Adoremus in aeternum

Today's feast is very dear to me. Frs Nesbitt and Holloway of the Faith Movement conveyed very effectively to us boys in the Faith Society at the John Fisher School the Church's teaching about the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and their own love for Christ in the Eucharist. This built on the firm foundation given to me by my parents who also gave great example in their love for the Mass and for the Blessed Sacrament.

In God's providence, I ended up at Corpus Christi College in Oxford. With other Catholics, I used to reflect on the privilege of being able to celebrate what the College's name stood for. Here is the main quad of the College with its famous sundial surmounted by the Pelican:

A friend of mine in those days, Peter, who was at Plater College (a Catholic College for mature students) gave me a statue of Pope Urban IV, hand-carved at Oberammergau. Pope Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. The Office for the feast was composed by St Thomas Aquinas and, of course, contains some of the most sublime hymns composed during the High Middle Ages.

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