Corpus Christi

The solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, often called Corpus Christi, gives thanks for the Eucharist. Holy Thursday already celebrates the institution of the Mass, but that night is crowded with the washing of the feet, the agony, and the approach of the Cross. Corpus Christi lets the Church look at the Sacrament in the light of the Resurrection, with procession, adoration, and public praise.

The feast was established in the thirteenth century after the visions of St. Juliana of Liège and was extended by Pope Urban IV in 1264. St. Thomas Aquinas composed the office, including the hymns Pange lingua, Sacris solemniis, and Verbum supernum, from which the Church still sings Tantum ergo and O salutaris hostia. The sequence Lauda Sion belongs to the Mass.

On the universal calendar the solemnity falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. In the United States it is transferred to the following Sunday. A parish procession with the Blessed Sacrament, often outdoors, is a traditional part of the day where it can be done with reverence. The vestments are white.

The date moves with Easter. What does not move is the Church’s faith: Christ is present whole and entire, body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine, as the Council of Trent and the Catechism teach.