This Sunday we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. On this great solemnity, on this weekend of the Eucharistic Congress, we focus on our devotion to the Eucharist. The feast celebrates the institution of the Holy Eucharist and is marked by special displays of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, including Eucharistic processions. We as Catholics, on this feast of Corpus Christi, are blessed to have such a high regard for the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. We are invited to bond with each other by nourishing together on the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, and then by going forth in loving service of our brothers and sisters, especially our brothers and sisters in need.

During Mass last year for the feast of Corpus Christi, the Catholic News Agency reported that Pope Francis exhorted the faithful to avoid the “false bread” of the world. He challenged us to recognize “…the false bread that deludes and corrupts because it is the fruit of selfishness, self- sufficiency, and sin.” He reminded us that it is God’s food that truly satisfies. He stated, “To live the experience of faith means to let the Lord nourish us and to build our existence not on material goods, but on the reality that does not perish; the gifts of God, his word and his body.” “Some are fed with money, others with success and vanity, others with power and pride. But the food that truly nourishes and that satisfies is only that which the Lord gives.” He then indicated that the faithful experience a spiritual hunger, a “…hunger for life, hunger for love, a hunger for eternity.” He noted, “The Body of Christ is the bread of the end times, capable of giving life, and eternal life, because the substance is this bread of love.” The Pope reiterated that Christ is himself, “the living bread that gives life to the world.”

Pope Francis then shared the following prayer: