A German priest named Fr. Peter of Prague was struggling with his faith in the Most Holy Eucharist. He saw around him a lack of interest on the part of the laity, a general immorality and laziness of the clergy, and a lack of reverence for the Sacred Liturgy. He found it difficult to believe that our Lord Jesus would share with us His very Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.
This was in the year 1263, not long after the Church declared officially the doctrine of transubstantiation in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council. Transubstantiation, simply put, means that through the calling down of the Spirit and the words of consecration at Mass, the ordinary bread and wine change the entirety of their substance into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, with only the mere appearances remaining.
This has been the consistent and perennial teaching of the Church since Christ. The Church knows that Jesus was not speaking metaphorically in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. Further, the Church Fathers, in the earliest days of the Church used words similar to transubstantiation to connote a true change had taken place.
A Pilgrimage and a Miracle
At the bequest of his spiritual director, Fr. Peter made a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way, he stopped in the town of Bolsena, north of Rome. He offered Mass at the tomb of St. Christina. At the words of consecration, “Hoc est enim Corpus meum (For this is My Body),” the Host began to bleed. Blood fell onto his hands and onto the white cloth on top of the altar cloth called a corporal.
Shocked and moved by what had taken place, Fr. Peter stopped Mass and told the congregation what had happened. He then went ten miles away to the town of Orvieto where Pope Urban IV was living. He placed the Host in the corporal, carefully folding it, and then went to tell the Holy Father what had happened. Pope Urban IV ordered an investigation which found that a miracle had taken place.
The relics (the Host and corporal) were taken by a solemn and joyous procession to the Cathedral of Orvieto where they remain almost 800 years later.
The Feast of Corpus Christi
A year later, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of the Christ) as a day to especially recognize and promote the gift of the Blessed Sacrament. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure were asked by the pope to create hymns for this new feast. St. Thomas Aquinas was also asked by the Holy Father to compose prayers for the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours for Corpus Christi. He also composed the great Eucharistic hymns still sung today: Panis Angelicus, Pange Lingua, O Salutaris Hostia, and Tantum Ergo.
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Will Wright lives in the Diocese of Phoenix and currently serves as the Director of Sacred Liturgy for his Parish in Sun City West, AZ. In the past six years in the Parish, he has also been heavily involved in celebration of the Holy Mass as a singer and with assembling and continuing to train altar boys and Master of Ceremonies for the Parish.
Will earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also holds a dual course of study Master’s Degree in Catechetics & Evangelization and Theology & Christian Ministry from Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Through Parish ministry, Will has been involved in a plethora of activities pertaining to every level of Parish catechesis: children, teens, adults, and RCIA. He also has facilitated the return of many lapsed Catholics through the Catholics Come Home program at the Parish. Will is also a certified Nullity Minister and Marriage Preparation Minister with the Diocese of Phoenix.
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