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May 27, 2005
Corpus Christi
The feast of Corpus Christi is, for Roman Catholics, a Feast of Obligation, a day when all practicing Catholics are obliged to attend Mass. Why? And what is this feast really all about? The Latin title means simply "The Body of Christ", a name for both the Bread of Communion and for the Church in all its diversity.
As a friend pointed out recently, it is strange that it has kept, in all traditions that celebrate it, the Latin and not been "translated" into some other form or language. Perhaps it is fitting that it should, since it celebrates both the Church as Christ's body on Earth and His Body and Blood of the Communion. It will be marked in Roman Catholic Churches and in the Anglo-Catholic Churches of the Anglican Communion with a full Mass, said, sung or even High. Most will, at some point, also have Benediction, the blessing of the Parish and the congregation with the consecrated Host or "Body of Christ" from the Mass.
It is fitting that it should be celebrated. As the alternative Communion invitation says:
We are the Body of Christ; for we all share in one bread.
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 27, 2005 09:54 AM