Corpus Christi 2026
December 31, 1977, the church of Laveline-devant-Bruyère, France, built in 1908, was ravaged by a dreadful fire. The very dry wooden frame was consumed by the flames. The damage was estimated at one million francs at the time.
The next morning Father Michael Aubrey found a plaster statue of the Sacred Heart completely preserved! He also managed to retrieve the small wooden tabernacle containing consecrated hosts. To his astonishment the hosts were intact!
The tabernacle and the statue of the Sacred Heart were placed in a room transformed into a temporary chapel.
In another story, a young priest who once celebrated Mass at the Catholic Worker wanted to be unconventional, so he asked Dorothy Day for a coffee cup to use as a chalice. She brought one from the kitchen and they celebrated Mass.
After Mass Dorothy quietly took the cup outside, kissed it, and reverently buried it. The young priest asked why she would do such a thing. Dorothy smiled and said, “once that cup had held the Precious Blood of Christ, it could never again be treated as ordinary.”
On Sunday June 7 St Joseph’s Parish in Canora joined the roundup of Corpus Christi Processions around the world. In Rome, Pope Leo, because of health issues, joined the conclusion of the procession at the Mass in St. John Lateran,
Pope Leo spoke on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, “Our world desperately needs the Bread of the Eucharist, so that streets filled with rubble and the destruction of war may return to peaceful places filled with the smell of freshly baked bread.”
Thousands of Catholics throughout the world joined processions to celebrate the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, celebrating Corpus Christi 2026 as they sang hymns and prayed before the Blessed Sacrament
The Church teaches that the Eucharist is the real Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ (Catechism 1374). Jerry Haydel, Diocese of Biloxi, describes what happens in the first sixty seconds after you receive Communion:
The Host touches your lips. Christ is fully present. Jesus enters your body and soul. Your mind is touched by His truth. Your heart is drawn to love. Your soul is strengthened against sin.
Sanctifying grace flows, immediately. The Eucharist forgives venial sins (CCC 1393), strengthens charity and deepens union with Christ and the Church.
You are no longer just yourself. Paul writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1Corinthians 10:17).
In the first sixty seconds, you are mystically joined to Christ Himself, to every believer who receives, and to the communion of saints. [I once saw the face of a man who died in a recent accident. As his wife and children came up to Communion, his image appeared to the left and behind his wife’s face.]
Immediately, your soul is energized for battle, temptation loses strength (Ephesians 6:10–17), faith grows quietly and hope stabilizes your heart. The devil may rage outside, but inside, Christ is your armour and strength. The Eucharist sends you forth: “Go in peace.” You are commissioned to forgive, to love, and to witness
You are forever changed, empowered for holiness, and joined to the Body of Christ. Christ is Father, Son and Holy Spirit in One. You receive the Trinity in Communion.
This is not symbolic. Scripture confirms: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).
(586 words)
