Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, The Feast of Corpus Christi In the Divine Will
Feast of “Corpus Domini”
Book of Heaven; Volume 24 – June 12, 1928
…it was the Feast of Corpus Domini, I was thinking to myself that this day was the feast of the marriage which blessed Jesus did with souls in the Most Holy Sacrament of love. And my beloved Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, the true marriage with humanity was done in Creation. Nothing was lacking either to the soul or to the body; everything was done with royal sumptuousness. An immense palace was prepared for the human nature, such that no king or emperor can have one similar to it, which is the whole Universe: a starry heaven and its vault, a Sun which would never extinguish its light; flourishing gardens in which the happy couple, God and man, was to stroll, amuse itself and maintain the continuous, uninterrupted feast of our marriage; and garments, woven not with matter, but formed of purest light by Our power, as befitted royal persons… Everything was beauty in man, soul and body, because the One who prepared the marriage and formed it was of unreachable beauty. So, from the external sumptuousness of the so many enchanting beauties present in the whole of Creation, you can imagine the interior seas of sanctity, of beauty, of light, of science, etc., which the interior of man possessed. All the acts of man, interior and external, were as many musical keys which formed the most beautiful melodies, sweet, melodious, harmonious, that maintained the joy of the marriage. And each additional act that he would dispose himself to do, was a new little sonata that he would prepare, to call his spouse to delight with him.
My Divine Will which dominated humanity, brought him the new continuous act and the likeness to the One who had created him and married him. But in such a great feast man broke the strongest bond, in which lay the whole validity of our marriage and through which it had been in force: he withdrew from Our Will. Because of this, the marriage was broken, and since all the rights were lost, only the memory of it was left, but the substance, the life, the effects no longer existed. Now, the Sacrament of the Eucharist in which my Love overabounded in all possible imaginable ways, cannot be called either the first or the true marriage of Creation, for I do nothing but continue what I did when I was on earth. According to the needs of souls, with some I make Myself a compassionate doctor in order to heal them, with some a teacher to instruct them, with some a father to forgive them, with some light to give them sight. I give strength to the weak, courage to the timid, peace to the restless – in sum, I continue my redemptive life and virtue; however, all these miseries exclude the true marriage. No young man marries a young woman who is ill – at most, he waits for her to recover; or a young woman who is weak and who offends him very often. And if the groom is a king and loves her, at most he waits for the bride to get well, to love him, and for her condition to become somehow satisfactory, and not so inferior to his. Now, the condition in which poor humanity finds itself is still that of a poor ill one, and I am waiting for my Will to be known and to reign in the midst of creatures, for It will give them true health, royal garments, and a beauty worthy of Me. Then will I form again the true and original marriage.”
Thursday, May 31, 2018
We (the little family of Luisa) will Joyfully Celebrate, in our own communities,
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi also as “our wedding day with the Lord”
because we are linked to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta
Volume 24 – 6/12/28
Since it was the Feast of Corpus Domini, I (Luisa) was thinking to myself that that day was The Feast of the Marriage that Blessed Jesus did with souls in the Most Holy Sacrament of Love.
Volume One
“. . . In this state of sufferings I (Jesus) will purify your soul thoroughly, in such a way as to dispose you to form a Mystical Marriage with Me; and after this, I (Jesus) will make the Last Transformation, in such a way that both of us will become like two candles placed on the Fire – one is Transformed into the other and they form a Single One.”
Volume 36 – 5/17/38
Then He added with more Loving Tenderness:
“My good daughter (Luisa), My Love wants to be tied more and more to (you) the creature, and the more Truths It (My Divine Love) Manifests regarding My Most Holy Divine Will, the more bonds I (Jesus) put between God and herself.
In Manifesting the Truth, My Divine Love is preparing the Marriage between God and the soul.
The more It Manifests the more Pomp and Magnificence this Marriage will have.
Would you like to know what happens then?
My Truths will be like the dowry needed in order to marry God; to get to know the One (God) who lowers Himself and even ties Himself—only for Love—in the bond of Marriage.
My Truths touch the creature over and over; They mold her to a New Life;
They (My Truths) return her to the Beauty of Our Image and Resemblance from the time she was Created, and Impress on her Their kiss of inseparable Union.
