Entry 0282: Reflections on the Octave of
On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Sunday after the solemnity of
the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ,
on 29 May 2005, 18 June 2006, 10 June 2007, 25 May 2008, 14 June 2009, 6
June 2010, 26 June 2011, and 10 June 2012. Here are the texts of the eight reflections prior to the recitation of
the Angelus and one homily delivered on these occasions.
Corpus Christi , the feast of the Eucharist in which the Sacrament of the
Body of the Lord is solemnly carried in procession, is being celebrated today
in various countries, including Italy .
What does this feastday mean to us? It does not make us think of the liturgical
aspect alone; actually Corpus
Christi
Nicosia
St Augustine expresses this process magnificently ( see Sermon 272).
He reminds us that bread is not made from a single grain of wheat but from a
multitude of grains. Before all these grains become a loaf of bread they must
be ground. Here he is alluding to the exorcism to which catechumens had to
submit prior to their Baptism. Each one of us who belongs to the Church needs
to emerge from the closed world of his or her own individuality and to accept
the “companionship” of others who “share the bread” with us. We must no longer
think of “me” but, rather, of “us”. This is the reason why, every day, we pray “Our
Father” for our daily bread. Breaking down the barriers between ourselves and
our neighbours is the prerequisite for entering the divine life to which we are
called. We need to be liberated from all that encloses and isolates us: fear
and defiance in our relations with others, greed and selfishness, unwillingness
to expose ourselves to the risk of vulnerability to which we are susceptible
when we open ourselves to love.
Moreover the Virgin Mary is also the teacher of this
prayer because no one has been able better than Mary to contemplate Jesus with
a gaze of faith and to accept in his or her heart the deep resonance of his
human and divine presence. Through her intercession a genuine and deep faith in
the Eucharistic Mystery spreads and grows in every ecclesial community.
PASTORAL
VISIT
OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO BARI FOR THE CLOSING OF THE
24th
ITALIAN NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS
ANGELUS
Esplanade
of Marisabella, Sunday, 29 May 2005
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This solemn
liturgical celebration marks the end of the 24th Eucharistic Congress of the
Church in Italy .
I wanted to be present at this great witness of faith in the divine Eucharist.
I am delighted to tell you now that I was truly impressed by your fervent
participation.
With deep
devotion you have all gathered closely to the Eucharistic Jesus, at the end of
an intense week of prayer, reflection and adoration. Our hearts are filled with
gratitude to God and to all who have worked to bring about such an
extraordinary ecclesial event, an event especially meaningful as it takes place
during the Eucharistic Year, which had its prominent moment in the Congress.
Before the final
blessing, we now recite the Angelus Domini, contemplating
the mystery of the Incarnation, to which the mystery of the Eucharist is
intimately connected. At the school
of Mary
Let us learn to
always live in communion with the Crucified and Risen Christ, allowing
ourselves to be led by his and our heavenly Mother. In this way, nourished by
the Word and Bread of Life, our existence will become entirely Eucharistic and
thanks will be given to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square , Sunday, 18 June 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, in Italy and in other countries, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated, which already
had its intense moment in Rome
in the city’s procession on Thursday. It is the solemn, public feast of the
Eucharist, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ: on this day, the
mystery instituted at the Last Supper and commemorated every year on Holy
Thursday is manifested to all, in the midst of the fervour of faith and
devotion of the Ecclesial Community.
Indeed, the
Eucharist is the “treasure” of the Church, the precious heritage that her Lord
has left to her. And the Church preserves it with the greatest care,
celebrating it daily in Holy Mass, adoring it in churches and chapels,
administering it to the sick, and as viaticum to those who are on their last
journey.
However, this
treasure that is destined for the baptized, does not exhaust its radius of
action in the context of the Church: the Eucharist is the Lord Jesus who gives
himself “for the life of the world” (Jn 6: 51). In every time and in every
place, he wants to meet human beings and bring them the life of God. And this
is not all. The Eucharist also has a cosmic property: the transformation of the
bread and the wine into Christ’s Body and Blood is in fact the principle of the
divinization of creation itself.
