One of the Ways We Know It's from God

You’ve probably had the experience of “everything just coming together.”  It tends to be the exception to the rule, but it’s marvelous when it happens.

Karen and the girls (recently home from Franciscan U.) just had a little taste of that.  For the past month or two, they’ve had a few different plans swirling around for the start of summer vacation.  Kalie was going away with some friends for a long weekend.  Karen and Annie also wanted to get away for a couple of days.  The girls had a good friend in Connecticut who they wanted to visit and then bring back to spend time with us in Maryland.  And we have some out-of-state family Karen was thinking of visiting. 

When Karen was first laying out all the different options, combinations, and permutations, it kept turning out as if Rube Goldberg and Wrong-Way Feldman collaborated as the travel planners.  And so Karen just let it sit for awhile (Steve likes to think of this as “creative procrastination”).  Well, lo and behold, after a little while some options dropped off the table, and others declared themselves in such a way that suddenly all the available pieces fit neatly into place. 

There’s a certain peace when that happens, especially if we’ve been turning our plans over to the Lord for His will to be done.

These things sometimes play out in the grand scheme of the Church.  Such is the case of celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

In this week’s Pearls of the Interior Life (click here to watch/listen) we summarize the origination of this solemnity (and we look at how it relates to one of the main arguments atheists have against the existence of God in general).  Perhaps those events are familiar to you, but it’s edifying to see them laid out in a single gaze:

• We begin with a young girl, Juliana, who by any measure was remarkable in her devotion to God.
• She was born in the town of Liege Belgium (c. 1191) at a time when the town was experiencing a revival in devotion to the Eucharist.
• She was orphaned and raised by a local community of Augustinian nuns, particularly Sr. Sapienza (wisdom).
• At age 16, Juliana was given a vision and message from God that He desired a liturgical feast in honor of the sacred body and blood of Christ.
• Juliana kept this revelation to herself for 20 years, before sharing it with her bishop, who discerned the revelation to be legitimate.
• Even more significant is the young Archdeacon assigned to Liege - who is also won over by Juliana’s revelation.
• Years later, in 1261, that Archdeacon become Pope Urban IV.
• In 1263 a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, is on retreat in Italy. He is a good priest, but experiencing a crisis of faith in the Eucharist, and prays to God to increase his faith.  As he celebrates Mass at a church in Bolseno, the Eucharist bleeds – visibly to the entire congregation. 
• Peter brings the Eucharist to Pope Urban IV, who was living in the nearby town of Orvieto.
• After investigation, the Vatican determines this to be an authentic Eucharistic miracle.
• This, combined with Pope Urban’s prior experience of St. Juliana’s revelation, moves Pope Urban IV to institute the festival of Corpus Christi.
• As it happened, Thomas Aquinas was at hand and the Pope requested that he write hymns and text for the Mass, from which we have the timeless hymns such as Pange Lingua and Tantum Ergo.

The observance of Corpus Christi has set the stage for other Eucharistic miracles and devotions to the Sacred and Immaculate hearts.

And for each of us, the celebration of Corpus Christi, and events surrounding it, are meant to be a personal reminder from Christ of His message that “I will always be with you.”

Blessings on your journey with Christ - 

Steve and Karen Smith

Interior Life