Thank you to everyone who spent an hour (or two) with Jesus last weekend! Please again, can I ask that you consider looking at the SignUpGenius on this blogspot for open hours this weekend? Adoration will be in our chapel through the weekend until 1pm on Monday. As we celebrate Corpus Christi Sunday, spending time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration would be a tremendous way to celebrate – in addition to Mass.
Over the last two and a half months you noticed two young men at our Masses, Holy Communion Outside of Mass Rites and the daily Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Rosary. Ricky Malebranche and Ray Goins both finished their first year of the seminary while with us. Almost all of our seminarians were placed in parishes when the seminaries shut down in late March. Each would continue his studies online until exams in mid-May. Ricky and Ray were extremely helpful. As you saw, they were always available for Masses and other liturgical functions. When we were quarantined, they were the ones troubleshooting and setting up for live streamed Masses, Chaplets and Rosaries from the rectory. They were quarantined when Fr. Carr had COVID after Easter. They helped with meals. We had some great conversations throughout those two and a half months. I am grateful they were assigned at Holy Trinity for the time they were. As of this past Monday, they began their summer assignments at other parishes. Please keep them in your prayers as they continue to follow Our Lord’s call.
This Sunday is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ). The feast dates back to the 1260s following a Eucharistic Miracle. A young priest, Fr. Peter, implored Our Lord in his prayers to help him have a deep faith in Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. In the midst of one Mass, as Fr. Peter completed the Consecration of the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, the Host actually began to bleed.
Fr. Peter wrapped the Host in the corporal and walked a few miles to the next town, Orvieto, where the Pope was living. The Pope was given the news of the miracle and met Fr. Peter outside the city walls. He knelt before Our Lord in the Eucharist then brought the Eucharist to a church in the town. He soon pronounced the Solemnity of Corpus Christi to be celebrated. In Orvieto, you can still see the Blood-stained corporal in the cathedral built for It. Ever since the Miracle there has been a yearly Eucharistic Procession throughout the town with Jesus in the Host followed by the Corporal that is stained with His Blood. Our Corpus Christi Procession takes its roots from Orvieto’s Eucharistic Procession. Our altar on the front steps for Benediction mirrors the Benediction at the end of the Eucharistic Procession in Orvieto.
Finally, on July 4th our new music director will begin his work at Holy Trinity. Mr. Trevor Rowland comes to us from St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hagerstown, Maryland where he has worked in the music ministry for the last nine years. He and his wife, Bebhinn, and their baby daughter are happy to be in his wife’s native state! Mr. Rowland is humble and a gentleman. He comes to us with a love for the Mass as well as a love and knowledge of liturgical music in the tradition of the Church. I look forward to working with him at Holy Trinity.
God bless
FRVW
