18 June 2017

The Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ

Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16
Ps 147: 12-15, 19-20.
2 Corinthians 10: 16-17
The Gospel of John 6: 51-58

Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied: ‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

The Source of Spiritual Life

Are we, who eat the bread that comes down from heaven, relieved from death? From visible and carnal death, the death of the body, we are not: we shall die, even as their fathers died. But from spiritual death which they suffered, we are delivered. Moses and many, who were acceptable to God, ate the manna, and did not die, because they understood that visible food in a spiritual sense, they tasted it spiritually, and were spiritually filled with it. And now, we too receive the visible food; but the Sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the Sacrament another. Many receive from the Altar, and perish in receiving; “eating and drinking their own damnation,” as the Apostle said. To eat the heavenly bread spiritually, is to bring to the Altar an innocent mind. We sin daily but not mortally. Before going to the Altar, attend to the prayer you repeat: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. If you forgive, you are forgiven: approach confidently; it is bread, not poison. None, then, that eat of this bread, shall die. But we speak of the virtue of the Sacrament, not the visible Sacrament itself; of the inward, not of the outward eater.
St. Augustine, Catena Aurea

Saints of the week
Mon 19 Saint Romuald, Abbot  
Wed 21 Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious 
Thu 22 Saints John Fisher, Bishop, and Thomas Moore, Martyrs; and Saint Paulinus of Nola, Bishop
Fri 23 The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Solemnity 
Sat 24 Birthday of Saint John the Baptist Solemnity 

Psalter Week III

Next Sunday’s Readings
Jeremiah 20: 10-13
Ps 68: 8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
Romans 5: 12-15
Matthew 10: 26-33

Behold the Heart that has so loved men

The Church has always praised the love of Jesus, but proper worship of his Sacred Heart only began to take shape in the 11th century monasteries, then in the 13th century, St. Gertrude, a Benedictine nun, had a series of visions regarding this devotion, for example, on the feast of St. John the Evangelist, she was allowed to hear the beating of Jesus’ Heart. She then asked St. John, why he had never spoken about these delightful pulsations, if he had heard them as he rested his head on the Saviour’s breast, John replied that this revelation had been reserved for subsequent ages when the love of the world had grown cold. Indeed, the devotion remained a private one, practiced only by some saints and mystics.

Later,  the Jesuits began to promote the devotion to the Sacred Heart, but it was St. John Eudes (1601-1680), a French missionary priest and founder, who established a feast for it. Finally, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a religious sister, received a series of apparitions where Jesus himself asked that the love of his Sacred Heart be made known to all. During an apparition during the octave of Corpus Christi, 1675, He said to her, “Behold the Heart that has so loved men … instead of gratitude I receive only ingratitude,” and asked her for a feast of reparation on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia,
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Soleminty of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Holy Mass Fri 23 June 12pm.

Children’s Mass: On the Solemnity of the birth of St. John the Baptist Sat 24 June 11:15am at Agia Kyriaki.

Boozy Basket Raffle: 1 ticket €2 or get 5 tickets for €5. Draw on Sun 25 June. Talk to Ruth. To help our Hospice and Caritas.

Archangel Michael Hospice: Volunteers needed in the areas of reception, nursing assistants and cafeteria. Contact Mona (99 494 140).

CARITAS PAPHOS current needs:

• Nοn-perishable food to support approximately 40 households a week in the Paphos area.
• Computer whiz to manage crowdfunding appeals.
• Teachers for basic Greek.
• Transportation of students (lifts).
• Donations and prayers welcome. Contact Wendy Burdon 99 040294.

Mass Times HERE