Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Mary’s of the Lake:

This Sunday, in union with the universal Church, we celebrate the Solemnity (high feast) of THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST – aka CORPUS CHRISTI. This Solemnity should remind us of what Jesus said at the Last Supper: ‘This is My Body... This is My Blood... Do this in Remembrance of me!’ With the Church, we’ve believed in the REAL PRESENCE (Body & Blood, Soul & Divinity) of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

The earliest biblical text concerning the ‘REAL PRESENCE’ is found in St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, as he wrote: ‘For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.’ (1Cor 11: 23-29)

Deep down in our hearts, we know, only with faith that we believe in the
‘REAL PRESENCE’ of the Lord. Only with faith that we believe that after the CONSECRATION, Divine Power changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord. Only with faith that we believe in the ‘transubstantiation’ –i.e. the change of substance or essence by which the bread and wine become, in reality, the body and blood of Christ –only the appearance of bread and wine still remaining. May each one of us nourish a faith-filled reception of the Holy Eucharist by doing these 3 important things:

•   Remind yourselves that it is Jesus that you receive.

•   When the priest or other minister offers the Body & Blood of Jesus, with faith, say ‘Amen’, which means, ‘I believe.’

         After going back to the pews, spend a short time to pray to Jesus –who is     now in our hearts.

Last but not least: As we know, there is a close connection between ‘going to church’ and ‘receiving Holy Communion.’ Perhaps, more than ever in today's world, we need to intend to claim or reclaim Sunday as the ‘Day of the Lord’. When we go to Church on Sunday we truly 'sanctify the day of the Lord.'

Fr. Philip