Corpus Christi Sunday: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The solemnity of Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist, paralleling Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday).

Corpus Christi was introduced in the late 13th century to encourage the faithful give special honor to the institution of the Holy Eucharist to the Blessed Sacrament. The official title of this Solemnity was changed in 1970 to The Body and Blood of Christ and it is still on the Roman Missal’s official Calendar for the universal Church on Thursday after Trinity Sunday; however, where it is not a day of obligation (as in the United States) it is usually celebrated on the Sunday following Trinity Sunday.

From the Holy Father's Homily, Corpus Christi 2007:

In his homily, the Holy Father said he wanted to put Christ "in the midst of our daily lives, so that he walks where we walk, so that he lives where we live."

"We go through the streets of the world knowing that he is at our side, supported by the hope of one day being able to see him with our faces unveiled in that definitive encounter."

"For every Christian generation, the Eucharist is indispensable food that sustains us as we cross the desert of this world, dried by ideological and economic systems that do not promote life, but repress it. A world in which the logic of power and possession dominates, instead of the logic of service and love; a world in which the culture of violence and death often triumphs."

"Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts and asks to come in not just for one day, but for forever."

For more information:

Pope Benedict XVI: A Reflection on Corpus Christi

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

~ John 6:53, 54

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