For this reason,
the Feast of Corpus Christi
On this feast
day, the Christian Community proclaims that the Eucharist is its all, its very
life, the source of life that triumphs over death. From communion with Christ
in the Eucharist flows the charity that transforms our life and supports us all
on our journey towards the heavenly Homeland. For this reason the liturgy makes
us sing “Good Shepherd, true Bread.... You who know all things, who can do all
things, who nourish us while on earth, lead your brethren to the heavenly
banquet in the glory of your Saints”.
Mary is the “Woman
of the Eucharist” as Pope John Paul II described her in his Encyclical Ecclesia
de Eucharistia. Let us pray the Virgin that all Christians may deepen their
faith in the Eucharistic mystery, to live in constant communion with Jesus and
be his effective witness.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 10 June 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s
Solemnity of Corpus Christi , which
was celebrated last Thursday in the Vatican and in different Nations,
invites us to contemplate the supreme Mystery of our faith: the Most Holy
Eucharist, the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the
Altar. Every time that the priest renews the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in the
prayer of consecration he repeats: “This is my Body... this is my Blood”.
He says this
lending his voice, hands and heart to Christ, who wanted to stay with us and be
the heartbeat of the Church. However, after the celebration of the divine
Mysteries, the Lord Jesus remains alive in the tabernacle; for this reason
special praise is given to him with Eucharistic adoration, as I wished
to recall in the recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum
Caritatis ( see nos. 66-69).
Indeed, an
intrinsic connection exists between celebration and adoration. In fact, Holy
Mass is in itself the Church’s greatest act of adoration: “No one eats of this
flesh”, as St Augustine
writes, “without having first adored it” (Enarr. in Ps. 98,9: CCL XXXIX,
1385).
Adoration
outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the
liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ
possible.
Today, then, the
Eucharistic procession is taking place in Christian communities in all parts of
the world. It is a special form of public adoration of the Eucharist, enriched
by beautiful and traditional expressions of popular devotion. I would like to
take the opportunity offered to me by today’s Solemnity to warmly recommend, to
Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration.
I express my
appreciation to the Institutes of Consecrated Life as well as to the
associations and confraternities that are especially dedicated to this
practice; they offer to everyone a reminder of Christ’s centrality in our
personal and ecclesial life.
Then I rejoice
to see that many young people are discovering the beauty of adoration, both
privately and in groups. I ask priests to encourage these youth groups in their
adoration, but also to guide them, to ensure that the form of their community
adoration is always appropriate and dignified and that they allow sufficient
time for silence and listening to the Word of God.
In life today,
often noisy and dispersive, it is more important than ever to recover the
capacity for inner silence and recollection. Eucharistic adoration permits this
not only centred on the “I” but more so in the company of that “You” full of
love who is Jesus Christ, “the God who is near to us”.
May the Virgin
Mary, the Woman of the Eucharist, introduce us into the secret of true
adoration. Her humble and simple heart was ever pondering the mystery of Jesus,
in whom she adored the presence of God and of his redeeming love. May faith in
the Eucharistic Mystery, joy in participating in Holy Mass, especially on
Sundays, and enthusiasm in witnessing to Christ’s immense love grow throughout
the Church through her intercession.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 25 May 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today
in Italy and in various
countries is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, which in the Vatican
and in other nations was celebrated last Thursday. It is the feast of the
Eucharist, wonderful gift of Christ, who at the Last Supper wanted to leave us
the memorial of his Pasch, the Sacrament of his Body and of his Blood, a pledge
of his immense love for us. A week ago our gaze was drawn to the mystery of the
Most Holy Trinity. Today we are invited to fix our gaze on the consecrated
Host: it is the same God! The same Love! This is the beauty of the Christian
truth: the Creator and Lord of all things makes himself a “grain of wheat” to
be sown in our land, in the furrows of our history. He made himself bread to be
broken, shared, eaten. He made himself our food to give us life, his same
divine life. He was born in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means “House of bread”,
and when he began to preach to the crowds he revealed that the Father had sent
him into the world as “living bread come down from heaven”, as the “bread of
life”.
