Corpus Christi 2026

 

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi came about due to a Eucharistic miracle. A German priest, Peter of Prague was on a pilgrimage traveling to Rome. He was a good and faithful priest, attending to his duties, but like the priest at Lanciano, he struggled with his belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Stopping at Bolsena, Italy, to rest, he celebrated Holy Mass at the tomb of St. Christina. As the priest spoke the words of consecration, the Host began to bleed onto his hands, and then onto the corporal, a linen cloth on the altar.

The priest was so dumbfounded that he immediately suspended the Mass, and left for Orvieto, a city about eleven miles away, where Pope Urban IV happened to be staying. After listening to the priest’s incredible story, the pope commissioned an investigation of the corporal and the miracle reported by the priest. After receiving the reports of the study, the pope declared that there was no natural cause for what had taken place. The Host and corporal were enshrined in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they can be seen today.

Pope Urban was already familiar with a Eucharistic miracle. Years earlier, Blessed Juliana of Cornillon, in Belgium, had a vision in which she saw a full moon that was darkened in one spot. A heavenly voice told her that the moon represented the Church at that time, and the dark spot showed that a great feast in honor of Corpus Christi was missing from the liturgical calendar. She reported this vision to a local Church official, the archdeacon of Liège, who later became Pope Urban IV.

Remembering Juliana’s vision as he verified the bloody miracle reported by Peter of Prague, Urban commissioned instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. He asked St. Thomas Aquinas to compose prayers and a Mass for the occasion, which resulted in the great Eucharistic hymns Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris and The Liturgy of the Hours for a new feast dedicated to devotion of the Eucharist.

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi for the universal Church is celebrated on the Thursday (in honor of the Last Supper and institution of the Holy Eucharist), after Trinity Sunday. However, in many countries, including the USA, it's celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.

Many churches hold a Eucharistic Procession every year on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi and process using a canopy, while a priest or deacon carried a monstrance containing Jesus in the Sacred Host.

Pope Benedict XVI, said, “…from this intimacy, which is an extremely personal gift from the Lord, the force of the sacrament of the Eucharist goes beyond the walls of our churches. In this sacrament, the Lord is always coming to the world. This universal aspect of the Eucharistic presence is shown in the procession of our feast. We take Christ, present in the figure of bread, through the streets of our city. We entrust these streets, these homes, our daily life, to His goodness. May our streets be Jesus' streets! May our homes be homes for Him and with Him! May his presence penetrate our everyday life. With this gesture, we place before His eyes the sufferings of the sick, the loneliness of youth and the elderly, temptations, fears, our whole life. The procession is intended to be a great and public blessing for our city: Christ is, in person, the divine blessing for the world. May the ray of his blessing extend over all of us!” (Pope Benedict XVI, Corpus Christi Homily, 2005)

Interestingly, every Eucharistic miracle ever tested by scientists all have the same blood type (AB) and all are living cardiac tissue from a Heart.

On Sept 19th, 2021, we began continuous Eucharistic Adoration from Sunday, 9am through Tuesday 7am, except during Mass on Mondays. We have had continuous adoration for 5 years. Thank you Jesus! I want to thank all those who have faithfully kept your Holy Hour every week and the many substitutes. Sometimes people move or change jobs, and we need replacements, but the Lord always calls someone to fill the Holy Hour that opens up. Jesus Himself keeps it going by inspiring parishioners to spend an hour with Him every week in the Most Holy Eucharist.

In our own parish, we may have been a miracle associated with Eucharistic Adoration. Kevin Cole, who is the stepfather of Joe Cordell and grandfather of Ire, came to Ire's baptism, First Communion and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil this year. For 9 years Kevin had a diseased liver. When he came, I thanked him for making his heroic trip from St. Louis to attend his granddaughter's entrance into the Catholic Church. I could tell he was in much pain and was very tired, he was at the end of his rope and most likely didn't have much longer to live.

However, on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Ire became Catholic, I wrote Kevin's name in the Adoration Petition book. Three days later, after the last adorer on Tuesday of that week came to do their Holy Hour, he received a call, that he had been waiting. He needed to immediately go to the hospital to receive a liver transplant.

As of today, he is doing very well. Though he waited 9 years for a new liver, the prayer was answered 3 days after the intention was written in the Adoration Petition book.

Some may say it was coincidence. But, frankly I don't believe in coincidences, I believe in "God instances" also known as "God's providence". God inspired Kevin to come here to be present for Ire when she became Catholic. God inspired me to write Kevin's name in the book, and God inspired parishioners to pray he would receive a new liver and he received one.

We should all thank the Eucharistic Jesus for this marvelous gift and allowing us to participate in it.

My friends, Jesus is truly here in the Sacred Host. Many times, we come to pray and we don't feel anything. We can't physically see Jesus, but we believe. We are tired and we feel like our prayers are so little, but God makes up for our weaknesses. He sees the love in our heart. He cares about our every need and He wants to be part of all that we do. Thank you Jesus for Eucharistic Adoration in our parish. Thank you Jesus for answering our prayers. Thank you Jesus for the person who donated his or her organs. We should pray for his or her soul, that God will reward them for their act of love.

I do need to share with you, what I have seen with organ donation. Sometimes, organs are removed in an unethical manner, while the person is not clinically dead. This is becoming more and more common in many hospitals. However, the Church teaches only after a person has died, may their organs be removed. Some doctors say brain death is the same as death, but new research shows brain death is not fully death. The person can still breathe, their heart can still beat. How can their brain be dead, if their organs continue to function on their own.

About 15 years ago, I anointed a woman who the doctor said was brain dead. Due to her wayward life, her family had nothing to do with her. The doctor told her boyfriend, that she was brain dead, and suggested he give permission to turn off the machines because there was no hope she would live. The boyfriend asked me what to do.

I said, "Give God a chance. Pray for a miracle and wait one day before you decide what to do." I anointed her and gave her the Apostolic Pardon. The next day, they turned off the machines and she kept breathing on her own. The day after she was taken off machines, she woke up, I heard her confession and gave her Holy Communion. Three days later, she walked out of the hospital and went home. Was it a miracle, or was it a misdiagnosis?

She was so happy to have been able to go to Confession and receive Holy Communion. Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament had been longing to forgive her sins and be one with her in Holy Communion.

While I believe organ donation is very charitable, it must be in accord with Church teaching along with ethical scientific and medical principles.

Tomorrow, (Sunday), after Mass, we will have a Eucharistic Procession because we want to take our Eucharistic Jesus through the streets of Little River and ask Him to bless our city and our community with His presence.

May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, inspire many to come to daily Mass to receive Her Son in Holy Communion and help us to adore Her Son in Adoration.