Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament

June 7, 2026

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The Church teaches that the Eucharist is a celebration. The Church also teaches that this celebration is a prayer offered to the Father by Christ in the Spirit. The Church also teaches that this Eucharistic celebration is the prayer of the Church because the Church is the Body of Christ. We, too, are the Body of Christ, and the Eucharistic celebration is what we accomplish as Church in Christ. Our offering/sacrifice is also our food and nourishment. Saint Augustine reminds us that at the Eucharist we receive what we are: we are Church, the body of Christ. Having received the body and blood of Christ, we are then sent, like Christ, in mission. We can then say that the Eucharist is truly our identity and our mission as Church, as the Body of Christ.

For our meditation today, we consider a few texts from this feast:

• Do not forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of … that place of slavery, … and fed you in the desert with manna. (Deuteronomy 8)
• The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. (Corinthians 10)
• What he did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, his memorial never to cease. (from the Sequence, “Lauda Sion”)
• This the truth each Christian learns, Bread into his flesh turns, to his precious blood the wine. (from the Sequence, “Lauda Sion”)
• Bad and good the feast are sharing, of what diverse dooms preparing, endless death or endless life. (from the Sequence, “Lauda Sion”)
• My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him/her. (John 6)

Let Us Pray:

Grant, O Lord, we pray, that we may delight for all eternity in that share in your divine life, which is foreshadowed in the present age by our reception of your precious Body and Blood. (Prayer After Communion)