The
Eucharist is a school of charity and solidarity. The one who is nourished on
the Bread of Christ cannot remain indifferent before the one who, even in our
day, is deprived of daily bread. So many parents are barely able to obtain it
for themselves and for their own children. It is an ever greater problem that
the International Community has great difficulty in resolving. The Church not
only prays “give us this day our daily bread”, but, on the Lord’s example, is
committed in every way to “multiply the five loaves and the two fish” with
numerous initiatives of human promotion and sharing, so that no one lacks what
is necessary for life.
Dear
brothers and sisters, the feast of Corpus
Christi
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 June 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The
Solemnity of Corpus Christi Corpus Christi
This
feast speaks to us in a unique and special way of divine love, of what it is
and of what it does. It tells us, for example, that it is regenerated in
self-giving, that it is received in self-giving, that it is never lacking nor
can it be consumed as a hymn by St Thomas Aquinas sings: “nec sumptus
consumitur”. Love transforms all things and we therefore understand that
the centre of today’s Feast of Corpus Christi is the mystery of
transubstantiation, a sign of Jesus Christ who transforms the world. Looking at
him and worshipping him, we say: “yes, love exists and because it exists things
can change for the better and we can hope”. It is hope that comes from Christ’s
love which gives us the strength to live and to deal with difficulties. For
this reason let us sing as we carry the Most Holy Sacrament in procession; let
us sing and praise God who revealed himself concealing himself in the sign of
the Bread broken. We are all in need of this Bread, as the journey to freedom,
justice and peace is long and difficult.
We can
imagine with what great faith and love Our Lady must have received and adored
the Blessed Eucharist in her heart! For her it must have been every time like
reliving the whole mystery of her Son Jesus: from his Conception to his Resurrection.
The “Woman of the Eucharist”, my venerable and beloved Predecessor John Paul II
called her. Let us learn from her to renew our communion with the Body of
Christ ceaselessly so that we may love one another as he loved us.
APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY TO CYPRUS
(JUNE
4-6, 2010)
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ,
At the midday
hour it is the Church’s tradition to turn in prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
joyfully recalling her ready acceptance of the Lord’s invitation to become the
mother of God. It was an invitation that filled her with trepidation, one which
she could scarcely even comprehend. It was a sign that God had chosen her, his
lowly handmaid, to cooperate with him in his saving work. How we rejoice at the
generosity of her response! Through her “yes”, the hope of the ages became a
reality, the One whom Israel
had long awaited came into the world, into our history. Of him the angel
promised that his kingdom would have no end ( see Lk 1:33).
Some thirty
years later, as Mary stood weeping at the foot of the cross, it must have been
hard to keep that hope alive. The forces of darkness seemed to have gained the
upper hand. And yet, deep down, she would have remembered the angel’s words.
Even amid the desolation of Holy Saturday the certitude of hope carried her
forward into the joy of Easter morning. And so we, her children, live in the
same confident hope that the Word made flesh in Mary’s womb will never abandon
us. He, the Son of God and Son of Mary, strengthens the communion that binds us
together, so that we can bear witness to him and to the power of his healing
and reconciling love.
I would now like
to say a few words in Polish on the happy occasion of the beatification today
of Jerzy Popiełuszko, priest and martyr.
Serdeczne
pozdrowienie kieruję do Kościoła w Polsce, który dziś raduje się wyniesieniem
na ołtarze księdza Jerzego Popiełuszki. Jego ofiarna posługa i męczeństwo są
szczególnym znakiem zwycięstwa dobra nad złem. Niech jego przykład i
wstawiennictwo budzi gorliwość kapłanów i rozpala miłość wiernych.
[I send
cordial greetings to the Church in Poland
Let us now
implore Mary our Mother to intercede for all of us, for the people of Cyprus , and for the Church throughout the Middle East with Christ, her Son, the Prince of Peace.