Just one of Our Truths can make a Sea of Prodigies and Divine Creations in the soul who has the goodness to listen to It.
One Truth can turn a perverted world into a Good and Holy one, because It is one of Our Lives, exposed for the Good of all.
It is a New Sun that We raise in created intellects; a Sun that will let Itself be known through Its Light and Heat, turning into Light and Heat whoever wants to listen.
Therefore, hiding a Truth that We give from Our Paternal Womb, with so much Love, is the greatest crime. It deprives human generations of the Greatest Good.
Further, one (Luisa and those linked to Luisa) who Lives in Our Most Holy Divine Will, by Marrying Us (Triune God), makes a Feast for all Saints.
All of them participate in this Divine Wedding and, because of It, they have their own party in Heaven and another one on earth.
Each act the creature does in Our Most Holy Divine Will is a Feast; a table sumptuously decked for the Heavenly Regions.
In return, the Saints give New Gifts.
They beseech the Lord to Manifest more Truths to the soul (Luisa), to broaden more and more the boundaries of the dowry that God gave to her (and to those linked to her.”)
“When one is linked to Luisa, one will also possess the Mystical Marriage because of her”
Fiat!
The Origin of the Feast of Corpus Christi
Gregory Johnson
Many centuries had passed over the Church of Christ before there was any distinct feast of the Blessed Sacrament. And in the 13th century when Our Lord chose that it should be instituted, He had recourse to a simple nun in a vision to be the instrument of this devotion in His Church. St. Thomas Aquinas was living then, and so was King St. Louis, but God chose neither the learning of the one nor the royal power of the other to be the means of executing His desire.
From the age of 16, Juliana of Liège (1193-1252), recurrently received the same vision when she knelt in prayer: A brilliant moon continually appeared before her with one small portion obscured and invisible. That Belgian canoness in the Augustinian canonry of Mont Cornillon tried in vain to chase the vision away. Finally Our Lord Himself came to explain it to her. He said it was to show that the liturgical year of the Church would remain incomplete until the Blessed Sacrament had a feast of its own, and He wished it to be instituted for the following reasons:
Fearful, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion which He ordered to be observed was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly. For 20 years the secret lay hidden in Juliana’s heart; she dared not reveal it to anyone, and yet an interior impulse urged her on so that she could not forget it. So terrible was her repugnance for the mission assigned to her that she shed tears of blood over it. At length she imparted the mission to her confessor, and with her leave he consulted others, especially Fr. James de Threzis, Archdeacon at the Cathedral of Liège. This priest was afterwards elected Bishop of Verdun, then Patriarch of Jerusalem and, at last, Pontiff of Rome, being called Urban IV.
From the time it was divulged, it became a public question, and men were sorely divided upon it. Many canons and monks protested against the new devotion and argued that the Daily Sacrifice was sufficient to commemorate the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament – without a special day being particularly assigned for that purpose. Julinana prayed on as civic unrest and religious controversies raged around her; the city where she lived was lost and won in the waging Guelph/Ghibbelline struggle, sacked by a lawless army, and retaken. Three successive convents were either burned or otherwise destroyed over her head. Twice Juliana, now superior of the Convent and enforcing the strict Augustinian Rule, was forced to flee her convent. After the second time, she found refuge in a Cistercian convent, then another, and then among the poor Beguines. From there she took up residence in the Cistercian Abbey at Salzinners, and finally at Fosses-les-Villes, where she lived in seclusion until her death. Yet no earthly troubles could make her forget the task that Our Lord had assigned her. She died before it was accomplished, yet she had done enough in her lifetime to provide for its execution. In her wanderings, she had met with a few men with devotion and learning to defend the feast of the Blessed Sacrament and they helped to spread the devotion, especially among the simple people. After her death, Pope Urban IV, who was favorable to the feast, was asked to extend the devotion to the entire Church. The Eucharistic miracle of Orvieto in 1263 was instrumental in his final decision favoring the installation of the Feast of Corpus Christi. The Miracle of Orvieto In 1263 a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena while on a pilgrimage to Rome. At that time this priest was suffering a crisis of faith, doubting that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina in the church named after this martyr, he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal. At first the priest attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was then residing. The Pope listened to the priest’s account and dismissed him. He then sent emissaries for an immediate investigation. When all the facts were ascertained, he ordered the Bishop of the Diocese to bring the Host and the linen cloth bearing the stains of blood to Orvieto. With Archbishops, Cardinals and other Church dignitaries in attendance, the Pope met the procession and, amid great pomp, had the relics placed in the Cathedral. The linen corporal bearing the spots of blood is still reverently enshrined and exhibited in the Cathedral of Orvieto. The Feast is introduced in the Church calendar Soon after the miracle of Orvieto Urban IV commissioned St. Thomas Aquinas to compose the Proper for a Mass and an Office for the feast day. One year later, in August of 1264, Urban IV, by means of the papal Bull Transiturus, instituted the feast of Corpus Christi for the universal Church. At the same time he granted many indulgences to the faithful for attendance at Mass and the Office.
