Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, more often known as Corpus Christi!
Though the Church has always held the the Eucharist is indeed the Real Presence of Jesus, today’s feast was not created formally until the 1200s, when Pope Urban IV instituted it as a feast for the entire Latin Church. It was proposed to Pope Urban by St. Thomas Aquinas and created in response to a Eucharistic miracle in Bolsena, Italy, in which a consecrated Host began to bleed. The corporal that caught the drops of Precious Blood is preserved at the cathedral in Orvieto. Thomas Aquinas wrote many Eucharistic hymns for the feast, including Pange Lingua and O Salutaris Hostia, which are still widely used on this feast and during Eucharistic Adoration.
We send prayers and a shout-out to Blessed Sacrament Parish today! Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore; O make us love Thee more and more!