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO CYPRUS
(JUNE 4-6, 2010)
HOLY MASS ON THE OCCASION OF THE PUBLICATION
OF THE INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS
OF THE SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Eleftheria Sports Centre Elefteria – Nicosia
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ,
I greet
with joy the Patriarchs and Bishops of the various ecclesial communities of the
Middle East who have come to Cyprus
for this occasion, and I thank especially the Most Reverend Youssef Soueif,
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus ,
for the words that he addressed to me at the start of Mass.
Let me
also say how glad I am to have this opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist in
the company of so many of the faithful of Cyprus ,
a land blessed by the apostolic labours of Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas. I greet all of
you most warmly and I thank you for your hospitality and for the generous
welcome you have given me. I extend a particular greeting to the Filipino, Sri
Lankan and other immigrant communities who form such a significant grouping
within the Catholic population of this island. I pray that your presence here
will enrich the life and worship of the parishes to which you belong, and that
you in turn will draw much spiritual sustenance from the ancient Christian
heritage of the land that you have made your home.
Today,
we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Body and Blood. Corpus Christi Corpus Christi
Once
the grains of wheat have been ground, they are kneaded into dough and baked.
Here St Augustine
is referring to immersion in the waters of Baptism followed by the sacramental
gift of the Holy Spirit which kindles the fire of God’s love in the hearts of
the faithful. This process that unites and transforms the separate grains into
a single loaf conveys to us an evocative image of the unifying action of the
Holy Spirit on the members of the Church, eminently achieved through the
celebration of the Eucharist. Those who take part in this important sacrament
become the ecclesial Body of Christ, while they are nourished by his Body in
the Eucharist. “Be what you can see”, St
Augustine said, encouraging them, “and accept what you
are”.
These
strong words invite us to respond generously to the appeal to “be Christ” for
those around us. We are now his Body on earth. To paraphrase a famous remark
attributed to St Teresa of Avila, we are the eyes with which his compassion
looks at those in need, we are the hands he holds out to bless and to heal, we
are the feet he uses to go and do good and we are the lips through which his
Gospel is proclaimed. However, it is important to realize that when
we participate in his salvation in this way we do no more than pay tribute to
the memory of a dead hero by prolonging what he has done: on the contrary,
Christ is alive within us, his Body, the Church, his priestly People. By
nourishing ourselves with him in the Eucharist and by receiving the Holy Spirit
in our hearts, we truly form the Body of Christ that we have received, we are
truly in communion with him and with each other and genuinely become his
instruments, bearing witness to him before the world.
“Now
the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32). In
the first Christian community, nourished at the Lord’s Table, we see the
effects of the Holy Spirit’s unifying action. They shared their goods in
common, all material attachment being overcome by love for the brethren. They
found equitable solutions to their differences, as we see for example in the
resolution of the dispute between Hellenists and Hebrews over the daily
distribution ( see Acts 6:1-6). As one observer commented at a later date: “See
how these Christians love one another, and how they are ready to die for one
another” (Tertullian, Apology, 39). Yet their love was by no means
limited to their fellow believers. They never saw themselves as exclusive,
privileged beneficiaries of divine favour, but rather as messengers, sent to
bring the good news of salvation in Christ to the ends of the earth. And so it
was that the message entrusted to the Apostles by the Risen Lord was spread
throughout the Middle East , and outwards from
there across the whole of the world.
Αγαπητοί
εν Χριστώ αδελφοί και αγαπητές αδελφές, σήμερα είμαστε καλεσμένοι σαν ένα σωμα
και μιά ψυχή να εξετάσουμε σε βάθος την κοινωνία μας με τον Κυριον και με τον
πλησίον και να τον μαρτυρήσουμε μπροστά σε ολο τον κόσμο. [ Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called,
just as they were, to be of one heart and one soul, to deepen our communion
with the Lord and with one another, and to bear witness to him before the
world.]
