I am hard pressed to understand the logic of why the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is celebrated when it is. There may be a very good reason and if anybody knows I would be interested. But I am glad there is such a feast.
There is another similar day – Maundy Thursday. (Oh! Maybe THAT’S why it is on a Thursday – save for places where it is moved to Sunday.) Anyway, Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) is the day we celebrate the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. But there is also a ton of other things going on that day and the theme one of mourning. Here we have Jesus and precious little time to spend in devotion of His presence among us in this most august way. So in the 12th century a movement was begun to have a day when we could, in a special and devotional way, show our love and gratitude for such an auspicious gift. Pope Urban IV began the feast day and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the liturgical texts. He also wrote some songs about the Blessed Sacrament the words of which we still sing today at benediction: O Salutaris (O Saving Victim) and Tantum Ergo (Down In Adoration).
I am hard pressed to understand the logic of why the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is celebrated when it is. There may be a very good reason and if anybody knows I would be interested. But I am glad there is such a feast. 
There is another similar day – Maundy Thursday. (Oh! Maybe THAT’S why it is on a Thursday – save for places where it is moved to Sunday.) Anyway, Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) is the day we celebrate the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. But there is also a ton of other things going on that day and the theme one of mourning. Here we have Jesus and precious little time to spend in devotion of His presence among us in this most august way. So in the 12th century a movement was begun to have a day when we could, in a special and devotional way, show our love and gratitude for such an auspicious gift. Pope Urban IV began the feast day and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the liturgical texts. He also wrote some songs about the Blessed Sacrament the words of which we still sing today at benediction: O Salutaris (O Saving Victim) and Tantum Ergo (Down In Adoration).
1 comment:
Maybe the feast known as the Body and Blood of Christ (a Novus Ordo term that used to be called simply Corpus Christi) occurs when it does has to do with the date of the feast in the Traditional calendar, which is on a Thursday. It has been observed in the US Traditional Church on the actual feast date, unlike much of the rest of the world, where it is moved to the succeeding Sunday. Hence, at St. Sebastian's this Sunday, the EF Mass will be for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, and not the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), as will be observed at all Ordinary Form masses throughout the Universal Church. Now, exactly how and why the feast occurs when it does in the Traditional Church, I haven't the foggiest.
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