On Thursday, June 3, at 6:00 p.m., Father Dennis will serve the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Divine Body of Christ with the brief rite of Benediction.
IT IS INDEED a tremendous miracle to see God taking flesh and becoming man, and a greater miracle still to see Him suspended on the cross. But the highest of all miracles, O Christ our God, is your ineffable presence under the mystic species. Truly You did institute, through this great Sacrament, a remembrance of all your marvels. How merciful of You, O God, to give Yourself as food to those who fear You! To recall your covenant forever, and to remember your passion and your death until the day of your glorious coming! Let us, O faithful, receive our food and our life, our King and our Saviour, and cry out: “Save, O Lord, those who worship your glorious and venerable presence.”
One commentator wrote of today’s feast:
Those astonished by the brevity of this service would do well to be aware that the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite already features many acts, prayers and ceremonies that testify to a firm belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, such as the blessing by the priest of the people with the veiled chalice and its contents, the long prayers of preparation for Holy Communion, and the prostration after the Epiclesis that is done by many Greek Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) priests. Furthermore, the Great Entrance of the Divine Liturgy, by its magnificent ceremonies that render honor to the sanctified bread that is to be transformed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord, witnesses to the faith of Byzantine Christians in the Eucharist.