This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Happy Feast Day! This year the feast has added significance, because for so many Catholics the last year was an extended fast from receiving Holy Communion due to the restrictions brought on by the corona virus epidemic. Thankfully, due to the effective vaccines, many are now able to attend Mass in person and receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Of course, because of the doctrine of Concomitance, when you receive either the consecrated host, or the consecrated wine, you receive the whole Body of Christ, entire and complete.

While we are very grateful that the long fast from Holy Communion is now ending, as people are able to return to Mass in person, let us continue to remember the many Catholics all over the world who are not able to receive Holy Communion on a regular basis due to the lack of priests. In many parts of the developing world people are only able to attend Mass a few times a year when a missionary visits them. Please continue to pray for more priests to serve God’s people.

Next week we will be back fully into Ordinary Time. We will be “ordinary” all the way up till next Advent in next November. That is a long stretch of ordinary. I often think of “ordinary” as meaning it is just common, usual, the same old thing, kind of boring, dull, commonplace, nothing exceptional, quotidian, ordinary. But we can also think of “ordinary” as what sustains us, in the way that sunlight is ordinary, and oxygen is ordinary, and family, friends, parish, community are ordinary. Ordinary is what is the basis of life. So as we enter now into “Ordinary Time”, let us give thanks for all the “ordinary” things that sustain and nourish us.

God bless!

                                                                                                              

Paulist Prayer for Vocations

Almighty and ever faithful God, you spoke your Word to the world in your Son, Jesus Christ, and commissioned St. Paul to bring your word to all nations and to the ends of the earth. Your Spirit led Servant of God Isaac Hecker to proclaim your word in North America using tools of the modern age. We ask you to call new missionaries in the line of St. Paul and Father Hecker. May they burn with passion to give the Gospel a voice so that all may know the mystery of your love. May they follow the Lord Jesus with the zeal of St. Paul and Father Hecker as they carry on the mission of the Paulist Community. In the power of your Holy Spirit, we ask this      through Christ our Lord. Amen.