Sunday 6 June 2021
Corpus Christi - Solemnity
Office of Readings
Introduction (without Invitatory)
If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, use the version with the Invitatory Psalm instead.
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Alleluia.
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Hymn
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, faith and nothing more.
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed.
What God’s Son hath told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true.
On the Cross thy Godhead made no sign to men;
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken;
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.
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Psalm 22 (23)
The good shepherd
“The Lamb is their king, who leads them to the source of the water of life” (Rev 7:17).
Say to those who are invited: ‘Behold, the supper is ready, come to the marriage feast.’ Alleluia.
The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.
He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.
You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing.
Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Say to those who are invited: ‘Behold, the supper is ready, come to the marriage feast.’ Alleluia.
Psalm-prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, shepherd of your Church, you give us new birth in the waters of baptism, you anoint us with saving oil, and you call us to salvation at your table. Dispel the terrors of death and the darkness of error. Lead your people along safe paths, that they may rest securely in you and live for ever in your Father’s house.
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Psalm 41 (42)
Longing for the Lord and his temple
“Let all who are thirsty come; all who want it may have the water of life” (Rev 22:17).
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink from an inexhaustible spring.
Like the deer that yearns
for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God.
My soul is thirsting for God,
the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?
My tears have become my bread,
by night, by day,
as I hear it said all the day long:
‘Where is your God?’
These things will I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I would lead the rejoicing crowd
into the house of God,
amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving,
the throng wild with joy.
Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.
My soul is cast down within me
as I think of you,
from the country of Jordan and Mount Hermon,
from the Hill of Mizar.
Deep is calling on deep,
in the roar of waters;
your torrents and all your waves
swept over me.
By day the Lord will send
his loving kindness;
by night I will sing to him,
praise the God of my life.
I will say to God, my rock:
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?’
With cries that pierce me to the heart,
my enemies revile me,
saying to me all the day long:
‘Where is your God?’
Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my saviour and my God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink from an inexhaustible spring.
Psalm-prayer
Father in heaven, when your strength takes possession of us we no longer say: Why are you cast down, my soul? So now that the surging waves of your indignation have passed over us, let us feel the healing calm of your forgiveness. Inspire us to yearn for you always, like the deer for running streams, until you satisfy every longing in heaven.
Or:
Lord God, never-failing fountain of life eternal, by the saving waters of baptism you called us from the depths of sin, to the depths of mercy. Do not forget the trials of our exile, but from the wellspring of the Word, satisfy our thirst for you so we may come rejoicing to your holy mountain.
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Psalm 80 (81)
Solemn renewal of the covenant
“Take care that no one among you has a wicked, disbelieving heart” (Heb 3:12).
The Lord fed us with finest wheat; he filled us with honey from the rock.
Ring out your joy to God our strength,
shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song and sound the timbrel,
the sweet-sounding harp and the lute;
blow the trumpet at the new moon,
when the moon is full, on our feast.
For this is Israel’s law,
a command of the God of Jacob.
He imposed it as a rule on Joseph,
when he went out against the land of Egypt.
A voice I did not know said to me:
‘I freed your shoulder from the burden;
your hands were freed from the load.
You called in distress and I saved you.
‘I answered, concealed in the storm cloud;
at the waters of Meribah I tested you.
Listen, my people, to my warning.
O Israel, if only you would heed!
‘Let there be no foreign god among you,
no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you from the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
‘But my people did not heed my voice
and Israel would not obey,
so I left them in their stubbornness of heart
to follow their own designs.
‘O that my people would heed me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
At once I would subdue their foes,
turn my hand against their enemies.
‘The Lord’s enemies would cringe at their feet
and their subjection would last for ever.
But Israel I would feed with finest wheat
and fill them with honey from the rock.’
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Lord fed us with finest wheat; he filled us with honey from the rock.
Psalm-prayer
Lord God, open our mouths to proclaim your glory. Help us to leave sin behind and to rejoice in professing your name.
Or:
Father, you rescued your people from slavery and acquired, through the passion of your Son, a new people united in his body and signed with his holiness. Make us faithful to your covenant and obedient to your commandments, so that we may have in your finest bread food for this life and a foretaste of eternity and be able to walk in your ways until we reach our home.
________
℣. Wisdom has built herself a house, alleluia.
℟. She has prepared her wine and set her table, alleluia.
________
The one-year and two-year cycles of readings are identical today.
First Reading
Exodus 24:1-11
To Moses the Lord had said, ‘Come up to the Lord, yourself and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel and bow down in worship at a distance. Moses alone must approach the Lord; the others must not, nor must the people go up with him.’
