Corpus Christi

The cover of Quintet this month celebrates Corpus Christi. The festival of Corpus Christi celebrates the Eucharist as the body of Christ. As you will see in the calendar this year we will be celebrating the festival    on 3^rd June with our friends at Holt who always look after us very well, as I hope we do when they come to us.  The name 'Corpus Christi' is Latin for 'the body of Christ and is celebrated between late May and the middle of June, on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday (60 days after Easter). In some countries the festival is celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.

In the Church of England this feast is also kept on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and known as the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion (Corpus Christi).

I am not a theologian or a biblical scholar by any means but I do love ferreting about in the vast amount of information that is available to us on the internet and I was particularly interested in finding out  what I could about the feast of Corpus Christi and the little pieces I have put together are from various sources.

This festival is celebrated by Roman Catholics and other Christians to proclaim the truth of the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the actual body of Christ during Mass.

In some countries in the world, Catholic churches still celebrate the festival, not only with a Mass, but also with a procession that carries the consecrated wafer through the streets as a public statement that the sacrifice of Christ was for the salvation of the whole world.

It is worth noting that Christians already mark the Last Supper, when Christ instituted the Eucharist, on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday). Because Maundy Thursday falls during the solemn period of Holy Week, it was thought necessary to have a separate festival of the Eucharist that would allow the celebration not to be muted by sadness. 

The main feature of Corpus Christi celebrations is the triumphant liturgical procession in which the sacred host (the wafer that has been consecrated during the Mass) is carried out of the Church "for the Christian faithful to make public profession of faith and worship of the Most Blessed Sacrament".

The practice is no longer common in the UK, where traditional processions started to wane in the 1970s after the Second Vatican Council. Attempts have been made to revive the tradition in some UK towns and villages in recent years.  Holy Trinity certainly celebrated it in grand style last year.  

During his papacy, Pope John Paul II led an annual Corpus Christi procession from St Peter's Square in the Vatican to the streets of Rome. Many traditional Catholics are keen for such processions to be promoted everywhere in the world in the light of the late Pope's example.

Since, for Catholics, the host contains the real presence of Christ, it is treated as Christ in human form would be treated, with reverence, ceremony and adoration. The host is displayed in a 'monstrance' and protected from the sun by a canopy.

The procession moves through local streets, either to another church, or back to the church where it began.

The structure of the procession is often designed to demonstrate the hierarchy of heaven in that the sacred host is followed in procession by various Church organisations carrying the banners of their patron saints.

Churches may prepare for the festival in the days before by various smaller-scale ceremonies such as the Adoration of the Sacrament, and services which explore the 'Eucharistic dimension' of various elements of parish work.

I do hope as many of you as possible will come along to St. Andrew’s Holt on Thursday June 3^rd to join in the celebration of Corpus Christi.

Peter Strudwick