Thursday, June 19, 2014

Feast of Corpus Christi


Is there a feast more in need of recovery in the Church today?  Introduced to counter lack of belief in transubstantiation, the texts for the feast of Corpus Christi were famously composed by St Thomas Aquinas.

The Novus Ordo version of the feast, predictably leaves out some of the most important verses of the reading from 1 Corinthians 11:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, [24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."  [25] 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." [26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. [27] Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. [28] Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. [29] For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. 

You can find the Gospel for the feast, and the third nocturn Matins readings on it here.

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