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FROM THE RECTOR:
Dear Parishioners & Friends of St James,
This Sunday, June 3rd, is the final “white Sunday” before we begin the long green season of Ordinary Time. We will do things up right, with incense, great Eucharistic hymns and a full complement of servers, as a last hurrah before we simplify things for the summer.
Corpus Christi, Latin for “Body of Christ,” is a feast in thanksgiving for the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and is celebrated on the Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday. It is one of three feasts (the others being Trinity Sunday, and Immaculate Conception) which celebrate not an event, but a doctrine.
Observance of this feast dates from the thirteenth century. The nun Juliana of Liège (d. 1258), in Belgium, became an advocate for such a feast in response to a vision. The first Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated at Liège around 1247. Its observance by the western church was commanded by Pope Urban IV in 1264.
It is an optional feast in the Episcopal Church, most often celebrated in parishes with an Anglo-Catholic piety. To this end, the BCP provides a proper collect and readings for the celebration "Of the Holy Eucharist" for use on this occasion. The collect for this celebration is a slightly revised version of the collect composed by St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) for the Feast of Corpus Christi (BCP, p. 252).
It is a good prayer for you to offer as we approach this Sunday:
God our Father, whose Son our Lord Jesus Christ in a wonderful Sacrament has left us a memorial of his passion: Grant us so to venerate the sacred mysteries of his Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of his redemption; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Yours with every blessing,
Rev. Douglas Anderson, Rector
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