{"id":183247,"date":"2025-06-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.fundacioncarf.org\/la-fiesta-del-cuerpo-y-de-la-sangre-de-nuestro-senor-jesucristo\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T14:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:01:21","slug":"solemnidad-corpus-christi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/solemnidad-corpus-christi\/","title":{"rendered":"Solemnity of Corpus Christi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once a year, the Catholic Church stops its ordinary liturgical calendar to put the spotlight on something extraordinary: <strong>the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist<\/strong>. That is Corpus Christi -the Body of Christ-, a solemnity that is not only contemplated, but <strong>transforms the life of those who unite themselves to Him and adore Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are invited to manifest our faith and devotion to this sacrament, which is a sacrament of piety, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the soul is filled with grace and we are given a pledge of the glory to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018.webp\" alt=\"Multitud de fieles participa en una procesi\u00f3n de Corpus Christi por las calles de una ciudad europea, acompa\u00f1ando al Sant\u00edsimo Sacramento bajo palio.\" class=\"wp-image-216666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018.webp 800w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018-150x113.webp 150w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-holanda-2018-16x12.webp 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The people walk united around the Eucharist during the feast of Corpus Christi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do we celebrate on this solemnity?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>Corpus Christi<\/strong> commemorates the deepest and most central mystery of the Catholic faith: that Jesus is <strong>truly present<\/strong> -with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity- in the <strong>Holy Eucharist<\/strong>. It is not a symbol, it is not a metaphor, it is not a pious memory. It is <strong>Himself<\/strong>alive and delivered out of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This feast was instituted in the XIII century, thanks to the impulse of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/benedict-xvi\/es\/audiences\/2010\/documents\/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20101117.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">St. Julienne of Cornillon and the Eucharistic miracle of Bolsena<\/a>which moved Pope Urban IV. And since then, <strong>every second Thursday after Pentecost<\/strong>Catholics around the world give public witness to their faith with solemn Masses, processions and adorations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because <a href=\"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/la-eucaristia-memorial-del-corazon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in the Eucharist <strong>God gives himself completely to us<\/strong><\/a>. There is nothing more intimate, more transforming and more real than communion with Christ. Corpus Christi reminds us that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Mass is the center and root of the Christian life.<\/strong> It is not an obligation, it is a source of grace. It is where heaven touches earth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Adoring the Blessed Sacrament is not a waste of time.<\/strong>is to win everything. Before the tabernacle we find answers, consolation, direction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Faith is made public.<\/strong> Corpus Christi processions invite us to take Christ out into the streets, not as a folkloric gesture, but as a proclamation of faith: <strong>Jesus is alive and walks with his people.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Church of the Multiplication (Tabgha): Corpus Christi\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8-mCktlxOGQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A party that engages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Corpus Christi is not just a beautiful date on the calendar. It is a <strong>call to live eucharistically<\/strong>. To let Jesus, who breaks for us, teach us to break for others. To be bread broken for the world, especially for those who do not know Christ or who suffer in silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi is <strong>worship Jesus with all your heart<\/strong>We thank him for staying with us in every tabernacle of the world, and for allowing ourselves to be transformed by his presence. Because whoever receives communion with faith, <strong>no longer lives for himself, but for the One who gives himself daily at the altar.<\/strong> <strong>\"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (Jn 6:51-58).<\/strong>.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Jews began to argue among themselves: -How can this man give us his flesh to eat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus said to them, \"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.  As the Father who sent me lives and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died: whoever eats this bread will live forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bread of Life Speech<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>On the feast of Corpus Christi we celebrate Christ's revelation of the mystery of the Eucharist.<\/strong>&nbsp;His words are of such strong realism that they exclude any interpretation in a figurative sense.<strong>&nbsp;The listeners understand the proper and direct meaning of Jesus' words (v. 52), but they do not believe that such a statement can be true.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it had been understood in a figurative or symbolic sense, it would not have caused them such great surprise, nor would the discussion have taken place.&nbsp;<strong>From this is also born the faith of the Church that through the conversion of the bread and wine into his Body and Blood, Christ is made present in this sacrament.<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"940\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza.webp\" alt=\"Pintura hist\u00f3rica de una solemne procesi\u00f3n de Corpus Christi con presencia de autoridades civiles, eclesi\u00e1sticas y militares en una ciudad espa\u00f1ola.\" class=\"wp-image-216667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza.webp 940w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza-300x196.webp 300w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza-150x98.webp 150w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza-768x502.webp 768w, https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/procesion-corpus-christi-sainz-de-la-maza-18x12.webp 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Corpus Christi procession with all its traditional solemnity, according to the vision of the painter S\u00e1inz de la Maza (1944).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\"The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith when it states: \"Because Christ, our Redeemer, said that what he offered in the form of bread was truly his Body, this conviction has always been maintained in the Church, which the Holy Council declares anew: 'by the consecration of the bread and wine there is effected the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood; the Catholic Church has justly and appropriately called this change transubstantiation' (DS 1642).\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this discourse Jesus compares three times (cf. vv. 31-32.49.58) the true Bread of Life, his own Body, with the manna, with which God had fed the Hebrews daily for forty years in the desert. Thus,&nbsp;<strong>invites us to nourish our souls frequently with the food of his Body.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\"From the comparison of the Bread of Angels with bread and with manna the disciples could easily deduce that, just as the body is nourished with bread daily, and the Hebrews were daily refreshed with manna in the desert, in the same way<strong>&nbsp;the Christian soul could daily eat and feast with the Bread of Heaven<\/strong>. Moreover, almost all the Holy Fathers of the Church teach that the daily bread, which is commanded to be asked for in Sunday prayer, is not so much to be understood of the material bread, food for the body, as of the daily reception of the Eucharistic Bread\" St. Pius X, Sacra Tridentina Synodus, December 20, 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the Sunday after Holy Trinity Sunday, the<strong>he Church celebrates Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.<\/strong>. That is its full title, although we usually refer to it using its former Latin name, Corpus Christi. It is interesting to know that its earliest title was <em>Festum Eucharistiae.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Eucharistic Resources for the Feast of the Eucharist&nbsp;<em>Corpus Christi&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/opusdei.org\/es\/article\/corpus-christi\/#evangeliocorpuschristi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gospel of the&nbsp;<em>Corpus Christi<\/em>&nbsp;and homily by St. Josemar\u00eda<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/opusdei.org\/es\/article\/corpus-christi\/#devocioneucaristia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eucharistic devotion<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/opusdei.org\/es\/article\/corpus-christi\/#lecturaseucaristia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Readings to deepen the mystery of the Eucharist<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/opusdei.org\/es\/article\/corpus-christi\/#preguntasyrespuestas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Questions and answers about the&nbsp;<em>Corpus Christi<\/em>&nbsp;and the Eucharist<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/opusdei.org\/es\/article\/corpus-christi\/#fecristianaeucaristia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christian faith summaries<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Author: <\/strong>don&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bibliadenavarra.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Francisco Varo Pineda<\/a>Director of Research at the University of Navarra and Professor of Sacred Scripture in the School of Theology. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the feast of Corpus Christi, we meditate together on the depth of the Lord's love, which has led him to remain hidden under the sacramental species, and it seems as if we physically hear those teachings of his to the crowd: a sower went out to sow....<\/p>","protected":false},"author":719,"featured_media":216665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-183247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-corpus-christi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/719"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183247"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216704,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183247\/revisions\/216704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}