The triumph of the Blessed Sacrament was complete, and the devotion spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. From that time [until after Vatican II], every church in a Catholic country, from the cathedral of a royal city to the most modest village chapel, kept the festival on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. The procession would issue into the streets followed by the authorities of the realm. It is the public recognition by the Catholic world of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Prophetically Our Lord saw that in the future this very doctrine would be attacked and the Faith would be placed in sore danger. In the zenith of the Church’s medieval splendor, He foresaw our times. Surely no command was ever better fulfilled than that which promised the Church good service by the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi. In France it survived every civil revolution; its re-establishment has ever been due to the Church’s influence. She is the dove with the olive branch which symbolizes the passing away of the mighty deluge. John Bern Dalgairns, priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, tells us the long-lasting beneficial effects of the feast of Corpus Christi: “The memory of the procession in which, when a child, he scattered flowers before the Blessed Sacrament as it passed through the streets, is a hold on the libertine himself and the pledge of his final conversion. “The civil and military pomp displayed is a proof that the country is still Catholic, and the infidel himself compelled to pass the Blessed Sacrament with his head uncovered or to remain within his house bears witness to the fact that the public sphere is Catholic, bearing witness to the triumph of the Blessed Sacrament.” For a return to those days, is the sigh and prayer of faithful Catholics in the 21st century.
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CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP
Father Stephan Treuchel, S.A.C.
Introduction
“Corpus Christi Procession in a Concentration Camp” is a Testimony of the profound faith of imprisoned priests, written by a survivor of the Nazi persecution, Father Stefan Treuchel, S.A.C., member of the Polish Province of the Pallottine Fathers. It is presented here by his classmate, Father M. Ignatius Curzydlo, S.A.C., chaplain of the V.A. Medical Center, Canandaigua, New York.
We express our gratitude to the unnamed lay persons who have underwritten the costs of producing this article.
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The thermometer was rising heavenward on the third day of June in 1942. We were 120 priests interned at Dachau and our chief occupation lay in the building of a so-called “Barrack X.” The handling of masonry was very exacting of our strength and the extreme heat took toll of all our energy. Moreover, we were starved and craving for water and the strict surveillance of our captors, who did not permit even the shortest respite was almost more than we could humanly bear.
Our only consolation lay in silent prayer and Holy Communion stealthily though seldomly received. Sometimes at noon, our Kapo[1], Karl Wagner and Hilfskapo[2] Gustav Eberle, former Communists who had fought with the Reds in the Spanish Civil War, and their helpers sought to escape the intense heat and retire into shade, and so we stopped working and instead our hearts were turned to the Throne of God in hearty prayer.
On this certain day in June, I stood beside Father Bronislaus Szymanski, (a fellow prisoner), who formerly served as a curate at a church in Suwalki[3]. We were pretending to be using our trowels and hammers vigorously, when in reality we were trying to deaden our low chanting of the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
June the month of the Sacred Heart! How we wished to pay homage to this divine heart; yet, every means was denied us. We endeavored whenever possible, to recite the Litany to the Sacred Heart. This was done amid distraught distractions and many interruptions and it was sometimes after a long time that we were able to conclude, Sacred Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints, have mercy on us.
After the Litany on this memorable day, Father Bronislaus, after cautiously looking around whispered, “Father Stefan, will we be able to receive Holy Communion tomorrow?” “Why tomorrow?” I questioned. “Why especially tomorrow?”
“Because tomorrow is the Feast of Corpus Christi!”
