In a month when school-age children look forward to closing their books for some well-needed summer fun, we adults might consider opening the books . . . of Kings, that is. Our weekday liturgies will largely pursue a continuous reading about biblical kings who managed their leadership well or badly. Lessons about how to lead—and which prophets to heed—are vital in every age.

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ has a long history—as a devotion when few actually received Communion and as the subject of festive processions. Today we look to it as a celebration of the centrality of the Eucharist in our lives as Christians and Catholics.

Thirty years ago I spent some time volunteering at Covenant House, a child welfare organization in New York. As you can imagine, the concept of the covenant was a big thing there. “One thing you gotta know about covenants,” our spiritual director used to say. “They’re bloody. They cost something.”

In beautiful script painted above the door to the former monk’s cell I was assigned for my retreat, it said in Latin, “Those who guard their mouths preserve themselves; those who open wide their lips bring ruin” (Proverbs 13:3).

I was in my friend Billy’s kitchen waiting for him to come downstairs so we could go out and play. Billy was the oldest of nine kids. Dinner was over, and his mother stood at the kitchen counter and dealt out the bread for eight sandwiches—12 pieces of bread, side by side, for the six kids who were in school, and four more pieces next to them to make the two sandwiches her husband would take to work with him.

As we prepare to receive the sacred mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, let us call to mind our sins.

You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds. 

Browse our library for additional Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Cycle B material.

Click here to view the Take Five weekly for June 02, 2024.