Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI
The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Sunday, June 22, 2014

3:00pm - 4:00pm
at St. Anne’s Catholic Church

Eucharistic Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Church, rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life. And, as the document on priestly ministry states: “For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread”.

For Catholics, the Eucharist is no mere symbol of Jesus; we believe that the consecrated Host is actually the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. We take great joy in having this amazing gift that we can see, touch, and even taste. It is the most profound way we experience the presence of Christ in our world today.
As St. Augustine put it: "nemo autem illam carnem manducat, nisi prius adoraverit; peccemus non adorando – no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it." In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; Eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the Eucharistic celebration, which is itself the Church's supreme act of adoration. Receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy.

The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself. Indeed, "only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another."

Eucharistic Adoration provides us with a chance to be with our Savior one on one.

Through this practice, we are invited to spend time alone with God in his real, physical form and to bring to Jesus all our cares, concerns, prayers, hopes and thoughts. We set aside a special time, a respite from our hectic modern lives, to create a personal space in which to meet our God.

By doing so, we grow more in tune with God. We put ourselves in position to talk to him, and also to listen. We reserve a time and a space when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and minds, and when we walk away, we are transformed.

Though time spent with the Blessed Sacrament is a personal, even solitary, activity, it always has a connection to the wider church community. In every case, the object of Eucharistic Adoration is to draw closer to Jesus, and then to bring that presence of Christ to our needy world.