We are
called to overcome our differences, to bring peace and reconciliation where
there is conflict, to offer the world a message of hope. We are called to reach
out to those in need, generously sharing our earthly goods with those less
fortunate than ourselves. And we are called to proclaim unceasingly the death
and resurrection of the Lord, until he comes. Through him, with him and in him,
in the unity that is the Holy Spirit’s gift to the Church, let us give honour
and glory to God our heavenly Father in the company of all the angels and
saints who sing his praises for ever. Amen.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 June 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, Corpus Christi is being celebrated in Italy
and in other countries. It is the Feast of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the
Body and Blood of the Lord, which he instituted at the Last Supper and which is
the Church’s most precious treasure. The Eucharist is, as it were, the beating
heart that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church: a social
organism wholly based on the spiritual yet concrete link with Christ. As the
Apostle Paul said: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).
Without the
Eucharist the Church quite simply would not exist. Indeed, it is the Eucharist
which makes a human community into a mystery of communion that can bring God to
the world and the world to God. The Holy Spirit, who transforms the bread and
wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, also transforms whoever receives it
with faith into a member of the body of Christ so that the Church is truly the
sacrament of unity, of human beings with God and among themselves.
In an ever more
individualistic culture, such as the one in which we are immersed in western
society and which tends to spread throughout the world, the Eucharist
constitutes a sort of “antidote” that works in the minds and hearts of
believers and continually sows in them the logic of communion, service and
sharing, in short, the logic of the Gospel. The first Christians in Jerusalem were a visible
sign of this new lifestyle, because they lived in brotherhood and shared their
possessions so that no one was in need ( see Acts 2:42-47). What does all this
derive from? From the Eucharist, that is, from the Risen Christ, really present
in the midst of his disciples and acting with the power of the Holy Spirit.
And also in the
following generations, in spite of human limitations and errors, the Church has
continued down the centuries to be a force of communion in the world. Let us
think especially of the most difficult and trying periods, for example, of what
the possibility of gathering together at Sunday Mass meant to countries
subjected to totalitarian regimes! As the ancient martyrs of Abitene said: “Sine
Dominico non possumus” — without “Dominicum” [Sunday], that is,
without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live. But the void produced by false
freedom can be equally dangerous, then communion with the Body of Christ is a
medicine for the mind and the will, to rediscover the taste for the truth and
the common good.
Dear friends,
let us invoke the Virgin Mary, whom my Predecessor, Bl. John Paul II defined
the “Woman of the Eucharist” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, nos. 53-58). At
her school, may our life too become fully “Eucharistic”, open to God and to
others and capable of transforming evil into good with the power of love,
reaching out to foster unity, communion and brotherhood.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 10 June 2012
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
Today,
in Italy and in many other
countries, Corpus Christi Rome this procession took place at the
diocesan level on Thursday, the precise day of this feast, which every year
renews in Christians joy and gratitude for the presence among them of Jesus in
the Eucharist.
The
feast of Corpus Christi
Consequently
the most sacred place in churches is the very place where the Eucharist is
kept. In this regard I cannot but think with emotion of the many churches that
have been seriously damaged by the recent earthquake in Emilia Romagna and of
the fact that in some cases the Eucharistic Body of Christ in the tabernacle is
still lying beneath the rubble. I pray with affection for the communities which
have to gather for Holy Mass with their priests in the open air or in large
tents; I thank them for their witness and for all they are doing to help the
entire population.
It
is a situation that makes even clearer the importance of being united in the
Lord’s name and the strength that comes from the Eucharistic Bread, also called
“the bread of pilgrims.” Also born and renewed from sharing this Bread is the
ability to share life and possessions, to bear each other’s burdens and to be
hospitable and welcoming.
In
addition, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord presents to us once
again the value of Eucharistic adoration. The Servant of God Paul VI recalled
that the Catholic Church professes worship of the Eucharist “both during Mass
and outside of it, by taking the greatest possible care of consecrated Hosts,
by exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and by carrying them
about in processions to the joy of great numbers of the people” (Encyclical Mysterium
Fidei, no. 56).
The
prayer of adoration can be personal, pausing in recollection before the
tabernacle, or can be made as a community, also with Psalms and hymns, but
always giving priority to silence in which to listen inwardly to the Lord who
is alive and present in the Sacrament.
© Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Book by Orestes J. González
