Newsletter - 11th June 2023
CORPUS CHRISTI
The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.
The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life” For the Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, he offers life to men. Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar.
The Church was born of the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the centre of the Church's life. This is already clear from the earliest images of the Church found in the Acts of the Apostles: “They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). The “breaking of the bread” refers to the Eucharist. Two thousand years later, we continue to relive that primordial image of the Church. At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it.
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 everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love.
Extract of the Encyclical Letter Ecclesia De Eucharistia
John Paul II, 17 April 2003
Focus of the Week
PARISH FUN DAY & BBQ
Saturday 24 June
Come and join us for a day of celebration and fun for the whole family.
All are welcome!
Fun Day opens at 3pm – free entry.
BBQ at 6.30pm – Adult £10 Child £5
Tickets available from the Parish Office