07/06/2026
Our Parish Priest Father Anthony thoughts for this Corpus ChristiSunday.
This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, traditionally known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and
Blood of Christ. We are celebrating the gift of the Eucharist. The feast originated in the 13th Century. St Juliana of Mont
Cornillon, Liege, had a deep faith in the Blessed Sacrament and felt very strongly that there should be a feast in its honour.
She made her thoughts clear to the Bishop of Liège, Robert de Thorete, and he convened a Synod to discuss the matter. In
1246, he instituted the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament in his Diocese. Pope Urban IV, who had formerly been Archdeacon at
Liège, formally instituted this as a universal Feast Day for the Church in 1264 and commissioned St Thomas Aquinas to
prepare the text of the Office and Mass.
In our parish this year, those who come to receive Holy Communion, will be given the opportunity once again to receive the
Precious Blood from the chalice. We receive the whole Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity, under the form of bread alone or
under the form of wine alone. The fullness of the grace of His Presence is available to us under one kind or
another. However, ‘the meaning of Communion is signified as clearly as possible when it is given under both kinds’ and
Catholics are ‘encouraged to desire Communion under both kinds in which the meaning of the Eucharistic banquet is more
fully signified’ (General Instruction on the Roman Missal, no. 281). It was Jesus who said, ‘Take this, all of you, and drink from
it’. Receiving Communion under both kinds was the normal practice in the early Church. St Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th
century summed up the practice of the early Church for coming forward for Holy Communion: 'Make your left hand a throne
for your right, since your right hand is about to welcome a king. Cup your palm and receive in it Christ's body, saying in
response "Amen". ... After partaking of Christ's body, go to receive the chalice of his blood. ... Bow your head and say "Amen"
to show your homage and reverence and sanctify yourself by partaking also of Christ's blood. The Catholic Bishops of
England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland wrote in their document “One Bread One Body,” receiving from the chalice expresses
powerfully the sacrificial nature of the Mass. By taking part in the Eucharist we are drawn deeper into the new and everlasting
covenant which was sealed with the Blood of the Lamb. Our communion together in the Blood of Christ is our communion
with the sacrificial self-giving of Our Lord. “As we take the cup of salvation, we say that we are ready to drink from the cup
that he drank, and to give ourselves in sacrificial love as servants of salvation.” Here is the prayer written by Thomas Aquinas
that the priest prays after Communion on this feast:
Grant, O Lord, we pray, that we may delight for all eternity in that share in your divine life, which is foreshadowed in the
present age by our reception of your precious Body and Blood. Who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
