by

Feast of Corpus Christi

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Today, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, is the traditional day for the feast of Corpus Christi. In earlier decades, the feast took on such importance it retained its own octave which concluded on the feast of the Sacred Heart. For today’s feast, we are fortunate to have a few Latin Masses in the area tonight:

Feast of Corpus Christi – Thursday June 16

  • 6pm (High Mass): St. Ann parish (changed to High Mass)
  • 7pm (High): St. Thomas Aquinas, with Eucharistic Procession to follow
  • 7pm (Solemn High Mass): Prince of Peace parish, Taylors, SC (2 hours southwest of Charlotte). Eucharistic Procession to follow.

Why We Should Restore the Corpus Christi Octave

As we noted above, in earlier ages, the feast of Corpus Christi used to have its own octave, or 8 days of celebration. Dr. Peter Kwasniewski published an article last year arguing that this octave should be restored to the Traditional Latin Mass:

https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/05/why-we-should-revive-octave-of-corpus.html 

Dom Prosper Gueranger on the Feast of Corpus Christi

We close with an excerpt from Gueranger’s entry from The Liturgical Year:

All the mysteries we have celebrated up to this time were contained in the august Sacrament, which is the memorial and, so to say, the compendium of the wonderful things wrought in our favor by our Redeemer. It was the reality of Christ’s presence under the sacramental species that enabled us to recognize, in the sacred Host, at Christmas, the Child that was born unto us, in Passiontide the Victim who redeemed us and at Easter the glorious conqueror of death. We could not celebrate all those admirable Mysteries without the aid of the perpetual Sacrifice; neither could that sacrifice be offered up, without its renewing and repeating them.

Putting together all the means within our reach for honoring these blessed citizens of the heavenly court, we have chanted the grand Psalms of David, and hymns, and canticles, with all the varied formulas of the Liturgy;—but nothing that we could do towards celebrating their praise could be compared to the holy Sacrifice offered to the divine Majesty. It is in that Sacrifice that we entered into direct communication with them, according to the energetic term used by the Church in the Canon of the Mass (communicantes).

There is a sacred element which gives a meaning to every feast that occurs during the Year, and graces it with the beauty of its own divine splendor;—that sacred element is the most holy Eucharist, and itself had a right to a solemn festival in keeping with the dignity of its divine object.