An intense craving for the Body and Blood of the Lord drove me into the Roman Catholic Church 40 years ago this June.

 John 6: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 

My brain protested some teachings of the Roman Catholic Church but when Mary takes up residence in your heart and you feel empty and hungry for the Eucharist, well …  there is no one else who even wants you and so nowhere else to go.

 “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?….

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Corpus Christi (in Latin , “Body of Christ”) or Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ ,

formerly Corpus Domini (“Body of Christ”), is a celebration of the Catholic Church intended to celebrate the Eucharist .

The Corpus Christi feast and procession entered the Church calendar in the 13th century through Juliana of Liège (1193-1252). From the age of 16, Juliana  received the same vision in prayer: A brilliant moon continually appeared before her with one small portion obscured and invisible.

Finally, the Lord  came to explain it to her, the vision meant that liturgical year of the Church was incomplete without a feast for  the Blessed Sacrament .

• this was  a time when the faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife.

•  the faithful would draw from this feast a source of new strength and vigor.

•  the feast would help change irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Blessed Sacrament

Juliana hid this revelation for 20 years before she had enough courage to tell her confessor, and with her leave he consulted others. finally reaching the Pontiff of Rome, Urban IV.

WEYDEN, Rogier van der.Seven Sacraments 1445-50

The Institution of the Eucharist, Federico Fiori Barocci, 1609

 

 

 

 

 

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