Corpus Christi: The Body of Christ

by Rev. Kilian McCaffrey  |  05/30/2024  |  Pastor's Letter

I have spoken at our Tuesday Miraculous Medal Novena of the story of conversion of Claude Newman, an African-American death-row prisoner in 1943. During a series of reported apparitions of “The Lady,” the Blessed Mother, to Claude in a prison block in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he related how:
“The Lady told me that in Communion, I will only see what looks like a piece of bread. But she told me that It is really and truly her Son, and that He will be with me just as He was with her before He was born in Bethlehem.

“She told me that I should spend my time like she did during her lifetime with Him, in loving Him, adoring Him, thanking Him, praising Him, and asking Him for blessings.
“I shouldn’t be distracted or bothered by anybody else or anything else, but I should spend those few minutes in my thoughts alone with Him.”

I am so moved by these words of Mary. Bishop Thomas Olmsted summed up this love for our Eucharistic Lord in his Letter on the Eucharist with these words:
“107. What we should humbly and fervently ask from God, then, is a deepening of our love for Him with our whole heart. We should ask for this gift because love of God is the only way to God. What rouses us to love God more than the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist?
“The Church’s ultimate reason to believe in the Eucharist is because she trusts Jesus. She has faith in her Lord’s words spoken up and down the centuries on the lips of her priests:

‘This Is My Body Given Up For You.’ “The Blessed Sacrament is thus the greatest sign given by God to stir up love in the hearts of His people until He comes again. Let us beg God for the grace to be on fire with the divine love which flows from the heart of Christ in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.
“108. My dear sons and daughters in Christ, the Eucharist is the heart of our faith. It is the center of the faith of the Church for it is Christ Himself. All the concrete expressions of Eucharistic faith I mention above represent our humble response to this mystery. If done in trusting surrender to God, they are meant to draw us closer to the eternal wedding banquet to which every Eucharistic celebration is a foretaste.”

You can read Bishop Olmsted’s entire Letter at: www. dphx.org/veneremur-cernui/

Ryan Wiensch, our summer seminarian, will arrive at Blessed Sacrament Parish on Monday, June 3, and be with us for most of June and July. Be sure to say hello to Ryan.

And Fr. Samuel Aliba, our new priest, will begin at Blessed Sacrament Parish on July 1. To celebrate Corpus Christi this weekend, the Gift Shop has a consignment of I Believe Eucharist Decals for your vehicle! Pick One Up Today! $2 or a Donation Congratulations to our newly-ordained priests!

Fr. Kilian, our Deacons, our great Parish Staff, Disciples and Many Volunteers.