Corpus Christi

Today is the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ--Corpus Christi. The feast was originally established in 1246 by Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege at the suggestion of St. Juliana, who received an inspiration from Christ to promote the feast as a way to strengthen the people's faith that had begun to grow weak. In 1264, Pope Urban extended the feast to the entire Church.

Corpus Christi processions are an important part of the feast day. The Eucharist is reserved in a monstrance and processed under a canopy, outside, often around the block. This public display of our faith in the Real Presence is especially important today when people's faith grows cold and our rights to practice our religion are being challenged.

These public expressions of Catholicism, once taken for granted, had fallen by the wayside in the confusion following Vatican II. The result was generations being "raised Catholic" with no sense of the faith or of Catholic culture or the place of the Church in their lives.

Thankfully, we are learning to retrieve the "Baby" we had previously thrown out with the bathwater in the 1960's, and are once again proud to be Catholic and thankful for our ability to publicly practice our faith.