This upcoming Sunday, June 22nd., is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Mass will be followed by a traditional Procession with the Blessed Sacrament.
Corpus Christi (the Body and Blood of Christ) is the solemn commemoration of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. In it the Church offers homage and gratitude to Christ, who by instituting the Holy Eucharist gave to the Church her greatest treasure.
From St. Thomas Aquinas:
"Desirous that we be made partakers of His divinity, the only-begotten Son of God has taken to Himself our nature so that having become man, He would be enabled to make men gods. Whatever He assumed of our nature He wrought unto our salvation. For on the altar of the Cross He immolated to the Father His own Body as victim for our reconciliation and shed His blood both for our ransom and for our regeneration. Moreover, in order that a remembrance of so great benefits may always be with us, He has left us His Body as food and His Blood as drink under appearances of bread and wine."And
"Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; consequently, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues."
