Dear Parishioner,

Graces and Blessings.

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Eucharist. It was a medieval feast instituted by the Pope. The great gift of the Eucharist is celebrated on Holy Thursday —but with so much going on in Holy Week , the Pope felt that a separate feast at this time of year, after Eastertide, would give the faithful more time to reflect on the gift and celebrate the feast . So he got St. Thomas Aquinas the great theologian ( great in more ways than one—he weighed almost 20 stone ! ), but also a wonderful poet, to select the Scriptural readings and compose the prayers and hymns for the Mass and Divine Office. We still sing them today.

The Blessed Eucharist is more than a Sacrament—it is a person, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, which is why the Church describes the Eucharist as being the “ source and summit of the Church’s worship “ (Vatican 11 )

Sadly, no Mass this year, no wonderful joyful, processions, but for all that we rejoice in the Lord and can make a spiritual Holy Communion by inviting the Lord Jesus into our hearts and lives, and look forward to the day when we can receive Him Sacramentally once again, together with the rest of our brothers and sisters in Christ and, we pray , with increased devotion and faith, in the light our present deprivations.

I attach the text of Sunday’s Mass if you wish to follow it online and a Redemptorist homily on this beautiful feast.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice St Paul

May the Good Lord bless us all at this time and keep us safe

Monsignor