The official title of today is The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Christ gave us the gift of himself in the Eucharist. This is how it is described in ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium’ (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) promulgated by Pope Paul VI on the 4th December 1963 — the first document to be promulgated at Vatican II. It is paragraph 47 in the document: “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.”
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland.