Almost simultaneously with Father Bronislaus’s answer, Gustav came in view and with his unrefined and indelicate, “Auf, auf,” compelled us to return to work. I pretended to return for my tools for another word with Father Bronislaus, but for this I was brutally kicked and cursed at.
I hardly took notice of this for one incessant echo rant in my soul—tomorrow, Corpus Christi!
Dear God! Where will I obtain the Blessed Sacrament? True, not a distance from us were a group of German Priests, but we were entirely prohibited any conversation with them. Altar bread and wine—we had none!
But tomorrow—the feast of Corpus Christi!
No matter what I thought, every possibility to obtain the Blessed Eucharist for tomorrow morning seemed futile and yet how timely that we should receive It with great fervor—the feast of Its institution and the institution of the Priesthood. What to do? O Christ, Great Priest, we trust in Thee!
I had a restless night. The tension I was under reflected in my dreams and I was struggling with Gustav because he was about to tear away the Sacred Host from my hands when suddenly I awoke unrested to the “Auf, of” who was telling me that it was time to rise.
I washed and dressed hurriedly. After a very meagre breakfast I walked out to pray and tried to compensate in a small way for Holy Communion. I was surprised find almost immediately at my side, Father Joseph Fischer, a German Pallotine. He looked carefully around and handing me an envelope whispered, “Today is the feast of Corpus Christi and I brought you Holy Communion. Take care lest this be detected.” Could I ever describe my emotions? I scarcely had time for a whispered, “Thank you” when Father Fischer was gone and the shrill sound of a siren was summoning all of us. I took my place in line and pressed the Precious Envelope to my heart when from my soul burst out a prayer of Thanksgiving. But then, what should happen to me were my Treasure found? Would today be an inspection day? Where shall I place this envelope?
Suddenly an idea struck me! I took off my prisoner’s cap, tore a bit of lining, placed the envelope within and replaced my cap.
At the same time we had a roll call and after this we formed our lines to follow to our place of work. I hurriedly whispered to my companions and prisoner priests that I had the Blessed Sacrament with me so that each heart silently sang “Pange Linga Gloriosi.[4]” We were nearing the gate and I felt that my heart would almost break because it beat so rapidly since I was ever conscious of the Treasure I carried in so inappropriate manner. If only not to be suspected and not detected!
Soon we were told to remove our caps and I lovingly fondled my Blessed Lord. We were recounted and then began the very unusual and unforgettable Corpus Christi Procession. My head covered with a prisoner’s cap served as the monstrance; the ejaculations we whispered—the incense; the rhythmic beating of our shoes against the pavement—the bells; and the azure sky—the canopy! Can one imagine anything more beautiful in the life of a priest—a prisoner?
The happiness and contentment we felt at having with us the King of Kings was enough to make us almost immune to the loud commands of Gustav to sing what we sang almost to loathing, “Die blauen Dragonen sie reiten, mit klingendem Spiel durch das Tor, Fanfaren sie begleiten, hell zu dem Himmel empor.[5]” Yes, we sang, but the words had a very different meaning for us. We saw instead of the “blauen Dragonen” angel choirs accompanying us and their triumphant fanfare ascending into heaven.
Singing, some of us with our lips and some with our hearts, we finally came to the place of our work. We decided on groups and we agreed upon a place we were all to meet.
Normally, after a Corpus Christi Procession the Blessed Sacrament is reposed in the Tabernacle. Today, however, to our utter joy and happiness, our hearts were truly this Tabernacle.
Jesus Prisoner of Love, same to live in the hearts of His servants—prisoners in a Concentration Camp.
At the end of this Corpus Christi Procession on June 4, 1942, our hearts swelled out in the hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving, “TE DEUM LAUDAMUS[6]”
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PANGE LINGUA[7]
[1] Kapo—German for man in charge
[2] Hilfskapo—German for assistant man in charge
[3] City in Northern Poland
[4] Latin for “Sing my tongue the Savior’s glory”
[5] German for “The Blue Dragons ride with sonorous band through the gate, as the trumpets accompany them to the bright heaven above.”
[6] Latin for “We praise Thee O Lord”
[7] Latin for “Sing my tongue”—A Eucharistic hymn composed by St. Thomas Aquinas