Tag: Vatican II

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Published on by KateLeave a comment

Thank you all for your patience and graciousness regarding last week’s post. We had a lovely vacation and are now back at home in the thick of moving preparations. I haven’t edited this week’s video as I type this, but I hope it’s mostly coherent as I don’t have time to re-record it. This was the first time filming with all 6 kids home, so you can imagine how not alone I was (and if you can’t double check the feature image at the top of this post. That was not a staged photo).

This week the Church highlights the critical gift of the Eucharist. The Vatican II document Lumen gentium calls the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life (no.11). Based on today’s Gospel, it is not a stretch to say that Jesus intends this free gift of communion with His own self to be the source and summit of every moment of our life.

These are nice words, and nice words are all they will be if we don’t stop and think critically about how we are applying them to our life.

Source: a place, person, or thing from which something comes or can be obtained.

The Church teaches that the Eucharist is a source, and a source is a place where we obtain something. What do we obtain from the Eucharist? The YouCat (a fabulous resource!) states:

When we eat the broken Bread, we unite ourselves with the love of Jesus, who gave his body for us on the wood of the Cross; when we drink from the chalice, we unite ourselves with him who even poured out his blood out of love for us.

YouCat no. 208

We receive Jesus. We receive God. St John Vianney said:

God would have given us something greater if he had had something greater than himself.

It’s amazing. The Eucharist isn’t just a memory of a meal long ago, but the actual, real presence of Jesus Christ in the form of bread and wine.

The Eucharist is also the summit of the Christian life. The highest point of union with God is in that moment when we receive Him in the Eucharist. This mystery is core to our Catholic belief. The YouCat is full of amazing quotes, so I’ve got a few more for you.

“Not going to Communion is like someone dying of thirst beside a spring” – St. John Vianney

“In the Holy Eucharist we become one with God like food with the body” – St. Francis de Sales

“It was as though I heard a voice from on high: I am the food of the strong; eat then of me and grow. But you will not transform me into yourself like food for the body, but rather you will be transformed into me” – St. Augustine

And finally, the quote I will leave you with for this week to ponder as you prepare for Mass:

“Your life must be woven around the Eucharist. Direct your eyes to Him, who is the Light; bring your hearts very close to His Divine Heart; ask Him for the grace to know Him, for the charity to love Him, for the courage to serve Him. Seek Him longingly.” – St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Daily Graces. kktaliaferro.wordpress.com

Guaranteed Right Answer

Published on by KateLeave a comment

While in college, I participated in a music ministry program. We were a group of students, musically inclined, that studied the liturgy together and collaborated to select the music, coordinate the choirs, and play/sing at the Masses. We met periodically with the heads of the campus ministry music program to learn more about the liturgy, how to select appropriate music and grow together as a community.

In particular, we studied the Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concillium (SC), the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Periodically, we would have quizzes on what we were learning. Our liturgy director would jokingly say, “If you don’t know the answer, just put down SC #10. It covers everything. This is the famous source and summit passage. Simply put, the liturgy is both the source from which the Church and her people draw their faith and the summit toward which all the actions of the Church are aimed. It really encompasses everything.

As I was driving home with John from Sunday school, this memory came to mind. I had asked John what he had learned about that day. He did the typical “I don’t know.” I pressed him further, asking if they had heard any stories. He said, yes, one about Jesus. I asked what Jesus was doing in the story. “Dying on the cross” was his answer.

Now, it is very possible that they did talk about the sacrifice of Jesus, but I am inclined to think that they probably did other things, based on the papers he was sent home with. Regardless, John taught me a very important lesson about our faith.

When it all is boiled down, our faith is about the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, the Paschal Mystery. Without the Paschal Mystery, we just have a nice guy who said some unique things a long time ago. The power, the compelling witness, the suffering faith of Christians everywhere, comes from the Paschal Mystery – the source. As Christians, we are called to become Christ.

jesus-753063_1920But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live [just] as he lived. (1 John 2:5-6).

The summit.

So in a way, John got it right. Regardless of what they actually talked about, it can be traced back to the source, to Jesus. And at the same time, it pointed toward our ultimate goal, union with Jesus.