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A blessed Solemnity of Corpus Christi to the Catholic friends!
There was a Pontifical
Mass at the Holy Sepulchre today.
My Ministry of Tourism calendar says
"This feast is celebrated in the Latin Church to solemnly commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist."
But Father James Gardiner explains in a much simpler and more personally applicable way about Corpus Christi. In this
video he makes some really good points, and in less than two minutes!
His monastery--and this is the amazing part (to me, at least)--is the
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, begun in 1898.
The architect, Aristide Leonori (1856-1928), visited the Holy Land and took accurate
measurements and photographs of the holy sites that were to be
reproduced.
So replicas of Jerusalem's shrines are now in
Washington, D.C.!
Take a look at the pictures and how all this was conceived and built at the Holy Land Franciscans'
website.
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P.S. My photo of the beautiful chalices and the Communion elements was taken at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion before Mass began, on August 15, 2012, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
Click to enlarge. Even the reflections are beautiful.
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Update: I was surprised to learn just now that the Feast of Corpus Christi entered the Church thanks to a vision that a mystical nun had at age 16, in Belgium, in the early 13th century.
Yes, a woman! St. Juliana.
Her story, as told by Pope Emeritus Benedict, is fascinating.
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UPDATE, June1: The Franciscan have just posted a
video from the Holy Sepulchre Mass.
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