Yesterday was the great feast of The Solemnity of the
Body and Blood of Christ. At Saint Catherine of Siena Church in New York City
the parish community with the Dominican Friars led by Father Jordan Kelly
celebrated a Solemn Mass for the feast and then took to the streets with the Monstrance containing Our Lord and Savior. For the
first time in years Our Lord in His Eucharistic Presence was carried in
procession in the neighborhood of the church. Imagine the faces of Catholics, Christians, Jews, Muslims and those who do not share our Eucharistic faith seeing such display of faith and devotion! Graces beyond imagining:
beautiful weather, lots of people, terrific sacred music given to our worship
by Daniel B. Sañez and his superb choir, an insightful homily and a rededication to the Sacred Heart with Benediction after an extended period of adoration.
I
came across this reflection from Saint John Chrysostom:
If we wish to understand the power of Christ's blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. 'Sacrifice a lamb without blemish', commanded Moses, 'and sprinkle its blood on your doors'. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save people endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord's blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
Indeed, washed in Chris's blood,
and not that of a animal is what saves, and we ought to scream this from the
roof tops. Well, we actually didn't yell anything but we walked together in
professing our faith.
The Church of Saint Catherine of Siena NYC will never be the same! Thanks be to God.
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