Sister lights the candles for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during First Vespers of Corpus Christi Divine Office.

This evening our community began the annual celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi with the chanting of First Vespers. You can follow the Divine Office here if you like.

This is a very special feast for us. As Passionists devoted to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Holy Mass and daily Eucharistic Adoration hold pride of place.

We were delighted to hear of the global Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration that Pope Francis has asked the Church to participate in tomorrow. Living in western Kentucky this will take place in our monastery chapel from 10 -11 a.m. central time.

Normally we would have Eucharistic Adoration all day but tomorrow we will be celebrating a special Mass of Thanksgiving for the ordination of our dear friend, newly ordained Fr. David Gayhart. We will have Eucharistic adoration after Mass and into the evening, including an outdoor Eucharistic procession - weather permitting!

Regarding the global Holy Hour:

“I am proud to say that this is a historical moment for the history of the Church because for one hour all the churches in the world will be united. … We are united because the Eucharist makes us all one body and one spirit, so we enter into the deepest meaning of the Eucharist,” the archbishop [Fisichella] told EWTN News in a May 28 interview.

The gathering will be an hour of simultaneous adoration for the Feast of Corpus Christi, which Pope Francis will begin in St. Peter’s Basilica at 5:00 p.m. Rome time.

Archbishop Fisichella announced May 28 that there are two intentions for the Holy Hour.

The first is for the “Church throughout the world united today in Adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist,” that the Lord makes her ever obedient to his word so that she appears before the world as “beautiful, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish.”

The second intention is dedicated to people around the world who are suffering from violence, drug or human trafficking, economic insecurity, and those who have been pushed to the margins of society.

O Sacrament Most Holy O Sacrament Divine All Praise and All Thanksgiving Be Every Moment Thine!

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

 St. Thomas Aquinas excerpt from the second reading of the Office of Readings for Corpus Christi