Moses went and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. In answer, all the people said with one voice, ‘We will observe all the commands that the Lord has decreed.’ Moses put all the commands of the Lord into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed certain young Israelites to offer holocausts and to immolate bullocks to the Lord as communion sacrifices. Half of the blood Moses took up and put into basins, the other half he cast on the altar. And taking the Book of the Covenant he read it to the listening people, and they said, ‘We will observe all that the Lord has decreed; we will obey.’ Then Moses took the blood and cast it towards the people. ‘This’ he said ‘is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you, containing all these rules.’
Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel. They saw the God of Israel beneath whose feet there was, it seemed, a sapphire pavement pure as the heavens themselves. He laid no hand on these notables of the sons of Israel: they gazed on God. They ate and they drank.
Responsory
℟. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, and they died.* I am speaking of the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat, and never die.
℣. I am that living bread which has come down from heaven: if anyone eats this bread, he shall live for ever.* I am speaking of the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat, and never die.
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Second Reading
"On the feast of Corpus Christi", by St Thomas Aquinas
O precious and wonderful banquet!
Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
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 fulfilment 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.
Responsory
℟. See in this bread the body of Christ which hung upon the cross, and in this cup the blood which flowed from his side.* Take his body, then, and eat it; take his blood and drink it, and you will become his members.
℣. The body of Christ is the bond which unites you to him: eat it, or you will have no part in him. The blood is the price he paid for your redemption: drink it, lest you despair of your sinfulness.* Take his body, then, and eat it; take his blood and drink it, and you will become his members.
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Vigils
If time allows, those who celebrate the Office of Readings of a Sunday (or solemnity, or feast of the Lord) on the evening before, or at the crack of dawn on the day itself, may enrich the celebration with three Old Testament canticles and a Gospel reading.
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Canticle
Te Deum
We praise you, O God:
we acclaim you as the Lord.
Everlasting Father,
all the world bows down before you.
All the angels sing your praise,
the hosts of heaven and all the angelic powers,
all the cherubim and seraphim
call out to you in unending song:
Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the Lord God of angel hosts!
The heavens and the earth are filled
with your majesty and glory.
The glorious band of apostles,
the noble company of prophets,
the white-robed army who shed their blood for Christ,
all sing your praise.
And to the ends of the earth
your holy Church proclaims her faith in you:
Father, whose majesty is boundless,
your true and only Son, who is to be adored,
the Holy Spirit sent to be our Advocate.
You, Christ, are the king of glory,
Son of the eternal Father.
When you took our nature to save mankind
you did not shrink from birth in the Virgin’s womb.
You overcame the power of death
opening the Father’s kingdom to all who believe in you.
Enthroned at God’s right hand in the glory of the Father,
you will come in judgement according to your promise.
You redeemed your people by your precious blood.
Come, we implore you, to our aid.
Grant us with the saints
a place in eternal glory.
The final part of the hymn may be omitted:
Lord, save your people
and bless your inheritance.
Rule them and uphold them
for ever and ever.
Day by day we praise you:
we acclaim you now and to all eternity.
In your goodness, Lord, keep us free from sin.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
May your mercy always be with us, Lord,
for we have hoped in you.
In you, Lord, we put our trust:
we shall not be put to shame.
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Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ,
you gave your Church an admirable sacrament
as the abiding memorial of your passion.
Teach us so to worship the sacred mystery of your Body and Blood
that its redeeming power may sanctify us always.
Who live and reign with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
________
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
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The week’s sequence of readings from Scripture has been interrupted today, because today’s feast has a First Reading of its own.
The reading you would otherwise have seen is shown below. It is perfectly reasonable (and encouraged) to join it on to yesterday’s or tomorrow’s First Reading, if it goes well with one of them and you think this is a sensible way of avoiding a gap.
Ecclesiasticus 46:1-12
In praise of Joshua and Caleb
Mighty in war was Joshua son of Nun,
successor to Moses in the prophetic office,
who well deserved his name,
and was a great saviour of the Chosen People,
wreaking vengeance on the enemies who opposed him,
and so bringing Israel into its inheritance.
How splendid he was when he raised his arms
to brandish his sword against cities!
Who had ever shown such determination as his?
He himself waged the wars of the Lord.
Was not the sun held back by his hand,
and one day drawn out into two?
He called on God the Most High,
as he pressed the enemy on every side;
and the great Lord answered him
with hard and violent hailstones.
He fell on that enemy nation,
and at the Descent he destroyed all resistance;
that the nations might acknowledge his warlike prowess
and know that their foe was the Lord.
For he was a follower of the Mighty One,
and in the time of Moses he did devoted service,
he and Caleb son of Jephunneh,
by opposing the whole community,
by preventing the people from sinning,
and by silencing the mutters of rebellion.
Hence these two alone were preserved
out of six hundred thousand men on the march,
and brought into their inheritance,
into a land where milk and honey flow.
The Lord gave Caleb the strength –
which he retained right into old age –
to tread the highlands of the country
which his descendants still hold as their inheritance,
for all the sons of Israel to see
that it is good to follow the Lord.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.