of adoration.


Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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