The Procurator and all the Members of the Grand Priory England wish you all a very happy Feast of Corpus Christi.
As we approach, this coming week, the easing of the 'lockdown' and the reopening of our churches (Deo gratias!), making available again to Catholics that Sacred Space which is their birth-right, and access to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, our daily Food, we are grateful to our chaplain Father John Osman for this little meditation upon returning in the correct attitude. It is indeed a very good thing that, for a few weeks ahead, we can go to adore, but not to receive; this is the concluding chapter of all we have learned over the last three months. Let us not forget this lesson, every natural thing has a supernatural purpose, and God intended us to benefit from this strange period of virus. Let there be no going back to our old ‘normal’.
For many, it seems the idea of a ‘Spiritual Communion’ has been a novelty, with prayer formulae to be learned anew. Yet every Holy Communion we make of Our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Sacred Host should be accompanied by an act of spiritual communion, with the same sense of awe we felt at our First Holy Communion (and if we cannot remember that, we should try! do you remember the date?) Let us heed Father Osman’s words and go back into the world as new men and women, armed with Our Lord’s Sacred Body in our hearts, ready for the spiritual battle which awaits us. And with Our Lady, rejoice in it!
CORPUS CHRISTI
Fr John Osman, Conventual Chaplain
This year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the forced closure of our churches, we shall not be able to keep the great solemnity of Corpus Christi as heretofore. The impressive act of witness of the Blessed Sacrament Procession in London, to which Knights and Dames have been committed over recent years, will not take place. Let us hope that next year we shall be able to restore this wonderful tradition of witnessing to the True Presence of Jesus Christ and the blessing that this Presence brings us in our lives.
The lack of a Procession should not deter us though from deepening our appreciation of this great Sacrament and of thanking Our Lord more profoundly for this wonderful gift, hopefully to be the greater appreciated because of deprivation in this time of lock down. The desire to receive Jesus Christ, truly Present in His humanity and divinity in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar can be intensified by not being able to receive Him in the Eucharist at this time. Deprivation should lead us to a deepening of faith and trust in Our Lord and His love for us and His desire to be close to us.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen was one of the first priests to promote the Catholic Faith through the media; he was declared Venerable in 2012. He tried to spend an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament every day, remembering Our Lord’s request to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Could you not watch with me one hour?”
Asked what inspired his great love of the Holy Eucharist, Archbishop Sheen shared a story about Communist soldiers overrunning a Catholic village during the Revolution. He recounted how the Communists rounded up the village’s inhabitants, forced them to gather in the church, and made them watch as they destroyed the Tabernacle, throwing the consecrated Hosts down on the floor. The soldiers’ captain warned the people never to return to the church. But that night, one little girl went to the church, despite the risk to her own life. After an hour of prayer in reparation for the desecration, she knelt and received Jesus in Holy Communion, picking up the Host from the floor with her tongue. The little girl came back every night and kept this up for more than a month, but on the thirty second night, after reverently receiving the last remaining Host with her tongue, she was discovered and shot dead.
What a wonderful witness to Faith and reverence for the Holy Body of the Lord!
At this time, as we celebrate Corpus Christi, let us examine our conscience and ask some pertinent questions, with this little girl’s example in mind:
Do I receive Our Lord’s Body in a state of grace?
When did I last confess my sins and receive absolution?
Do I receive Our Lord devoutly and with love for Him in my heart?
Do I prepare to receive Him?
Do I offer thanksgiving each time for having received Him?
Let us use this time therefore when we are deprived of the Blessed Sacrament to prepare ourselves to receive Him with even greater joy and devotion when we return to His Presence once again.
O SACRAMENT MOST HOLY,
O SACRAMENT DIVINE,
ALL PRAISE AND ALL THANKSGIVING BE EVERY MOMENT THINE.
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