Newsletter - 19th June 2022
The Miracle of the Eucharist
Today is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) a day to ponder what happens to us at the Eucharist. I grew up in a Protestant church where the bread and wine were considered to be only symbols with which we remembered the Last Supper. I decided to become a Catholic the day I understood that the bread and wine were really the body and blood of Jesus. The same incredible mystery of the Creator of the universe becoming human happens at every Mass. Or as Thomas Aquinas puts it, in the Jesus of history, God’s divinity is hidden. In the small host, God’s humanity is hidden.
Yes, hidden, but very real. Bradley Roth, in his book, The Hunger Inside, recounts his discovery that in the Eucharist more is going on than he could account for his mind alone. His heart was being stirred and his body enlivened by the palpable presence of Jesus. Hours later, he could “still feel the lingering fission of joy.” God communicates to us not just through scripture, not just through prayer, but “through the molecules and atoms of the material world itself.”
So let’s not take the Eucharist for granted. Each time we come to Mass we witness the miracle of Christ becoming present to us at the altar. As I say to children, “do we just look at it?” No, we receive it inside ourselves. Jesus becomes close in a real, material way. May we not miss the moment but feel the fission (akin to the splitting of the atom) inside us, a tingling energy that can give us joy, and a joy which can continue for the rest of the week!
Nancy Wood ccn
Focus of the Week
Parish Summer Party Hog Roast
Saturday 25 June from 7pm - tickets £10 (£5 for u16s)
Tickets on sale after weekend masses and from the parish office. Drinks will be available at the bar and can be paid for by either card or cash.
Sunday Evening Mass
Sunday 19 June and 10 July 5.30-6.30pm
Our next evening mass will be taking place later this month - it is a different type of gathering to the morning masses. Please come along and join us to experience the difference.