Happy Corpus Christi Sunday! The Eucharist is the source & the summit of our faith. No matter which individual parish we are a member of, St. Patrick or St. Vincent de Paul or any other parish, we are united as one in our celebration of the Eucharist.

In his document, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, St. Pope John Paul II writes, ““In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for eve- ryone, witnesses of hope.” As Catholics we believe that in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ is fully present to us, Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity. The Eucharist is not just some nice reminder, a symbol of Christ’s presence with us. The Eucharist IS the very presence of God with us & among us. A gift, a bond, a presence, that goes beyond individual parish boundaries & unites us together as one body of Christ.As we prepare to enter into the new phase of our parish life, we will do so as individual parish families, united together in our devotion to & our love for Jesus, especially His Sacramental presence in the Eucharist. In our maintaining and building up of our individual parish communities & in the ways that we walk & work together, it’s my hope and prayer that our goal is to always make the Risen Lord known & to build up our love for Him in the Eucharist. May all that we do center around that goal & prayer as each of us strives in our daily lives, words & actions, to make the Lord present through us. May we live each day as a Eucharistic people, being fed by Christ around the altar & then bringing that presence into wherever we go & to whoever we encounter.

  May each of us reflect this week on how we might grow in our love for our Lord in the Eucharist? How might we allow Him to transform us more? We are individual parish communities, united in the great gift that we celebrate at each & every Mass. “O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise & All Thanksgiving Be Every Moment Thine.” Amen.