Dear Parents and Friends,

“The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.” St. Thomas Aquinas

This weekend we celebrate  the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, otherwise known as Corpus Christi Sunday. This feast day was originally proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas, as a way to honour the Eucharist, reminding all to recognise that it is the True Presence: the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.

The heart of our Catholic identity is that we are a Eucharistic people and that liturgy is the source and summit of all we do, the most important thing we do! We can draw life and power from sharing in the Eucharist. Eucharist means so much more than coming together to individually receive Christ in bread and wine. It commits us to one another and the everyday life we share at St Brigid’s. What we do at Eucharist is extremely connected to the living of our lives.

Think of the best family meal you can remember. Why is the family meal important for families? What takes place at the family meal?

When we celebrate the family meal, we share a bond with one another. We are committed to one another. In a sense we share a covenant of identity with other family members. At the Last Supper Jesus used the word covenant in the context of his last meal. He told his disciples: “Each year, you remember the covenant I made with my people when I delivered them out of bondage in Egypt. You remember that covenant with the Passover meal. What I am doing here is the new and ultimate covenant. This covenant will be memorialised by a new meal—bread as my body, wine as my blood.”

Jesus gave us a new covenant, and to continue that covenant he gave us a ritual meal to share until he returns. That covenant is fully expressed in the celebration of Eucharist.

And so we pray......

“….grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with the Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.” Amen.